It’s hot out there. According to the National Weather Service, an estimated 37.5 million Americans have lived under a heat advisory over the past month. If you were outside over the holiday weekend, you probably noticed!
Most of us (especially those of us who remember the 90s 😅 ) can feel the weather getting hotter due to climate change.
And data centers are adding fuel to the fire, not only through their massive energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions, but also through a lesser-known climate impact: the urban heat island effect.
Urban heat islands happen when pavement, building materials, traffic, and industrial activity make developed areas hotter than nearby rural ones.
That extra heat is correlated with increased morbidity from illness and chronic disease, with low-income communities impacted the most.
Now, researchers are looking at data centers through this same lens. A recent study found an average increase in land surface temperature of 3.7 degrees Fahrenheit near these facilities, with the impact reaching up to 6 miles.
As communities weigh the costs of data centers, we need to take into account the health and environmental impact of heat—and we are starting to have some tools to do that with.
I can’t think of a more timely week to start.
In this newsletter
This bi-weekly newsletter is a new project from Halt the Harm Network. For more regular updates and meetups on data center organizing, request access to the Stop Bad Data Centers group inside the HHN community space.
What We’re Following
The data heat island effect: Quantifying the impact of AI data centers in a warming world
A new study puts numbers behind something communities are already feeling: data centers don’t just consume energy—they can also give off enough heat to warm the areas around them.
And when that heat shows up at the scale of hyperscale AI facilities, it becomes a community health issue.
The authors call this the “data heat island effect,” and estimate that more than 340 million people could be affected by this kind of localized warming. For communities already dealing with hotter summers, this could exacerbate the health impacts of extreme heat.
July 4th: The Hottest Month Is Getting Hotter After 250 Years of Climate Change
Climate Central looked at July temperatures in 243 U.S. cities and found that July has warmed in 94% of them since 1970 by 2.6°F on average.
That’s the backdrop for this week’s heat conversation. Data centers are being proposed in communities where the baseline is already shifting, cooling costs are already rising, and extreme heat is already becoming harder to manage.
Read the Climate Central analysis here.
Report: The Power Behind AI
The Environmental Integrity Project is tracking 74 proposed gas power plants that would be dedicated to powering data centers across the U.S. If built, those plants could generate 143 gigawatts of electricity (enough to power California nearly three times over).
The report estimates more than 159,000 tons per year of health-damaging pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and fine particulate matter. 89% of these proposed are planned for communities where life expectancy is already below the national average, worsening health outcomes for children, elders, and low-income families.
U.S. Data Centers Tracker Weekly Snapshot
FracTracker has begun sharing weekly updates as part of an ongoing effort to document the rapid buildout of U.S. data center infrastructure.
Check the most recent Snapshot for updates on new projects, status changes, pausing, cancellations, and more.
Or submit a new data center update here.
Event Recap
All event replays can be found in the Recordings Space in the HHN Network.
Data Center Tracker Presentation and Meetup
Mia Glover and Katie Jones of FracTracker Alliance gave us a hands-on tour of the Open U.S. Data Centers Tracker. This is a free, open-access map of 1,500+ data center facilities with detailed information about the project as well as community opposition. It includes environmental justice, tribal lands, resistance efforts, downloadable data, and more, with additional layers and community-submitted updates still being added.
Watch the presentation recap here.
Understanding & Preventing Data Center Noise Pollution
Chronic noise pollution is more than an annoyance—it can affect sleep, health, learning, communication, wildlife, and overall quality of life. And it’s also one of many useful points of leverage for organizers pushing back on data center development.
The presentation slides and resources for Parts 1 and 2 of our workshops series on data center noise pollution are now available in the network.
Special thanks to Les Blomberg, Founder and Executive Director of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, for leading these workshops.
Learn more about noise pollution here.
Closing Comment
Data centers affect community health at every scale, from the fossil fuels burned to power them, to the heat they can add to nearby neighborhoods and ecosystems.
The same systems driving extreme heat globally are also showing up locally, in the places where people live, work, and organize.
As summer continues, we’ll keep tracking what this means for communities. If you need support, have a question, or want to get plugged in, just hit reply and let me know what’s going on.
