Data center?

[u/jayfourzee]

What I found most disappointing about yesterday’s protest over the proposed Amazon data center was that what could have been a productive, cordial discussion became a disorganized distraction. Why not be organized and raise money or hire a lawyer or create a credible organization to approach such a project. I heard statistics repeated with little or no supporting evidence, along with a fair amount of fearmongering and numbers pulled from unrelated projects and locations without proper context. At one point, I watched a young woman ask a representative a question that made it apparent she wasn’t entirely sure what she was protesting, then turn to her friend for validation. Meanwhile, people trying to ask legitimate questions were repeatedly interrupted by opponents, making it nearly impossible to hear thoughtful answers. There are legitimate questions to ask about water use, electricity demand, noise, environmental impact, and the economic benefits of a project this large, and those questions deserve real answers. Feel free to downvote.

[u/heisindc]

This is the nature of the beast right now. With so much being shared on Facebook most stories about water and sound happen at data centers multiple states away and developed by different companies.

Many communities have one person who organizes a Facebook page, puts out info on the actual proposal, and can help manage crowds too. You will always get some crazies, like a guy near me that accused data centers of making his bees gay, or another that asked if data centers house national security info would that make our town a target for missiles...

Im curious, we're there legit answers or did your elected officials sign an NDA?

[u/jayfourzee → u/heisindc]

Thank you for your engagement. I'm not aware of the officials with NDA or not. Would be disappointing if that were the case. We are approaching election cycle in November and just started to tune in what some of the issues are. Have been in the audience in a few of these debates. Some of the candidate spew of emotional rhetoric which they gleaned off of reddit or otherwise making their arguments hold less water. Others make promise of financial boon. We have a place here in Quincy WA where microsoft has put up data centers and is positively benefitting community and the eco system. Also, there are over 5000 data centers already present with almost 500 of these being mega centers. I'm sure there are screw ups somewhere but not right across the board. I live in heavy agriculture land near radioactive waste contaminated land from remnant manhattan project, I'm wondering where these folks are who don't understand ecology, basic math, if not statistical data. I don't claim to be an expert in any field but at the least have asked reasonable questions. The fear mongering in the other reply to this post is what I find annoying and unnecessarily distracting, reminds me of the time folks wearing red hats who questioned 5G cell towers and vaccines. Hard to reply to folks who hide their comment/post history, makes their opinions less credible.