The Data Center Backlash Should Also Be a Climate Reckoning. It Isn’t Yet

数据中心引发的抵制浪潮本应成为气候问题的清算时刻，但目前尚未实现

Welcome to the latest edition of Power Play! From now until the midterms, senior writer Molly Taft will be sharing their thoughts every Sunday on this political season’s hottest issue: data centers. We welcome reader comments, and will be answering questions from the comments section in future editions. 欢迎阅读最新一期的《Power Play》！从现在到中期选举，资深撰稿人 Molly Taft 将在每周日分享他们对本届政治季最热门议题——数据中心的看法。我们欢迎读者留言，并将在未来的版本中回答评论区的问题。

The post-lunchtime Climate Week panel featuring tech executives working on AI and data centers was only about a minute into the discussion when a man stood up a few rows over from me in the audience and started yelling. “The idea that we can keep running on fracked gas is a lie!” he exclaimed as security tackled him. 在“气候周”（Climate Week）午餐后的一场专题讨论会上，几位从事人工智能和数据中心工作的科技高管刚开始讨论约一分钟，坐在我前方几排的一名男子突然站起来大喊大叫。“认为我们可以继续依赖水力压裂天然气运行的想法就是一个谎言！”他在被安保人员制服时大声疾呼。

The panel tried to get back to business after the protester was removed—only to be interrupted again when another person stood up. That’s how things proceeded for the next 10 minutes as protesters with the group Extinction Rebellion NYC staggered interruptions, yelling about various harms of AI over the speakers onstage, who tried valiantly to continue their conversation. 抗议者被带走后，讨论组试图恢复正常议程，但很快又被另一名站起来的人打断。接下来的10分钟里，情况一直如此：来自“反抗灭绝纽约”（Extinction Rebellion NYC）组织的抗议者轮番进行干扰，在台上试图坚持对话的演讲者面前，大声疾呼人工智能带来的各种危害。

For nearly a decade, Extinction Rebellion groups have used public protest to draw attention to the climate emergency, staging disruptions at corporate-friendly events like this one at Climate Week. Usually, these types of interruptions draw polite silences or subtle eyerolls from panelists waiting for them to stop. 近十年来，“反抗灭绝”组织一直通过公开抗议来引起人们对气候紧急状态的关注，并在像气候周这样对企业友好的活动中制造混乱。通常，这类干扰只会引来小组成员礼貌的沉默或微妙的白眼，他们只是在等待抗议者停止。

But this experience seemed particularly frustrating to these panelists. Cully Cavness, the cofounder and president of data center infrastructure company Crusoe, confessed to the session’s moderator that he was still thinking about the interruption several minutes after security had taken the last protester out. 但这次经历似乎让这些小组成员感到格外沮丧。数据中心基础设施公司 Crusoe 的联合创始人兼总裁 Cully Cavness 向会议主持人坦言，在安保人员带走最后一名抗议者几分钟后，他仍然对刚才的干扰耿耿于怀。

I get why they were on edge. The protest at the panel was a microcosm of the tough couple of months for data center defenders, with public opinion at rock-bottom levels and moratoriums popping up in red and blue states. It’s understandable why tech folks would be tense. 我理解他们为何如此紧张。这次专题讨论会上的抗议，是数据中心捍卫者过去几个月艰难处境的一个缩影：公众舆论跌至谷底，红州和蓝州纷纷出台暂停令。科技界人士感到紧张是可以理解的。

Cavness, at one point, said that he assumed most of the protesters probably didn’t even live near a data center and didn’t understand the benefits they could bring to the local tax base. Emerald AI’s Varun Sivaram forged ahead talking about how data centers could become “good citizens,” to work on the grid to lower bills and bring more clean energy online. Cavness 在谈话中曾表示，他认为大多数抗议者可能根本不住在数据中心附近，也不了解它们能为当地税基带来的好处。Emerald AI 的 Varun Sivaram 则继续强调数据中心如何能够成为“好公民”，通过参与电网运作来降低电费并引入更多清洁能源。

“Careful what you wish for,” Sivaram cautioned the now-absent protesters near the end of the session, warning that depriving communities of data centers could deprive them of good actors to help transform the grid. “小心你的愿望成真，”Sivaram 在会议临近结束时向已经离场的抗议者发出警告，称剥夺社区的数据中心，可能会让社区失去帮助改造电网的“好帮手”。

Lots of folks might take the opportunity, as the protesters did, to yell at a data center executive if given the chance. But unlike the Extinction Rebellion NYC members, climate change almost certainly wouldn’t be the first thing on their minds. Data centers were a hot topic at Climate Week, but it’s also a self-selecting event where people care about one particular issue. 如果给普通民众机会，很多人可能也会像抗议者那样，抓住机会对数据中心高管大喊大叫。但与“反抗灭绝纽约”的成员不同，气候变化几乎肯定不是他们首先想到的问题。数据中心是气候周的热门话题，但这是一个参与者自我筛选的活动，人们关注的是特定的议题。

Local concerns—the kind Sivaram and Cavness seemed to be responding to—have dominated the larger national conversation around data center dissent. Poll after poll show that climate is one of the last data center-related environmental concerns on the list for many voters behind water, energy use (and its impact on bills), and local air and noise pollution. 地方性的担忧——即 Sivaram 和 Cavness 似乎正在回应的那类问题——主导了全国范围内关于数据中心争议的讨论。民调一再显示，对于许多选民而言，气候问题在数据中心相关的环境担忧中排在最后，位于水资源、能源使用（及其对电费的影响）以及当地空气和噪音污染之后。

Even some climate folks—notably investors—see the state of the atmosphere as a backseat issue. “Climate Week could basically be ‘AI and data center week,” cofounder and managing partner at VoLo Earth told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s all about energy, and most of us as climate investors, myself included, are focused on the energy system.” 甚至一些气候界人士——尤其是投资者——也将大气状况视为次要问题。VoLo Earth 的联合创始人兼管理合伙人告诉《华尔街日报》：“气候周基本上可以改名为‘人工智能和数据中心周’。一切都与能源有关，我们大多数气候投资者，包括我在内，都专注于能源系统。”

During Climate Week, I also caught up with William Lawrence, who is currently locked in a tight race for Michigan’s 7th congressional district. Lawrence knows the climate crisis well—he’s one of the original founders of the Sunrise Movement climate activist group. He’s also made data center opposition, as well as opposition to AI, a cornerstone of his pitch to voters, which helped him win a tough Democratic primary. 在气候周期间，我还采访了 William Lawrence，他目前正在密歇根州第7国会选区进行激烈的竞选。Lawrence 非常了解气候危机——他是气候活动组织“日出运动”（Sunrise Movement）的创始成员之一。他还将反对数据中心和反对人工智能作为其竞选纲领的基石，这帮助他在一场艰难的民主党初选中胜出。

Lawrence says there are at least three hyperscalers building projects in his district, and he just released a wide-ranging platform to stop AI development. The platform says that data centers “threaten our air, water and quality of life,” but makes no mention of climate change. Lawrence 表示，他的选区内至少有三家超大规模数据中心运营商正在进行建设项目，他刚刚发布了一份旨在阻止人工智能发展的广泛纲领。该纲领称数据中心“威胁到我们的空气、水和生活质量”，但只字未提气候变化。

When I ask him about the omission, he says that there are Michiganders coming to him with climate concerns about data centers, although water concerns and energy bills tend to rank higher. He says that in general, there’s a strong “environmental consciousness” animating the data center movement—which may include climate, but isn’t always expressed exclusively in terms of worries about emissions. 当我问及这一遗漏时，他说确实有密歇根州民众向他表达对数据中心的气候担忧，尽管水资源和电费问题往往排在更前面。他表示，总体而言，数据中心抵制运动背后存在一种强烈的“环境意识”——这可能包含气候问题，但并不总是仅仅表现为对排放的担忧。

“We have a small amount of billionaires and political insiders who have made it impossible to feel confident about the future,” he says. “They’ve destabilized our ecological system. They’ve destabilized the political order.” “一小撮亿万富翁和政治内部人士让我们无法对未来感到自信，”他说。“他们破坏了我们的生态系统，也破坏了政治秩序。”

Sivaram’s point that the massive influx of electricity demand from data centers could help to transform our electricity sector for the better is true. Unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening on the ground, where data centers are facilitating a massive fossil fuel buildout that’s happening faster than expected. Sivaram 认为数据中心带来的巨大电力需求激增有助于改善电力行业的转型，这一点是正确的。遗憾的是，现实情况并非如此，数据中心正在推动一场比预期更快的大规模化石燃料设施建设。

A day before the panel, at a different briefing, I watched BloombergNEF analysts talk about the group’s projections of a massive new influx of demand for fossil fuel power over the coming years, driven primarily by data centers. Data centers, according to BNEF’s analysis, will likely comprise more than 5 percent of global electricity demand by 2035, tripling their needs now. The majority of that demand will be met by new and existing natural gas plants, and could raise the power sector’s emissions by 6 percent in less than 10 years. 在专题讨论会的前一天，在另一场简报会上，我听取了彭博新能源财经（BloombergNEF）分析师的报告，他们预测未来几年化石燃料电力需求将出现大规模激增，而这主要由数据中心驱动。根据 BNEF 的分析，到2035年，数据中心在全球电力需求中的占比可能超过5%，是目前需求的三倍。大部分需求将由新建和现有的天然气发电厂满足，这可能在不到10年内使电力行业的排放量增加6%。

That doesn’t even account for gas power plants being built off the grid to service data centers. A separate BNEF analysis of 99 proposed on-site gas power plants found that they could increase US power sector emissions by 20 to 33 percent if they’re all built. 这甚至还没有算上为服务数据中心而建设的离网天然气发电厂。BNEF 对99个拟建的现场天然气发电厂进行的另一项分析发现，如果这些电厂全部建成，可能会使美国电力行业的排放量增加20%至33%。