Have you had to deal with mounting local opposition against development?

It is more addressing what is happening on site versus part of a regional problem.

You’re likely to get more people to show up to a zoning board meeting by saying that this data center is going to increase air pollution. Then the data center rep is going to ensure that no or a small power plant able to act as a backup is going to be used. Everyone will be happy, but the data center still gets built because the pollution isn’t happening on site.

This is anticipating the arguments in front of the planning boards.

I get that a lot of data centers use coal and other polluting sources of power. The problem is how that gets represented when trying to create local opposition.

I’m making sure that the argument is going to be understood by lay people.

It is relatively easy to get people to rally against building a coal power plant in their community. My concern is that people are going to say not to build a data center because it is going to be powered by coal and the data center rep is going to say that a coal power plant isn’t going to be built on site.

That data center would still get built because there is going to be a performative meeting where planning officials ban building the power plant, but then a data center operator buys a coal power plant about to be decommissioned and decides to keep it going to fuel the data center without having to go through the planning hurdles of getting that plant built.

I’m just trying to make sure that the arguments make sense to people who aren’t thinking through it as much as you.

Corporations also misinterpret facts for their benefit.

I can easily see people make the argument that data centers affect air quality because they are powered by coal power plants and the data center rep is going to reply “we aren’t building a coal power plant at this data center site; that’s just opposition fear mongering” and now it becomes harder to get people to believe you on other issues.

It is important to anticipate the argument that they are getting the power from renewable sources.

I’m more focusing on what the source of pollution is to make sure arguments are better made online to fight data centers.

The power required for data centers can be polluting, but building a data center in an area isn’t guaranteed to cause a drop in air quality since the builder could choose a different energy source to power the data center.

You know that you can make a water cooled system where the water used to cool system doesn’t touch the inner machinery, right?

It is more efficient to run an internal system that doesn’t interface with the outside except through radiators. The radiators interface with the external water supply, usually causing the water to evaporate since it is a relatively cheap way to remove thermal energy from a system.

After all, if the water stayed liquid, they could find other ways to cool the water to be reused. The problem with data centers is that they are literally boiling away the local water supply.

And I agree that coal power plants are very polluting. However, the pollution comes from the source of power.

No country wants to build a tech infrastructure that they don’t control.

Sure it is, it is supply and demand. Women entering the workforce increased the supply of workers while demand for labor didn’t do up at the same rate.

For scarce family assets like housing, two income families fueled an asset boom, making housing less affordable.

He didn’t. Mamdani won a majority of NYC, but he lost the conservative parts to Cuomo.

That said, Mamdani got a decent amount of small business support for campaigning on streamlining a lot of the city’s regulations to bring down costs. This includes getting rid of the secondary market for various medallions.

The teeth were very valuable.

How are they polluting?

They are wrecking the energy grid and messing with the water supply, but how are they polluting the water supply?

The Thick of It

A show regarding a random UK ministry and the random cluster fuck off politics. The 12th Doctor is an enforcer from the PM’s office with a prolific use of profanity.

The writer ended up creating Veep in the USA.

This is going to be the weirdest perk for getting gold status on an airline’s frequent flyer program.

No one wants to go back to when first class was effectively the cheapest ticket price.

It won’t reduce jet fuel. It just means commercial planes can carry more cargo.

and he’s really into nightlife and partying.

Everything else I wouldn’t blink at, but I would wonder what kind of places Dad likes to party at.

It is more that there are fewer people who are more like-minded.

If Lemmy were to get larger, moderation would become more required.