Activists Breach Microsoft Data Center Construction Site As Protests Spread In Europe (yahoo.com) 61
More than 100 activists breached a Microsoft AI data center construction site in Amsterdam as part of coordinated protests against the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. "These data centres are destroying our world. It's becoming uninhabitable because of all the resources they consume. That's why we're here today," protester Sam van der Beek said. Reuters reports: Activist groups have announced actions in 16 countries on Friday and Saturday, according to the "Stop Dirty Data Centers" coalition, which is rallying environmental groups and digital rights campaigns behind calls to pause large-scale construction. In Amsterdam on Friday, more than 100 activists gathered at the construction site of a Microsoft AI data centre, marching arm in arm before breaking into the site, climbing cranes, hanging balloons and dancing while police stood by. Some carried placards with messages reading: "Screw your datacenter."
Site owner Pure Data Centers, which plans to invest more than $1 billion and is backed by Brookfield-owned Oaktree, said it was committed to engagement with local stakeholders. "We respectfully ask those on site to leave safely and engage with us in dialogue about the development and any concerns they may have," it said. Other planned actions include a march in Dublin, a protest outside the parliament building in Warsaw, and a demonstration against a different Microsoft data centre in Denmark. [...] Stop Dirty Data Centers says it is not anti-progress or calling for existing data centers to be closed but that major construction should be halted until governments establish clearer rules.
Site owner Pure Data Centers, which plans to invest more than $1 billion and is backed by Brookfield-owned Oaktree, said it was committed to engagement with local stakeholders. "We respectfully ask those on site to leave safely and engage with us in dialogue about the development and any concerns they may have," it said. Other planned actions include a march in Dublin, a protest outside the parliament building in Warsaw, and a demonstration against a different Microsoft data centre in Denmark. [...] Stop Dirty Data Centers says it is not anti-progress or calling for existing data centers to be closed but that major construction should be halted until governments establish clearer rules.
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Re:Sigh (Score:5, Interesting)
The vast majority of Dutch land is used for farming. The Dutch are the second largest farmers in the world (behind the USA who has 20x the population), and the most intensive farming activity both per capita and per surface area of any country by a very significant margin. They have some of the worst nitrogen emissions in Europe, worse than the major and significantly larger industrial (and farming) powerhouse Germany, and the majority of those emissions are from farming. And they have the most concentrated farming practices in the world.
Tell us again what the parent is misunderstanding?
Re: Sigh (Score:2)
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Are the Dutch that protest these emissions bitching and moaning, or expressing concerns that may be valid?
Do you have a relevant argument? No really, what relevance is it? Do nitrogen emissions, or the poop storage problem magically disappear simply because a protester has a misplaced reason for protesting? Is excessive oil and gas drilling only a problem when Greenpeace protests, but not XR?
Like seriously can I just say I'm truly baffled by the stupidity of what you just asked.
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I was not making an argument.
You're right, communication is difficult, I'm not sure how I could have taken your comment 3 posts up to mean anything other than the Dutch not having intensive farming practices given the post you replied to, and the continued response somehow directing the entire concept of farming to bitching and moaning, really not sure how I could have interpreted that any other way either.
But it sounds like you and I are very much in agreement despite how this conversation went.
WTF does this have to do with this thread?
With the context above, do you understan
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No I think they are the ones shutting down farms because when you take an industrial activity and concentrate it into a tiny portion of Europe instead of spreading it out it really fucks over the environment. The vast majority of Dutch farming produce is exported. There's no reason for farming to be concentrated in that portion of the world the way it is, so it's understandable that they don't want their environment fucked over because the rest of the world isn't swinging its weight.
Disagree? I hope you are
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No I think they are the ones shutting down farms because when you take an industrial activity and concentrate it into a tiny portion of Europe instead of spreading it out it really fucks over the environment.
Well, the people aren't, their hand is being forced by their government, and their governments hand is being forced by EU treaty.
Is it wise to kill off the EU's breadbasket, just hoping that other sources will come along? I don't think it is.
The nitrogen quotas don't take into account the amount of product produced. So if killing food production winds up producing more nitrogen in countries with far less farming experience, is that a win?
Food security/prices is nothing to scoff at. To the enemies of the EU
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As long as we're on the topic of cultural stereotypes with mention of the
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It's those damn wooden shoes, I'll bet. I'd be cranky if I had to wear those things too.
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But perhaps the trauma is handed down, which circles back to your explanation.
Re:Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
Nah. The Dutch are extremely chill and friendly. They're also smart and pragmatic and really, really good at engineering. They do call out bullshit and complain when warranted, though, because they're also very direct and don't have time for nonsense. I think it's this directness that takes some people by surprise.
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Their search engine sucked since they made it back in the 2000s, it was never good. So your point is so dumb, I wonder if you believe in a flat earth as well.
Re:Sigh (Score:5, Insightful)
Well yeah, our search results are shit these days because Google is, from what I can tell, intentionally enshittifying it to push people towards Gemini.
And what does AI have to do with Amazon package delivery? Anything at all?
Or are you ignorant of what the complaints are about "data centers". Nobody's opposing classic data centers here. They're opposing AI buildings. And they should. And you should too.
But you don't.
Because you're easy manipulated by the chatbot. It makes you feel good! It tells you what a good boy you are and how your ideas are so good all the time. Over and over again. And... you've only ever suffered abuse your entire life. Constant being told your ideas are bad. That your code isn't good. And here it is, a dopamine inducing device that praises you for the first time in your life. And you don't want to consider the possibility it might be terrible. It might be making you dumber - but it is. It might be saying those things... because it's been programmed to, in order to prop up an unsustainable business just long enough to make everyone dependent upon it, which it is. Trillions of dollars diverted from things that might actually help people into creating RAM shortages, destroying privacy, destroying incentives to create, and creating dependencies on sociopath-run businesses in the hope that, after crypto and other scams failed, this might be the one, the tech that'll steal the economy. And you've fallen for it.
So you repeat this tired and obviously bad faith criticism of anti-data center protestors because you've been indoctrinated into a cybercult so fucking thick you don't even consider how much of an out of touch moron you appear by pretending this isn't about AI.
I don't think I'm going to get through to you, but to those reading this and being on that knifeedge of thinking "This karmawarrior guy's a bit mean" while for the first time wondering why it is that the chatbots insist on the ridiculous over the top fawning behavior, why the studies show AI is causing skill losses among its users, why so much money is being poured into tech that cannot possibly make a profit, and why the peer reviewed studies seem to say one thing about AI productivity (spoiler! in most cases, it's not having a massive impact) and programmers who are using the tech enthusiastically are saying another (10X productivity!!!?!)... think about those things some more, and draw the obvious conclusions.
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Well, now that Google took a big hit as investors are skittish over search revenue growth being negatively impacted by LLM interference, let's all hope Google remembers why it exists at all.
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When you're a 1x engineer, vibe coding makes it easy to achieve 10x productivity in terms of lines of code per day. The downside is the same that we saw with outsourcing back in the day: the code doesn't meet the specs and it's so fragile and complicated that you're eventually going to have to rewrite it anyway. Also it tends to be overkill in some ways.
I'm getting maybe 2x productivity because I give it small tas
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These are the same people who probably bitch and moan that their search results aren't good enough, or why can't Amazon get their package faster.
We had better search results and perfectly fine Amazon delivers before the insane datacentre buildout of the past few years. You want to try again with a valid complaint?
So that's this week's fashionable protest (Score:1)
Wonder what it'll be next week ?
Not back to the dull old Hamas Love, I hope.
Re: So that's this week's fashionable protest (Score:1)
Self-sterilization. For the good of the planet.
A man can dream....
Re: So that's this week's fashionable protest (Score:1)
Hmmm... seems like I remember all the rage over taking a knee being manufactured by Conservative media.
breach? (Score:3)
Do you really "breach" a construction site by walking on it?
They stepped around the half-assed temporary construction fence? That is called Trespass.
Re: breach? (Score:1)
When it's idiots rioting while shouting left-wing slogans, it's democracy in action. When the idiots shout right-wing slogans, it's hypocrisy, a coup attempt, and the end of civilization.
A pox on both your houses.
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Just shut up.
Europe is always ahead of us these days (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm finding myself using more and more European services because because US big tech dropped the ball . Mudita. Tutanota. Fairphone. SailfishOS. pCloud.
I hope in the next 5 years we have protestors in the US like this. I'm surprised they even found out the owner. In the US we don't even have that right. Particularly the datacenters that would be built next to your house using a jet engine as a generator.
Hyoperbole much? (Score:2, Interesting)
These data centres are destroying our world. It's becoming uninhabitable because of all the resources they consume.
I guess we'll see them go after Procteor and Gamble for the products they produce that are destroying the world. Or perhaps Nestle and their draining of water sources. Chemical manufacturers? Paint companies? Auto manufacturers? The list goes on.
It's fine to protest. Just don't sound like an utter moron when doing so.
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It's fine to protest. Just don't sound like an utter moron when doing so.
"If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts; if you have the law on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table."
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But if you were barely making ends meet and your electric bill went up over 50 percent in two years - yea that could be home destroying.
Re:Hyoperbole much? (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you comparing AI bullshit and data-hoovering to ... *check's notes* food, drink, and three industries utterly essential for modern life?
Yeah someone here does in fact look like an utter moron.
Re:Hyoperbole much? (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess we'll see them go after Procteor and Gamble for the products they produce that are destroying the world.
They don't have to do that. You have to pick your fights. Say, some people donate to the WWF or Greenpeace to "save the planet", others donate to whatever other causes like clean ocans, clean air, whatever, also to "save the planet". You can't take all of the fights. The fellows above picked "Datacenters" as their fight. Maybe they have more spare time and fight something else. Or maybe they don't have more spare time and only picked up this one. That their fight against "destroying the world" remains incomplete does not remove its value. Other activists will pick the other fights.
Re: Hyoperbole much? (Score:1)
More entertaining than ... uhm ... Disney ... Fox ... Netflix ...
Congress.
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We just don't have a lot of space for something like that.
And we also have a lot of green generation, we are just lacking the transport capacity.
Not trolling but... (Score:2, Interesting)
Chinese and Russian disinformation campaigns are actively trying to amplify anti-data center sentiment in the US. No matter how much you hate their footprint and appetite, these places are key to developing and applying real AI. Yes, right now AI sucks, and sucks the life out of many people. We WILL improve it, and we WILL learn how to use and apply it properly. None of this is an argument in favor of (or against) rushing headlong into construction with impact be damned. I'm just pointing out that there are
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And how humanity is right now that is a good thing. We would declare war on it (and loose).
People don't believe AI will benefit them? (Score:1)
Hey! (Score:2)
Stop Dirty Data Centers
You leave my dirty data alone! Anyway, she's over eighteen.
So ... (Score:1)
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