By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

As demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing accelerates, a surge in massive data center developments across the U.S. is prompting scrutiny over their environmental and social costs.

“Daily Pulse” host Maria Zeee warned that despite an ongoing energy crisis, “They’re spreading like an aggressive cancer and the consequences are proving to be deadly.”

Central to her report is “Project Matador — The President Donald J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus,” a proposed data center in the Texas Panhandle set to be the largest data center in the world.

Spanning up to 6,000 acres, the facility is projected to consume, conservatively, 96 billion kilowatt-hours of energy annually — equal to more than half of all residential energy use in the state.

Local residents are protesting the center over pollution concerns and an expedited approval process.

Texas already houses at least 87 data centers, with 135 under construction and more than 600 in the planning stages.

Opposition to data centers has been building nationwide as communities criticize higher electricity bills, stress on existing power grids and heavy water use.

Those living near data centers also report health issues, including headaches and disrupted sleep.

Research links electromagnetic radiation (EMR) exposure from the high-voltage power lines and electrical substations required by data centers to childhood leukemia and other serious health and environmental impacts.

Zeee shared a report on a $27 billion Meta AI data center in Louisiana that illustrates the local impact: residents report rising rents, an influx of temporary workers, and surging noise and light pollution. “The residents often don’t realize what’s happening until it’s already happening,” said a local reporter. “Right now it’s chaos.”

Zeee argued that the AI infrastructure build-out serves a broader agenda of “ultimate control” and smart city surveillance.

Meanwhile, in Box Elder County, Utah, Canadian millionaire Kevin O’Leary — star of “Shark Tank” — is proposing a 40,000-acre center — nearly seven times the size of the government’s Matador Project — being fast-tracked by the state’s military installation development authority, Zeee reported.

As AI investment accelerates, calls are growing for stricter regulation, greater transparency, and meaningful community input before projects move forward.

Watch the AI data center segment here: 

Related articles in The Defender

• Will Maine Become First State to Block Data Centers?
• Critics Warn of ‘a Dragnet of Surveillance’ as U.S. Pushes Ahead With Plans for More ‘Smart’ Cities

The post Watch: AI Data Centers ‘Spreading Like an Aggressive Cancer’ appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

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