In a previously unreleased Freedom of Information reply the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said it does not hold information about which companies, organisations or bodies are using the UK’s largest data centres nor the purposes for which they are used.
The government plans to massively expand data centres across the UK using powers to overrule community opposition by categorising them as items of “critical national infrastructure”, yet told campaigners last September that it holds no information about who or what they are being used for.
The rapid growth of Generative Artificial Intelligence has fuelled an unprecedented need for new and much larger data centres which have massive water and energy needs.
Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Zack Polanski, Green Party leader said::
“How can the government designate new data centres as ‘critical national infrastructure’ when they don’t even keep records on who is using them and what they are being used for?
“The government plans to steamroller over local opposition so private companies can build these facilities – yet they can’t even explain what the benefits are and who is benefitting.
“What is more ‘critical’ than peoples’ access to water? What is more ‘critical’ than our need to transition to a low energy, low pollution world so we can put the brakes on climate extremes?
“The government must end this wrong-headed ‘critical national infrastructure’ designation and make sure UK citizens are given priority access to water as we move into an increasingly drought-prone future.”
The revelations come after Zack Polanski’s call last week for an end to the designation of any new data centres as national infrastructure, and for a tightening of planning rules to prevent a rash of new data centres taking precedence over households for water and energy usage.
Campaign group Global Action Plan who filed the Freedom of Information requisition are leading on a UK-wide call for a moratorium of new data centres. Their Parliamentary Campaigns Manager, Anisah Khan, said:
“Big Tech’s government-endorsed expansion of AI data centres prioritises corporate profit over community need. This reckless, rapid rollout is having a detrimental impact on the environment and housing targets, side-lining local people and politician’s concerns.
“At a time when individuals across the country are facing hosepipe bans and essential housebuilding is being delayed because data centres are gobbling up grid connections, what we need is not more chatbots at any cost.
“We need the UK Government to announce a moratorium on data centre developments until a clear framework is in place to address environmental and social concerns and impose transparency around these developments and their proposed societal use.”
Last month was the driest July ever recorded in the country since records began in 1836 | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Adapting to an over-heated planet means very little unless it is accompanied by addressing the root causes of climate breakdown.
Will the succession of heatwaves across Europe and the UK compel governments of all complexions to take climate breakdown more seriously? While much of the news and public conversation this summer has focused on the tragic deaths of people caught in wildfires, floods, and storms, less attention has been paid to how heat waves kill people directly.
When the temperature rises to the point where the body can no longer cool itself, this is termed “uncompensable heat stress”, or UHS, and has long been known to have a disproportionate risk for the over sixties: The older you are, the less you can sweat; your heart works harder and your blood vessels are less able to widen, all adding to the risk of heat stress and early death. In an ageing and warming world, people older than sixty will increase in numbers to 2.1 billion by 2050 and are more likely to succumb to UHS.
Last year, one of the hottest ever on record in Britain, analysis from the UK Health Security Agency put excess deaths due to heat-related factors at 1,504. As of June this year, most of the country had already experienced four heatwaves, causing 2,877 excess deaths. Since then, there have been more heat waves with early indications of another in September, meaning a huge increase in heat-related deaths as compared to the previous year.
This rapid escalation in heat-related deaths is worth considering in a context where previous forecasts on the rate of climate change have proved to be too optimistic: Heavily populated Europe appears to be heating up much faster than the average, and research on the ability of forests to soak up greenhouse gases and help prevent climate breakdown has turned out to be less than expected.
Meanwhile, the naturally occurring El Niño/La Niña climate cycle is entering a “heating phase”, which is likely to further increase global heating and disruptive weather in the coming months. On Friday, the Met Office warned that this year’s El Nino is likely to be the most intense in recent memory. “We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event,” Prof Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the UK Met Office, told the BBC. “I have never seen an El Niño signal this intense in our forecasts.”
Sleep-walking towards disaster
Why are we sleepwalking towards disaster in this way when it simply does not make sense? Of the many reasons, three stand out; each requiring concerted governmental effort and leadership.
First, what needs to be done is a mammoth task. Not only will we have to radically decarbonise our economies, but we will need major changes in behaviour including a much less meat-based diet, far less use of air travel and far greater use of electricity generated from renewable resources, and a far more circular economy.
Second, the current economic system where neoliberal economics in its various forms is simply not fit for purpose. Crucially, when it comes to climate breakdown the need to act a decade or more ahead of impact is incompatible with free market ideology that believes that the market works best when it has the minimum of regulation. The kind of economic planning and management that the risk of climate breakdown requires is anathema to the very idea of a free market.
Moreover, this is in addition to the runaway wealth that the current free market system favours. So endemic to the system is the accumulation of wealth and political power in the hands of an elite few, that any attempt at an environmentally sustainable economy “for the many, not the few” will be strongly resisted by the few.
Finally, there are the well-resourced right-wing think tanks and lobbies determined to maintain the status quo. The Atlas Foundation alone “provides training, networking, and grants for libertarian, free-market and conservative groups around the world” working with nearly 800 groups in over a hundred countries.
There is already support in the UK and many other countries for adapting to a warmer world, including much better funded emergency services, improved housing and better ventilation, but a core problem remains.
Adaption currently envisaged means very little unless it is accompanied by addressing the root causes of climate breakdown, especially the burning of fossil carbon in the form of coal, oil or gas. All that adaptation does is give us a few extra years before we are overwhelmed by even higher temperatures and wilder weather, and that goes on, and on, with far more of the world becoming uninhabitable.
The heat excesses of the past year will have killed many tens of thousands of people across the world, especially among the poorest. It is vital to shift the political mood enough to truly accelerate the necessary changes. There is a small chance that further devastation caused by El Nino might focus minds on the reality of climate breakdown, but the likes of Trump and most of the global oligarchy will do all they can to prevent that.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark RichardsGreenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)
dizzy: UK government’s inaction and support of climate-destroying datacentres suggests that Burnham & Co are likely to permit the Rosebank and Jackdaw North Sea oil and gas fields further destroying the planet.
Aerial view of the construction site for the proposed datacentre at Wapseys Wood in Buckinghamshire. Photograph: sdcm40campus
[Guardian] Exclusive: Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire sites predicted to emit 4.5m tonnes a year when fully running
The carbon emissions from just two planned datacentres in England will exceed all of the fossil fuel company ExxonMobil’s UK emissions, analysis has revealed.
Experts have said this demonstrates the “serious threat” datacentres pose to the UK’s legally binding climate goals.
Analysis by the non-profit group Foxglove reveals that when fully operational, the Wapseys Wood datacentre in Buckinghamshire and the Quest Park datacentre in Bedfordshire will use 1.3GW of power and will produce more than 4.5m tonnes of carbon emissions.
ExxonMobil emitted 3.9m tonnes in 2023, according to the global energy thinktank Ember.
AI datacentres use a massive amount of electricity to power servers and cooling equipment, and to run facility systems. There are currently 315 datacentres in the queue to connect to the UK’s electricity grid, representing 73GW of demand. This is almost double the peak winter energy demand for the entire UK.
Because of the long wait to connect to the grid, the Wapseys Wood and Quest Park datacentres are seeking to build their own on-site gas-fired power stations.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Orcas discuss rotting brain, front Orca says Sundown Syndrome is a dead givaway and he wishes someone would Lock Him Up
