More than 70 vessels and over 1,000 participants from all over the world have joined a second Global Sumud Flotilla en route to Gaza in order to challenge Israel’s ongoing maritime blockade of aid. We speak to two participants aboard the Greenpeace ship, the Arctic Sunrise, which is providing technical support and accompanying the flotilla for part of the voyage in a show of solidarity. “When the system fails, civil society needs to step in,” says Palestinian activist Saif Abukeshek, citing a history of nonviolent direct action within the Palestinian national struggle. The Arctic Sunrise's project lead, Pujarini Sen, explains the participation of Greenpeace as an extension of their work for the environment and holding companies that […]

The artificial intelligence industry’s data center boom is the latest chapter in a long history of environmental racism and resource exploitation in vulnerable Native communities, says Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne activist Krystal Two Bulls, the executive director of Honor the Earth, an Indigenous-led environmental justice organization that is tracking over 100 proposed data center projects on tribal and rural lands. We speak to Two Bulls about the myriad impacts of what she calls a “modern-day iteration” of “settler colonialism,” including noise pollution, cancers and respiratory illnesses, water depletion, energy grid overload and even “ecological collapse.” As tech companies set their sights on Indigenous lands, Two […]

As tech companies scramble to build massive new data centers to power artificial intelligence, marginalized communities are bearing the brunt of the environmental harms. In Memphis, Tennessee, Elon Musk’s xAI operates over two dozen methane gas-burning turbines without legal permits to power its data centers, Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, polluting the nation’s largest majority-Black city with toxic emissions. The NAACP is suing xAI for violating the Clean Air Act. “We are, unfortunately, a cautionary tale about what will and possibly can happen if you don’t have the right rules and guardrails in place,” says KeShaun Pearson, the executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. Pearson says pollution from xAI’s energy […]

Communities across the United States are pushing back against resource-draining data centers being built to fuel artificial intelligence and crypto ventures. In Maine, state legislators recently passed a first-in-the-country statewide moratorium on large data centers. “Maine residents are concerned about the impacts of data centers on both their electric rates and other utility rates, as well as on our wonderful environment,” says Democratic state Representative Melanie Sachs, who sponsored the bill designed to give legislators time to develop regulations around new data center construction. Sachs says developers have been operating in “complete secrecy,” refusing to engage with community stakeholders, while their plans appear to […]

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