This is a disturbing 7- minute video:
In the 19th century, gold and silver mines promised prosperity. For a time, some towns thrived. But when the veins dried up, the corporations vanished. What was left? Poisoned rivers, tailings pits, and entire communities stuck with the cleanup.
Today, America faces a new kind of mining boom—AI data centers.
These facilities are more electricity-hungry and water-thirsty than traditional data centers. They run 24/7, consuming vast amounts of energy and water to cool their machines. Instead of digging ore, they extract something more fragile: our shared electricity, water, and atmosphere.
They arrive with slick promises of jobs, tax revenue, and technological prestige. But if history is any guide, what communities actually inherit is invisible waste and higher utility bills.
⚠️ Four Examples Already Underway
• Harwood, North Dakota: Dallas-based Applied Digital is building a $3 billion, 280-megawatt AI data center on farmland. Locals have raised concerns about coal-heavy electricity and water strain, but leaders are moving forward.
• Northeast Louisiana: Meta is constructing a $10 billion “Hyperion” campus near Monroe. To power it, Entergy is building three new natural gas plants. Meta will only cover 50% of the costs for the first 15 years. After that, the financial burden shifts entirely to local communities.
• Amarillo, Texas Panhandle: A massive AI campus is planned in one of the nation’s driest regions, to run on natural gas until nuclear reactors arrive—many years from now. Locals are right to ask: What happens when aquifers run low?
• Elon Musk built an AI data center in record time in Memphis, Tennessee. He is running high polluting mobile gas turbines without any permits. See the video below.
These are not isolated cases. They represent the leading edge of a national rush—over 1,500 new AI-focused data centers are projected across the U.S. by 2030.
🧨 The Hidden Costs
• CO₂ Pollution: In just Texas if the 100 proposed projects are built, they could add an estimated 115 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually to the atmosphere, equivalent to the emissions from nearly 27 million gasoline-powered cars.
• Water Drainage: Data centers often consume millions of gallons daily for cooling. Once drained from aquifers, that water doesn’t come back.
• Higher Bills: New gas plants and transmission lines aren’t paid for by billionaires in Silicon Valley. They’re paid for by ordinary families through rising utility rates.
🌍 Climate Consequences Are Escalating
• Scientists now warn that global warming projects global warming exceeding 1.5 °C by the end of the 2020s and hitting 2 °C before 2050—a serious acceleration
• The Atlantic Ocean’s vital current system (AMOC)—which regulates global climate—could collapse around 2050, triggering extreme weather, droughts, and food insecurity across continents.
🛑 Policy Backlash and Federal Overreach
Trump’s administration is punishing states that try to push back against AI data centers. His AI Action Plan ties federal dollars to compliance, threatening to cut off funding to states with strong environmental or AI oversight laws.
At the same time, he insists that AI regulation must be federal only, deriding state-level rules as “burdensome.” In other words: if your state doesn’t want an AI mine draining its power and water, Washington will make it harder to say no.
The EPA is proposing to roll back pollution regulations for power plants—so construction of new facilities for AI data centers won’t be slowed by environmental protections.
👨👩👧 A Grandfather’s Warning
As an 80-year-old grandfather, I’ve seen enough booms to know how they end. These are not “factories of the future.” They are modern mines—extracting water, power, and air—while leaving our grandchildren the bill.
The lesson from history is clear:
When an industry promises prosperity but leaves only waste, it isn’t opportunity—it’s exploitation.
If communities don’t demand accountability NOW, the invisible scars of this digital gold rush will be ours to bear—long after I die and the corporations have cashed out.
This is a YouTube video on how Elon Musk built an AI Data Center in record time on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee and is using very polluting mobile gas turbines without any permits to do so:
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