Google is illegaly cutting forest to build data centers

andsoitis

Google’s web page about the Muhos data center referenced in the article: https://datacenters.google/locations/muhos/

ncr100

> Google said in a statement “we understand the concerns” and that it had “fallen short of our own high standards”. Apple said the same rhetorical non-apology apologetically, recently... about something??

tombert

When should we expect our corporate overlords to block out the sun just to fuck with us? [1] [1] https://youtu.be/L3LbxDZRgA4

thayne

> it would consider enforcement proceedings and a fine Oh man they are going to consider a fine, that would probably be barely an inconvenience to google.

monk_grilla

> Google said in a statement “we understand the concerns” and that it had “fallen short of our own high standards”. But it wasn't their own high standards, it was a legal obligation that they neglected? I hope in vain that the powers that be are able to punish them in a way they will actually feel...

ljm

Do no evil, right?

alex1138

There is Ecosia, apparently. I don't recall which trackers (crawlers) it uses

cucumber3732842

As someone who's seen how this sausage is made in another jurisdction I assume what's going on here is Google or the builder got some sort of statement from some board to the tune of "oh well because you checked whatever boxes we will exercise our discretionary authority to waive this for you, the exact opposite of what how we'd behave if you were some uppity peasant seeking to develop some petty land". Naturally there are some who don't like this have probably complained to the next authority up who's putting some scrutiny on the situation and whatever approval they were given has been rescinded and now they gotta do it the hard expensive way. Or it might be one of those cases where the discretionary BS you can be put through is so onerous and capricious that the cheapest way to get it done is to bulldoze first, let the threats fly and use whatever legal maneuvering that gets you to wind up with a more favorable venue (the higher up you go the more friendly to industry permitting authorities tend to become).

clumsysmurf

Seems this is becoming a frequent thing, all over: "One of America’s Last Chestnut Groves Is About to Be Destroyed for a Data Center" https://www.gadgetreview.com/one-of-americas-last-chestnut-g...

rnd0

To no one's surprise Google has gone from 'Do no evil' to 'Do all the evil, develop new levels of evil and then do that as well'

bethekidyouwant

People sure love to hate datacenters. what we should build instead (or is it where?)

iJohnDoe

That photo looks horrible. Of all places, why cut down a ton of trees to build a data center. I hope the trees were used to build housing for the homeless or something. Maybe a youth center at least? I don’t know much about Findland, so maybe there are trees everywhere.

charcircuit

All this red tape just slows down innovation. There is too much of a compute shortage right now that we need to figure out how to accelerate datacenter build outs.

redanddead

Ugly. They had the resources to make it beautiful and part of the environment instead they bulldozed it Founders need to speak on this. If they've got time to get in the weeds on gemini, they've got time for this

LoganDark

> If Google does not comply, IVV said it would consider enforcement proceedings and a fine. Ah. A fine. That'll teach them. (No wonder they ignored you.)

sathish316

Don’t be evil, unless there is billions of dollars involved - Fell 330 hectares of forest for Data Center 1 - Fell 200 hectares of forest for Data Center 2

gepardi

Fuck Google, seriously. Avoid as much as possible.

mitjam

What happened to „don’t be evil“?

jml7c5

For reference, 330 hectares is 0.001% of Finland's forest cover.