Written by: Pax Bilinski / Editor in chief & Lily Amback / Managing editor
Recently, within the New Palestine High School, the school has faced backlash from the students for their use of AI. It’s back in the news because of data centers popping up across the country.
Senior Gavin Hagerty spoke out at the Citizens Committee on AI Data Center planning in Greenfield on Aug. 18 to prevent a data center from appearing in Hancock County.
“I care a lot about the idea of putting a data center in Hancock County, in such a rural area, and putting something like a data center, that would hurt the environment so much, it would just really hurt our county. So, I felt very passionate about it,” Hagerty said.
Hagerty admits that AI most likely will never truly be shut down.
“I would like it if there was no AI in the world. However, I have come to terms with the fact that that’s never going to be,” Hagerty said. “So, I think that there should be more restrictions on it throughout the world as we see AI get more implemented in society.”
However, even though Hagerty stands firm in his belief that AI is unregulated and harmful to society, he does not believe that AI is the biggest contributor to global warming and the rising temperatures worldwide.
“No, I don’t think AI is the worst contributor to pollution. I think that humans are. I believe that a main cause of pollution is us using non-renewable energy sources, like fossil fuels.
I think that we should use wind turbines or solar panels, more, just require less oil, require less fossil fuels, and things that are non-regenerative, because, eventually, it’s going to run out, and then what?” Hagerty said.
Data centers have now migrated to Indiana. There has been widespread concern for the pollution that these data centers cause to the community that they are implemented in. This pollution can range anywhere from noise to water pollution.
“I can tell you, these buildings are huge, and it does take a lot of resources to build them, and it takes a lot of energy, a lot of power, a lot of water to maintain and cool the systems inside of them. So, I think it would be hard to deny that there’s going to be an impact, but again, the question is, how much is it going to be? And I don’t know, I don’t think anybody really knows at this point, but there are communities out there that have had these data centers in them already. And many of them complain about the issues with pollution, the noise, the issues with the electric grid and water being polluted and things like that…But I would say absolutely, there’s an impact,” Earth and space teacher Antranik Askander said.
Because of this, many Indiana communities have banded together to push back against data centers being put in their towns.
“I think Shelbyville just lost for one. I think their city councils voted yes to build it, and I know a lot of people in the community were upset. So it is possible to get them to stop, but unfortunately, it seems like the smaller, usually poorer communities are the ones that they’re getting built into,” Askander said.
A concern that many communities share is the dramatic change of water purity in the towns where data centers are being located.
“One of the main topics I spoke about at the meeting was pollution of the water.
And, shock of all shocks, our water is not the best here. Adding a data center won’t make that better. It will make it worse,” Hagerty said.
Because of the water pollution in many small towns, there is a debate on whether water is a human right.
“So access to safe drinking water has not been found as a constitutional right, which might feel wrong because you might think everyone has the right to safe drinking water, but it does make sense that the Supreme Court hasn’t determined it to be a constitutional right because it is not in the Constitution. But, some states have determined that safe drinking water is a right. Otherwise, water is heavily regulated by the government through laws like the Safe Drinking Water Act, which sets quality standards, which is supposed to be enough to protect safe drinking water access,” government teacher Gina Iacobucci said.
Another concern linked with data centers and AI is deforestation.
“So, in modern days, many responsible companies, they do their best when they cut stuff down, they replant. The problem is that something like a tree takes a very, very long time to grow. It’s not like other organisms, like grass, that can grow in no time. But if you have a tree, you can take upwards of 20, 30 years until it’s adult size. And a big thing that we need, especially photosynthetic organisms like that, anything that’s green, they absorb carbon dioxide. They turn it into their actual physical structure and secrete O2, which we can then use. So, without having a large supply of organisms like that, it does affect how much carbon dioxide’s in the atmosphere currently,” Askander said. “Now, the ocean absorbs some, but one issue you run into is that as the oceans absorb it, they also become more acidic. So, if you have a lot of deforestation, then the oceans are going to be responsible for more of that, which can cause issues with the ecosystems in the ocean.”
There is a national park in Texas called Big Bend. To make the border wall with Mexico, the Trump Administration is attempting to bulldoze it.
“So there is a National Parks Service Organic Act, it says that national parks must be left, ‘unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.’ So generally, nobody should be bulldozing any part of a national park…But there was another act passed. It was called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, the IIRIRA. Section 102 of that gave the Department of Homeland Security the ability to waive any federal law that stands in the way of border construction. So, President Trump can order the border wall to be built in Big Ben because of that act,” Iacobucci said.
However, the destruction of the national park has caused outrage and the project is currently on hold. But, the future is not all bleak and bleary. As the halt of the Big Bend construction has shown, it is possible to advocate and prevent the destruction of the climate.
“Franklin Township just recently won against, I think, Google had one of their subsidiary companies put in a bid for a data center in Franklin Township, and the community fought hard, and they got them to turn it over down. So it is possible to get them to stop,” Askander said.
