Wednesday, May 13

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

Dear Reader,

On the heels of Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate Shaena Crossland for her work fighting a huge, diesel-powered AI data center near her home in West Virginia. While lots of us grumble about the impact of these data centers, Shaena gets to work, alongside other volunteers from Moms Clean Air Force. (What’s Moms Clean Air Force? It’s a community of more than 1.6 million moms, dads, and caregivers fighting for clean air and to protect children’s health. With chapters and campaigns around the U.S., it’s an easy group to get involved with.)  

What makes Shaena stand out? A longtime climate activist, Shaena doesn’t sit on the sidelines. Instead, when she first learned that a massive AI data center was slated to be built near an elementary school (and just a mile from her own home), she helped mobilize hundreds of other concerned people. “We started reaching out to scientists, environmentalists, people who know what they’re talking about,” she said in an interview. “We pulled together funds to commission a study from a lab at Harvard University about the impact this will have on our air. It’s a very conservative study, but it showed the Ridgeline Project would actually be technically a major source of pollution — not minor. It was heartbreaking as a resident to think that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection [which had issued the permit] wasn’t protecting us. Their job is to protect the environment, to protect the people, right?”

Conclusion: when those tasked with protecting us aren’t doing their jobs, it’s up to people like Shaena. And us. Read the whole story here. 

And then, if you’re concerned about AI data centers (and who isn’t these days?), take a look at what Moms Clean Air Force has discovered about their impact on air quality. And check out Bluedot Living Canada contributor David Silverberg’s story on data centers, “Is AI Coming for Your Water?”

Breathlessly,

Dot

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