Amazon’s $1B plan to combat data center backlash draws more backlash
Amazon’s $1B plan to combat data center backlash draws more backlash
亚马逊为应对数据中心抵制而推出的 10 亿美元计划引发更多争议
On Friday, Amazon committed to donating more than $1 billion over the next five years to communities neighboring data centers. In a press release, Amazon Web Services’ CEO Matt Garman said that communities would decide how to prioritize funds across “education, job training, energy affordability, water, and energy preservation, and local priorities.” 周五，亚马逊承诺在未来五年内向数据中心周边的社区捐赠超过 10 亿美元。亚马逊云科技（AWS）首席执行官马特·加曼（Matt Garman）在新闻稿中表示，社区将决定如何优先分配这些资金，用于“教育、职业培训、能源负担能力、水资源与能源保护以及当地优先事项”。
Laying out other community commitments, Amazon also promised to ensure data centers wouldn’t increase power bills or wipe out local water supplies. Regarding the latter, Amazon promised to be “water positive” by 2030, while claiming that 75 percent of projects have already met this goal. 在阐述其他社区承诺时，亚马逊还保证数据中心不会导致电费上涨或耗尽当地水资源。关于后者，亚马逊承诺到 2030 年实现“水资源正效益”（water positive），并声称其 75% 的项目已经达到了这一目标。
Rolling out these commitments, Amazon seemed bent on convincing Americans that the swelling data center backlash is based on lies. Echoing Donald Trump’s claims that foreign disinformation campaigns are fueling widespread protests, Garman urged that calls for data moratoriums must end or else American frontier AI might fall behind China’s. According to Garman, US rivals are trying to “trick us into slowing down,” and Amazon’s commitments are meant to reassure Americans that everything’s okay and that we should instead plow ahead, as Trump endlessly advocates. 在推出这些承诺时，亚马逊似乎一心想让美国人相信，针对数据中心日益高涨的抵制浪潮是基于谎言。加曼呼应了唐纳德·特朗普关于“外国虚假信息运动助长了广泛抗议”的说法，敦促停止要求暂停数据中心建设的呼声，否则美国的尖端人工智能可能会落后于中国。加曼认为，美国的竞争对手正试图“诱骗我们放慢脚步”，而亚马逊的承诺旨在让美国人放心，一切都在掌控之中，我们应该像特朗普不断主张的那样继续前进。
However, advocates at Stand.Earth—a global nonprofit that’s been fighting for environmental protections in communities hosting data centers—told Ars that Amazon is the one being “misleading” by spreading “corporate propaganda.” Seemingly in crisis mode as billions of dollars in data center projects have been blocked nationwide, Amazon’s promised donations represent “a flailing attempt at damage control for the harm its data center build-out has already caused,” Stand.Earth said. 然而，一直致力于为数据中心所在社区争取环境保护的全球非营利组织 Stand.Earth 的倡导者告诉 Ars，亚马逊才是那个通过散布“企业宣传”来“误导”公众的一方。Stand.Earth 表示，由于全国范围内价值数十亿美元的数据中心项目受阻，亚马逊似乎处于危机模式，其承诺的捐款不过是“对其数据中心建设已造成的损害进行损害控制的挣扎尝试”。
Most problematic, Stand.Earth suggested, is Amazon’s plan to back a power plant that experts expect will become the largest source of US climate pollution. Glaringly, Amazon’s data center commitments don’t mention the power plant and scarcely address pollution, apart from promising to exclusively rely on back-up generators that use the lowest possible emissions. Stand.Earth 指出，最严重的问题在于亚马逊计划支持的一座发电厂，专家预计该电厂将成为美国最大的气候污染源。显而易见的是，亚马逊的数据中心承诺中并未提及该发电厂，也几乎没有涉及污染问题，只是承诺仅使用排放量最低的备用发电机。
“For all the claims Amazon makes about investing in carbon-free energy, it conveniently leaves out that it is constructing the single-largest source of climate emissions in the United States in Pecos, Texas,” Stand.Earth said. “Communities will face 33 million tons of harmful air pollution every year—with the power plant using the same amount of energy needed to run more than 1.9 million homes.” “尽管亚马逊声称投资于无碳能源，但它却避而不谈其正在德克萨斯州佩科斯（Pecos）建设美国最大的单一气候排放源，”Stand.Earth 表示。“社区每年将面临 3300 万吨有害空气污染，而该发电厂消耗的能源相当于 190 多万个家庭的用电量。”
Additionally, Stand.Earth called out Amazon for claiming that most data center generators sparking pollution fears in communities typically sit “idle.” Although Amazon emphasized that most generators only run for “roughly 10 hours per year,” Stand.Earth cited cases where “Amazon data centers ran on diesel back-up power for days at a time.” 此外，Stand.Earth 还批评亚马逊声称引发社区污染担忧的大多数数据中心发电机通常处于“闲置”状态。尽管亚马逊强调大多数发电机“每年仅运行约 10 小时”，但 Stand.Earth 列举了一些案例，指出“亚马逊数据中心曾连续数天使用柴油备用电源运行”。
Some praise: Amazon stops using NDAs. At least one part of Amazon’s deal is promising, Stand.Earth suggested. The company ending its practice of using nondisclosure agreements when building new data centers will likely help make projects more transparent. However, “many of the key concerns communities have are not addressed,” Stand.Earth found. 一些赞许：亚马逊停止使用保密协议（NDA）。Stand.Earth 表示，亚马逊协议中至少有一部分是值得肯定的。该公司结束在建设新数据中心时使用保密协议的做法，可能会有助于提高项目的透明度。然而，Stand.Earth 发现，“社区关心的许多核心问题仍未得到解决”。
For example, Amazon’s promises to replace all water used for data centers seemingly won’t address “the massive water footprint left by energy infrastructure powering its data centers” or “the potential for forever-chemical contamination from nascent cooling technologies,” Stand.Earth told Ars. 例如，Stand.Earth 告诉 Ars，亚马逊承诺补充数据中心使用的所有水资源，似乎无法解决“为数据中心供电的能源基础设施所留下的巨大水足迹”，也无法解决“新兴冷却技术可能带来的永久性化学物质污染”。
The total amount Amazon is investing also doesn’t seem like much compared to what the company has spent. In the press release, Garman said that Amazon contributed the same amount, more than $1 billion, to data center communities over the past three years. “Compared to the $220 billion the company is investing in data centers in 2026 alone, Amazon’s commitment of $1 billion over five years for community support is a drop in the bucket,” Stand.Earth said. “It is difficult to read this statement as anything other than a plea from Amazon to continue exploiting communities at minimal cost.” 亚马逊的总投资额与其支出相比似乎也微不足道。在新闻稿中，加曼表示，亚马逊在过去三年中向数据中心社区贡献了同样的金额，即超过 10 亿美元。“与该公司仅在 2026 年一年内对数据中心的 2200 亿美元投资相比，亚马逊承诺五年内投入 10 亿美元用于社区支持简直是杯水车薪，”Stand.Earth 表示。“很难将这一声明解读为除‘亚马逊恳求以最低成本继续剥削社区’之外的其他含义。”