The AI data center boom is colliding with cities scarred by big industry
The AI data center boom is colliding with cities scarred by big industry
AI 数据中心热潮与饱受重工业创伤的城市发生碰撞
Across the country, Americans are debating how their lives might change if new AI data centers are built in their backyards. Data center companies and their customers are promising new jobs and economic growth, but that pitch hasn’t won over a majority of Americans who oppose data center construction in their area, often over environmental and energy concerns.
在美国各地，人们正在讨论如果新的 AI 数据中心建在自家后院，他们的生活会发生怎样的改变。数据中心公司及其客户承诺会带来新的就业机会和经济增长，但这一说辞并未赢得大多数美国人的支持。许多人出于对环境和能源问题的担忧，反对在当地建设数据中心。
For activist Shawmar Pitts, these concerns aren’t theoretical. He knows better than anyone what it’s like to live in the shadow of American industrialization. A lifelong resident of the Grays Ferry neighborhood in Southwest Philadelphia, Pitts grew up next to what was then the East Coast’s largest oil refinery, which shut down after an explosion in 2019.
对于活动人士 Shawmar Pitts 来说，这些担忧并非纸上谈兵。他比任何人都更清楚生活在美国工业化阴影下是什么滋味。作为费城西南部 Grays Ferry 社区的终身居民，Pitts 在当时东海岸最大的炼油厂旁长大，该炼油厂在 2019 年发生爆炸后关闭。
Though many of his friends and family suffered from chronic health conditions, he didn’t realize what might have caused these illnesses until he encountered the environmental justice group Philly Thrive, which was tabling in his neighborhood in 2018 about a proposed oil refinery expansion. “I read the information they had on the table about how living near the refinery affects you, and I’m looking at all the sicknesses on this paper, and I’m like, ‘My mother has this, my sister has that, my next-door neighbor suffers from this’ — every house, someone has something on that list,” Pitts told TechCrunch. “From that point, I was all the way in.”
尽管他的许多亲友都患有慢性疾病，但他直到 2018 年遇到环境正义组织“Philly Thrive”时，才意识到这些疾病的潜在成因。当时该组织正在他的社区摆摊，宣传反对炼油厂扩建计划。“我阅读了他们桌上的资料，了解住在炼油厂附近对人的影响。看着纸上列出的所有疾病，我心想：‘我母亲有这个，我姐姐有那个，我的邻居也患有这个’——几乎每家每户都有人患有清单上的疾病，”Pitts 告诉 TechCrunch。“从那一刻起，我彻底加入了抗争。”
Pitts, who is now the managing co-director of that same organization, is among those leading the charge for a data center moratorium in Philadelphia. While there have been no formal proposals for construction yet, city officials have identified two potential sites: one in Northeast Philadelphia and the other in Pitts’ Grays Ferry neighborhood.
Pitts 现在是该组织的联合执行主任，也是费城数据中心建设暂停令的主要推动者之一。虽然目前还没有正式的建设提案，但市政府官员已经确定了两个潜在选址：一个在费城东北部，另一个就在 Pitts 所在的 Grays Ferry 社区。
Data center opposition from local residents isn’t unique to Philadelphia. Residents across the United States have pushed back against new data center construction, particularly those living in cities and towns with finite resources. But the pushback has been particularly swift from people living in communities where big industry’s mark is still felt.
当地居民对数据中心的抵制并非费城独有。全美各地的居民都在抵制新的数据中心建设，尤其是那些资源有限的城镇居民。而在那些仍深受重工业影响的社区，这种抵制尤为迅速。
“We don’t want data centers,” Philly Thrive board president Sonya Sanders said at a rally on Monday at Philadelphia’s City Hall. “We don’t want the pollution, we don’t want the noise, and we know they’re not going to bring us more jobs.” Sanders’ husband, who was also a resident of Grays Ferry, died of a rare bone cancer in 2020. She said he didn’t smoke or drink, and she believes that emissions from the refinery caused his illness. “In my eyes, they killed him,” she said at the rally. “The pollution killed him. I believe he would be here today if he wasn’t silently murdered, because it was the pursuit of profit that killed him.”
“我们不想要数据中心，”Philly Thrive 董事会主席 Sonya Sanders 在周一费城市政厅的集会上说。“我们不想要污染，不想要噪音，而且我们知道它们不会给我们带来更多就业机会。”Sanders 的丈夫也是 Grays Ferry 的居民，于 2020 年死于一种罕见的骨癌。她说丈夫不抽烟也不喝酒，她坚信是炼油厂的排放导致了他的疾病。“在我眼里，是他们杀了他，”她在集会上说。“是污染杀了他。我相信如果不是被无声地谋杀，他今天还会在这里，因为是追求利润的行为杀了他。”
A Philadelphia data center may not have as severe an environmental impact as the now-defunct Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery, which processed up to 335,000 barrels of crude oil daily. But the international race to dominate the AI industry has become so extreme that by 2035, BloombergNEF predicts that U.S. data centers will consume more natural gas than Germany and Japan combined. That’s almost double the firm’s projection from nine months ago.
费城的数据中心对环境的影响可能不如现已关闭的“费城能源解决方案”炼油厂（该厂每天处理多达 33.5 万桶原油）那么严重。但全球争夺 AI 行业主导权的竞赛已变得极其激烈，彭博新能源财经（BloombergNEF）预测，到 2035 年，美国数据中心消耗的天然气将超过德国和日本的总和。这几乎是该机构九个月前预测值的两倍。
Natural gas burns a lot cleaner than other fossil fuels, like oil, but it’s far from harmless. Burning one cubic foot of natural gas releases the equivalent of 60 grams of carbon dioxide, and additional data center demand is expected to generate an extra 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution each day, which is about 12% of all present day U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
天然气的燃烧比石油等其他化石燃料清洁得多，但绝非无害。燃烧一立方英尺天然气会释放相当于 60 克二氧化碳的温室气体。预计数据中心额外增加的需求每天将产生 100 万公吨的温室气体污染，这约占目前美国温室气体排放总量的 12%。
Harvard University researchers found in 2021 that fossil fuel air pollution is responsible for one in five deaths worldwide, a staggering figure that is bound to increase in the age of AI. “A typical data center planned in Pennsylvania has hundreds of diesel engines that spew air pollution, and even if they’re supposedly reserved for emergencies, the government has already said that the data center should use those rather than drawing from an overstressed electrical grid during some heat waves,” said Clean Air Council attorney Annie Fox at the rally. “We can expect that to get more frequent… Fossil fuel-hungry data centers will worsen climate change, making those heatwaves more frequent and severe.”
哈佛大学研究人员在 2021 年发现，全球五分之一的死亡人数与化石燃料空气污染有关，这是一个惊人的数字，而在 AI 时代，这一数字注定会增加。“宾夕法尼亚州计划建设的典型数据中心拥有数百台排放空气污染物的柴油发动机，即使它们名义上仅用于紧急情况，政府也已经表示，在某些热浪期间，数据中心应该使用这些发动机，而不是从超负荷的电网中抽电，”清洁空气委员会律师 Annie Fox 在集会上说。“我们可以预见这种情况会越来越频繁……消耗化石燃料的数据中心将加剧气候变化，使热浪变得更加频繁和严重。”
Concerned citizens across the country do seem to be getting through to their officials. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order that temporarily prevents the state from approving new permits for large projects. “Progress shouldn’t arrive with a higher utility bill, deleted water supply, or noise pollution,” Hochul said at a press conference. “These data centers can only be built, should only be built in places that want them.”
全国各地的相关民众似乎正在引起官员们的重视。在纽约，州长 Kathy Hochul 签署了一项行政命令，暂时禁止该州批准大型项目的新许可证。“进步不应以更高的水电费、枯竭的水源或噪音污染为代价，”Hochul 在新闻发布会上说。“这些数据中心只能、也应该只建在那些欢迎它们的地方。”
Data center moratoriums have also been approved in a number of U.S. cities, including Denver, Indianapolis, Asheville, Charlotte, and Reno. The purpose of these moratoriums is often to allow city officials to collect more information about the potential impacts of building data centers.
包括丹佛、印第安纳波利斯、阿什维尔、夏洛特和里诺在内的多个美国城市也已批准了数据中心建设暂停令。这些暂停令的目的通常是为了让城市官员有更多时间收集关于建设数据中心潜在影响的信息。
“I’m worried about pollution,” Donna Greenberg, a Philadelphia resident who attended the rally, told TechCrunch. “I’m worried about surveillance and the fact that they’re going to have access to information they have no business knowing, and I’m concerned that they’re going to be using water and electricity that takes away from the people and the neighborhoods who need it.”
“我担心污染，”参加集会的费城居民 Donna Greenberg 告诉 TechCrunch。“我担心监控，担心他们会获取到他们本不该知道的信息，我还担心他们会占用本属于那些有需要的民众和社区的水电资源。”
More than 100 people attended the kick-off rally for the No Data Centers in Philly campaign on Monday, chanting loudly in hopes that city council members would hear them from inside their offices at City Hall. “I just think that our community standing up and fighting back is tremendous,” Pitts said. “It takes a lot.”
周一，有 100 多人参加了“费城拒绝数据中心”运动的启动集会，他们大声呼喊，希望市政厅办公室里的市议员们能听到他们的声音。“我认为我们的社区能够站出来反抗是非常了不起的，”Pitts 说。“这需要很大的勇气。”