Sunday Pick: The Data Center Next Door with Dr. Jacoby Wilson | from TED Tech
6/14/202629 min
Imagine if one day, your quiet neighborhood came alive with a steady hum… and it never went away? All throughout the United States, data centers are popping up next door and in your backyards. These buildings guzzle millions of water, cause noise pollution, and are raising homeowners’ utility bills. In this first episode of a four-part miniseries, Sherrell interviews environmental health scientist Dr. Jacoby Wilson on what happens when data centers infiltrate a neighborhood. They discuss why data centers disproportionately undermine working class communities and how Dr. Wilson is working developing ordinances to better regulate data centers and holding planning commissions accountable.
Talk featured
How to build an equitable and just climate future | Peggy Shepard
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsElise Hu· Host0:01
[gentle music] Happy Sunday, y'all. Elise Hu here. Today, we're bringing you a Sunday Pick, where we share an episode of another podcast from TED, handpicked by us for you. Imagine if one day your quiet neighborhood came alive with a steady hum, and it never went away. All throughout the US, data centers are popping up next door and in your backyards, and these buildings guzzle millions of gallons of water, cause noise pollution that doesn't stop, and are raising homeowners' utility bills. Today, I'm sharing a special episode from the TED Tech podcast, the first of a four-part series happening on TED Tech, where host Sherrell Dorsey talks with scientists, organizers, and local leaders to uncover what AI's infrastructure is really doing to our water, our power grid, and the people who are already living with the consequences. In this episode, you'll hear from environmental health scientist Dr. Jacoby Wilson on what happens when data centers infiltrate a neighborhood. They discuss why data centers disproportionately undermine working-class communities and how Dr. Wilson is developing ordinances to better regulate data centers and hold planning commissions more accountable. You can hear the other episodes of this series on data centers on TED Tech wherever you get your podcasts or at podcasts.ted.com. Now on to the episode after a short break.