Put the AI servers within sanctuaries

A University of Michigan proposal to build a data center with Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a separate $56 billion, 21-million-square-foot Stargate project in Saline, are drawing local opposition over power, water, and wastewater plans. The essay's author contrasts these extractive-style campuses with a 78-acre nature preserve her family helped establish with Michigan State University decades ago.

The piece notes that Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell have already blocked power and water access for the U-M project and called for a pause. It cites Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, and England as places with tighter rules on hyperscale construction and ecological accountability.

The author, while stating she isn't anti-technology, argues investors are offering 'pennies on the parcel' and that Michigan's data centers should be redesigned as self-sustaining, biodiversity-friendly campuses. She points to declining Kirtland's warbler populations as a warning sign of what unchecked development costs.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.