Xmas Related Photos From Cancer Alley Offer A Warning To Meta, Before It Builds An AI Data Center In Louisiana
On a chilly December night, a raccoon seeking warmth accidentally un-alived itself at an Entergy substation in Louisiana's Cancer Alley. The raccoon's untimely death led to a breaker fault at the substation that caused a power failure at Shell's petrochemical facility in Norco. Large roaring flares lit up the sky spewing toxic emissions for over a week before the facility was able to resume operations.
A few days after this tragedy, Meta announced plans to build a $10 billion artificial intelligence optimized data center in northeastern Louisiana that will be powered by Entergy.
In the spirit of Christmas, Divergent Dispatches offers Meta's owner, Mark Zuckerberg a visual warning that illustrates one of Entergy's shortcomings- namely, its failure to prevent animal intrusions, with photos by Julie Dermansky.
While Entergy’s past sketchy-acts in Louisiana -like paying supporters to pack a public meeting to muzzle outcry against a natural gas power plant project in New Orleans East (that it is now offloading to a private equity firm)- might not concern Meta, its' inability to prevent animal intrusions might.
A 2021 post by Entergy, Power vs. Wild: Keeping Animals Out of Our Electrical Facilities, makes clear that the company is aware, animal intrusions are an issue for the company. Yet, one less raccoon will be celebrating Christmas this year, raising the question- Is Entergy, the company Meta will be relying on to power its proposed AI data center that hasn't seen fit to raccoon-proof a substation responsible for keeping a petrochemical operation powered up, a good fit?
And since all AI data centers require a large steady supply of both power and water, we offer a reminder to Zuckerberg that climate scientists warned years back- As climate temperatures rise, so will extended periods of drought, as well as other extreme weather events. The 2,250-acre site in Richland Parish that Meta selected to build its AI data center is not only flush with critters - it also experienced drought conditions for much of this year.
If Meta ignores these warnings, and builds its proposed AI data center, the development will add climate warming emissions to the state's already polluted air. It will also face growing risk from climate impacts that Louisianans are already dealing with.
