Google’s AI data center project accused of destroying 300 hectares of Finnish forest, as critics brand Microsoft’s ‘nature-inspired designs’ for 20 facilities as ‘lipstick on a pig’
- Google is accused of destroying 300 hectares of forest for a data center
- Microsoft’s data center plans are ‘lipstick on a pig’, critic argues
- Some residents oppose new data center plans
Big tech companies like to trumpet their environmental credentials, positioning themselves as responsible stewards of the planet’s well-being. However, you would be forgiven for viewing such claims with more than a little skepticism in the age of artificial intelligence (AI); After all, a number of recent reports have suggested that that environmental stance has a bad habit of disappearing when there’s money to be made.
Google, for example, whose sustainability web page is emblazoned with the headline “Making AI useful for everyone, including the planet,” has been accused of destroying 300 hectares of Finnish forest (equivalent to approximately 500 football fields) to free up space for an AI data center before an environmental impact assessment was completed.
Hanna Halmeenpää, president of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, told the AFP news site that, based on satellite images, “we have seen that natural sites that should be preserved have also been cut down.”
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And Google isn’t the only big tech company in trouble. Microsoft’s efforts to integrate its data centers into the local area by restoring wetlands and gardens have received criticism from those who say they simply disguise the negative effects of data centers.
For example, Adrian Shelley, Texas director of the nonprofit Public Citizen, called Microsoft’s plan “basically lipstick on a pig.” Shelley also noted that the data centers would be powered by highly polluting nearby gas plants, adding: “I don’t really see any level of investment in biomimicry that would make a gas plant a desirable neighbor.” Even Microsoft’s own estimates said its emissions increased 25% in 2025, “primarily driven by the expansion of our data center infrastructure.”
The retreat of AI
Perhaps these cases of big tech companies curiously not caring about environmental issues shouldn’t come as a big surprise. After all, companies like Google and Microsoft are publicly traded companies that, above all, are beholden to their shareholders.
Many citizens are fighting the AI gold rush and the resulting expansion of data centers. In Texas, for example, Taylor resident Pamela Griffin is fighting plans to convert land near her home into a data center, arguing that a 1999 deed reserved the space for use as a park, something she says has not been honored.
Clashes like this are becoming increasingly common as local residents resist attempts to cede land for AI use, citing noise pollution and environmental degradation, among other concerns.
And as long as big tech companies feel that new riches can be gained from AI, this is likely to continue.
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