A local family capybara, Charlie, is making headlines and has become a new ANTI AI mascot on social media after finding access into a data center that was near his home, and ripping and chewing through major wiring and electrical systems. Thankfully, Charlie wasn't harmed or experienced any shocks. All of this triggered a nearby major outage and many family homes lost electricity for around 8 hours.
Charlie is a 5-year-old capybara who lives in Fort Pierce, Florida, a town in the western part of the state. Yet, Charlie has become the face of resistance to data center construction in the area.
Ranchers in several states have also expressed concerns over data center construction in the rural areas where their farms are often located. Farmers in Texas, Utah, and Georgia have all recently warned about the water consumption of these centers. The issue is of particular interest for farmers in states that are already dealing with water shortages.
“A cow is consuming about 35 gallons of water a day,” said Andrew Coppin, CEO of Texas-based agritech company Ranchbot Monitoring Solutions. “A data center is using about the same amount as 140,000 cows.”
Puppies and kittens
For those who can resist the charm of pugs and cows, Alabama has an animal appeal to stop construction of a data center that may be even harder to ignore.
The Greater Birmingham Humane Society filed a suit in July to block a developer from building an AI data center next to its planned veterinary hospital campus. The project, according to the nonprofit, endangers 44,000 animals.
The lawsuit alleges the city of Birmingham fast-tracked the developer’s proposed facility “at lightning speed” this year by circumventing zoning laws, depriving the society of an opportunity to voice concerns, including risks from “noise that may interfere with its operations and be harmful to animals and humans.”
