Gerry McGovern

"All four are women or women-led groups, and the foundation presented its choice as a statement about who holds power. “A system built to serve the few was never going to hold,” Ole von Uexkull, Right Livelihood’s executive director, said in the announcement. “This year, we honor women who refused to wait for permission. They are rewriting the rules that autocrats, patriarchs, and Silicon Valley’s most powerful men assumed were theirs to write alone.” https://www.fiercebymitu.com/p/these-fierce-women-just-won-the-alternative

A Texas woman is fighting to preserve land that was supposed to become a public park. Now it may be a data center instead “My daddy passed this land down to us and he told us to guard this land,” she said. “He said this will always be a homestead.” “My family was willing to stand up for this community and help this community because that’s what we’re supposed to do as neighbors,” Griffin said. “We all neighbors. We supposed to take care of each other.” https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/26/us/texas-data-center-park-deed

‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/feb/05/in-the-end-you-feel-blank-indias-female-workers-watching-hours-of-abusive-content-to-train-ai Invisible labour behind 'intelligent' machines https://theloop.ecpr.eu/the-invisible-labour-behind-intelligent-machines/ Exploited Data Workers in Global South Are “the Secret Ingredient of AI” https://www.democracynow.org/2026/8/27/data_workers Inside Venezuela’s Hidden Workforce Training AI Algorithms for Pennies https://www.democracynow.org/2026/8/27/ai_platform_extractivism Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/14/kenya-shadow-scholars-paid-to-write-essays-for-uk-students

In Frankfurt, Germany, the grid is currently so saturated that no new connections will be available until at least the 2030s. There, data centers consume about 41% of the city's electricity. In Dublin, it's double that. And data center electricity consumption is growing rapidly — it's expected to double by 2030 to about 945 terawatt-hours, around what Japan consumes annually, according to the International Energy Agency. https://www.dw.com/en/are-data-centers-really-bad-for-the-planet/a-78789889

The Hidden Water Consumption of Swiss Data Centers “The risk of drought in Switzerland will increase in every season.” Swiss data center "operators are neither obliged to disclose their water use nor subject to any specific rules governing their approach to water utilization. Therefore, they have no obligation to comprehensively track their consumption, use water efficiently, or make their consumption public." https://algorithmwatch.ch/en/hidden-waterconsumption-datacenters/

Big Tech does everything it can to hide its true water impact Because of Big Tech super-secrecy, "the most honest answer to how much water AI consumes will remain a range of source-specific figures. Their differences are useful evidence. They show that the environmental risk is real where infrastructure places new demand on a constrained water system, while a universal bottle-per-prompt statistic cannot identify where that pressure occurs." https://memeburn.com/ai-water-consumption-statistics-2026-and-key-findings/

"Communities of our ancient hunter gatherer forebears were likely egalitarian in nature and so matriarchal in social structure. Such societies are based upon maternal values, exhibiting as caretaking and nurturing negotiation-oriented communities, for women and men alike; a reality giving substance and form to the maligned mythology of a Golden Age of Matriarchy. Which only begs the question – What would our society be like if only we could escape the patriarchal rule?" https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/ancient-cultures-matriarchal-society-0011588

"Data centers can increase environmental electromagnetic field (EMF) levels through the power lines, substations, transformers, and electrical distribution systems that supply them, as well as through internal equipment that generates extremely low frequency (ELF) fields, power quality distortion and harmonics (“dirty electricity”), electromagnetic interference. EMFs are linked to cancer, miscarriage, Alzheimer’s and other health impacts." https://ehsciences.org/ai-data-center-health-impacts/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Datacenter rush will create ‘tsunami’ of discarded electronics, report says Global push will triple toxic e-waste annually in 25 years, filling enough shipping containers to circle globe six times https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/16/datacenters-pollution-electronics

In old European symbolism, black was the color of life, Earth and fertility of the soil. The snake was the symbol of vitality, life energy and regeneration. It was feminine-oriented. What we know of as Western Civilization is built on the macho warrior God bent on destroying everything he can't control. It is a culture of violence. Modern Europe was born and reared in an orgy of war and torture. And so we face the ultimate environmental collapse driven by this Western cultural mindset

"A corporate gold rush along the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda is taking land from Indigenous communities and polluting vital water sources. Yet, where global corporations expected little resistance, a powerful movement is growing, led by local women demanding accountability and environmental justice." https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/victims-voices-women-lead-cross-border-fight-land-rights-against-mining-giants

Want a real transition? Shift the debate away from an energy transition narrowly focused on batteries, extraction, and global consumption toward a transition grounded in inter-species commitments, territorial responsibility, and reparation for colonial injustices. Human life depends on the life of other beings. Dignity cannot remain an exclusively human privilege. It must be extended to waters, forests, mountains, animals, plants, and all beings that sustain web of life. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/jequitinhonha-river-through-indigenous-eyes-rights-nature-and-interspecies-commitments

"In the United States, nearly 5,000 data centers are either under construction or in planning stages, driven by growing demands for artificial intelligence computing power. By 2030, these facilities will require approximately 100 gigawatts of new energy capacity. Servers within these centers are replaced every 2 to 5 years, and by 2030, discarded equipment is expected to generate up to 13 million tons of waste annually." https://inkorr.com/en/obsagi-elektronnogo-smitta-zrostut-utrici-do-2030-roku-cerez-masovu-zaminu-serveriv-i-data-centriv-347390

"A lithium-ion battery tossed into the wrong bin can travel unnoticed until a compactor, shredder or sorting machine punctures it. By then, the person who discarded the battery is gone, the manufacturer is far removed and the recycling operator is left fighting the fire." https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2026/09/21/who-should-pay-for-lithium-ion-battery-fire-damage/

Western Civilization is the core driver of environmental collapse "Our current climate crisis has emerged from systems that granted colonial and capitalist powers dominion over nature. Overcoming this crisis requires recognizing that all beings are relatives and that caring for the land, water, and territories is a shared responsibility." Climate justice, therefore, requires reparations and direct investment in Indigenous-led solutions. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/jequitinhonha-river-through-indigenous-eyes-rights-nature-and-interspecies-commitments

“This is not conservation – it’s a cartel.” Unique Indigenous gathering issues hard-hitting landmark declaration “Conservation must be led by Indigenous Peoples, because we know better.” "A unique gathering of Indigenous people impacted by conservation has demanded that “our ancestral lands, including those grabbed for parks and wildlife sanctuaries, be returned.” https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/14565

95% of enterprise AI pilots deliver no measurable ROI https://www.marketscale.com/industries/business-services/95-of-enterprise-ai-pilots-deliver-no-measurable-roi-and-the-fix-isnt-more-tools

"The most important planning question is not simply how much water AI uses. It is where, when, and under what hydrologic conditions that water is used. Aggregate water use figures can obscure local risk. The same volume of water may be manageable in one basin but damaging in another. In a watershed already facing drought, groundwater decline, ecological flow constraints, additional withdrawals can carry real consequences." https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/JWRMD5.WRENG-7706

"Like so many other men in the Epstein circle, Pinker has rushed to distance himself from that whole sordid nightmare. But if he’s in denial about his past, that past nonetheless bleeds through the new book’s thank-yous." “Jeffrey Epstein” thus becomes a poltergeist in the new book, an unwanted blush or erection that, though unmentioned, can’t be fully concealed. https://www.thenerve.news/p/steven-pinker-anti-woke-eugenics-race-science-free-speech-epstein-edge-nathan-cofnas-jason-arday

Data center water use projected to grow from 17 billion to 72 billion gallons by 2028 A single data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water in one day — the same amount as a medium-sized town — and that water does not return to the water system. https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/data-center-water-use-billions-gallons-illinois-2028/

Some people are commenting--with the best will in the world--that once data centers are using 'renewable' energy, then basically everything is heading in the right direction. I'm told that there are plans around Foyle, Derry to build even more huge wind factories on the mountains to supply these new data centers. This will be sold as a "green" win. The local communities are very much opposed. What we are seeing is the industrialization of the countryside sold as "green".

"Hands off Quimsacocha!" "Water is worth more than anything!" Tens of thousands of residents and local leaders in Ecuador's central Azuay province took to the streets on Tuesday to demand the suspension of a mining project by Canada's Dundee Precious Metals, which they say will affect a vital water reserve. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/tens-thousands-protest-dundees-ecuador-mine-project-near-key-water-reserve-2025-09-16/

"In early June, a fire broke out in a still-unfinished building at the Lake Mariner data center in Somerset, New York, exposing just how little the local fire department knew about what it was walking into. Firefighters reportedly found no working alarm, no suppression system, and three dead hydrants; the safety documents they’re legally entitled to see reportedly burned up in the blaze." The complex corporate web behind a $3.2 billion AI data center https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/the-ai-data-center-boom-is-causing-new-accountability-problems/

On September 18, 2026, the BESS facility at Moss Landing caught fire for the 5th time https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/moss-landing-power-plant-fire-september-18-2026-shelter-in-place/ A solar/battery energy storage system (BESS) fire on Prince Edward Island, Canada has burned for two weeks. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/fire-at-summerside-solar-farm-still-active-as-city-province-monitor-conditions/ar-AA2crIsD There are growing challenges posed by lithium-ion battery fires aboard ships https://www.international-maritime-rescue.org/news/addressing-the-challenges-of-lithium-ion-battery-fires-on-board-ships-a-collaborative-approach

Toxic men are the problem "By identifying patriarchy as the most enduring historical expression of a culture grounded in domination, we are invited to look beyond the visible symptoms of the ecological and social crisis." "No transition toward a just and sustainable society will be possible as long as relationships of power continue to shape our world." https://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv22n08page2.html

"The apparent neutrality of the suit was also highly selective – it helped unify white men as a political and social “brotherhood,” while positioning women and Black and Indigenous men as outside of the supposedly universal category of the modern citizen. In this sense, the suit’s greatest power was its ability to hide power in plain sight." https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lseih/2026/09/06/masculinity-patriarchy-and-the-sartorial-revolution-a-qa-with-chloe-chapin/

People: Our air is boiling. It's getting so hot. So much drought. Big Tech: We're building the biggest hottest ovens the world has ever seen. They get so, so hot, they super heat the atmosphere. People: What? Big Tech: And to keep them from overheating, we need massive quantities of water. People: That's not right. Big Tech: We're Big Tech! We can do what we want. We own the government. Suck it up, baby, because we're only getting started!

Some people are under the mistaken impression that wind and solar are taking over the world, that coal is on its last legs. Coal is booming. "Global coal consumption reached a record in 2025" https://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Global-Coal-Consumption-Hits-Record-Even-as-Coal-Power-Declines.html Some also think China is some bastion of sustainability. Green China consumes more coal every year than the rest of the world combined. China is opening 6 times more coal plants every year than the rest of the world combined. Why? Growth Death Cult Growth Growth Growth

Africa's growing e-waste crisis Africa is a dumping ground for Global North e-waste https://www.meer.com/en/110183-africas-growing-e-waste-crisis E-waste is the story that the techies never like to tell or hear about. What happened to those 18 billion--yes, 18 billion--smartphones made since 2007. What happened to the billions of laptops? What happened to the used solar panels? Poisoning the land Poisoning the water Poisoning the air And you say there's something called green tech and clean energy?

From an "efficiency" point of view, where is the best place to put a water-guzzling data center? A desert. Yes, a desert. Process Engineer Explains: The Math Behind "Water-Efficient AI Data Centres" Is Laughably Wrong https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8bbe-Ev-Yns

Based on some very valid feedback in relation to the use of the word "testosterone", i have decided to change the word to "misogyny", which is more accurate and reflective of what I originally meant.

"Racial capitalism requires us to be atomized in order to become the subject of the nation state, okay. The subject of capitalism is the consumer; an individual consumer." Dian Million, Alaska Native The community is the greatest resistance The ultimate objective of AI is to utterly atomize and isolate us.

This happens with every single mine. Every single mine. The mine's massive toxic waste dump is abandoned, to poison the air, water and soil for generations and generations. Everywhere. Everywhere This is us. This is our civilization. This is why we have "cheap" things. This is why we can jump up and down celebrating "cheap" solar and "cheap" wind. Nothing changes. It's extratavism, colonialism, imperialism, greed. Consume, consume, consume Devour, devour, devour https://yellowknifer.com/2026/08/07/minister-sides-with-diavik-rules-mines-environmental-watchdog-to-shut-down-in-early-2027/

Containers reportedly filled with illegal e-scrap set to arrive in the Philippines More than 180 shipping containers from the U.S. are scheduled to arrive at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in the Philippines between Aug. 6 and Sept. 30, BAN says. https://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/containers-reportedly-filled-wuth-illegal-escrap-set-to-arrive-in-the-philippines/ The dumping of e-waste by the Global North in the Global South is a great environmental crime. But what goes around, comes around. The whole earth is our home, our nest. We are poisoning our nest.

'You can't sacrifice our community's health' City council chambers were packed in Hamilton, Ont., on June 4 as residents urged officials to reject a proposal that would pave the way for the Steelport AI data-centre campus. But if you're a poor community, they already have. You're a sacrifice zone for progress. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/08/10/news/ai-data-centre-protests-canada

Land is weather Land is climate Change the land, change the climate "Even though the exact ratio of sea-rain coupling to land-rain coupling remains a puzzle waiting to be fully solved, what we do know is that global rainfall is a deeply interconnected dance: distant ocean temperatures steer atmospheric rivers and winds across entire planets, while local vegetation and soil moisture actively recycle water back into the sky to help fuel subsequent rainfall." https://climatewaterproject.substack.com/p/decoding-our-rain-disentangling-ocean

"Does it matter that women, organizing as the revolutionary sex, bust through the ‘gray ceiling’ of brain size? That female political strategies created human symbolic culture? That resistance is at the core of being human?" "The untold secret – how it gave our African ancestors an extraordinary future? If we want that future stretching ahead of us as far as it stretches back into our hunter-gatherer past, I think it does." https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/gender-egalitarianism-made-us-human-patriarchy-was-too-little-too-late/

Gold is the gold standard of our civilization. It's the most precious thing. Who would not want to win a gold medal? Gold mining is one of the most environmentally devastating of all mining. 20 ton of poisoned soil for one gold ring. 20 ton of poisoned soil for one gold ring. 20 ton of poisoned soil for one gold ring. Nicaragua’s gold boom is now encroaching on protected areas and Indigenous land https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nicaraguas-gold-boom-is-now-encroaching-on-protected-areas-and-indigenous-land/

"Concerns over the Kok River have intensified following reports of elevated concentrations of heavy metals, including arsenic, in rivers flowing from Myanmar into northern Thailand. Environmental groups and local communities have linked the contamination to expanding rare earth and mineral mining operations in Myanmar, reportedly financed by Chinese investors." https://globalvoices.org/2026/08/24/poisoned-waters-indigenous-communities-fight-to-protect-thailands-kok-river/ But we need those rare earths for our smartphones and for our green and clean energy.

Escaping the Growth Death Cult " For centuries, we have built a civilization that imagines growth as destiny, progress as permanent expansion, and power as the answer to every uncertainty. In doing so, we have forgotten a simple truth: everything that lives exists because it recognizes limits." https://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv22n08page2.html

"While artificial intelligence data centers are increasingly turning to closed-loop cooling systems so they use less water, those systems occasionally need to be flushed, and the water can become polluted with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) also known as forever chemicals. Commenters also worried about diesel and gas pollutants washing into the lake from the truck stop." https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2026/07/28/yet-another-data-center-planned/

The Irish bird population has collapsed by 60% since 1970. We are facing a global bird apocalypse In the Sperrins, where they plan to install massive wind factories, the area has some of the last birds of Ireland. "Multiple protected bird species, including hen harrier, peregrine, merlin, golden eagle and red grouse. Turbines can create both collision and displacement from key feeding, breeding and flight areas. The bat evidence is also concerning." https://www.rundale.org/2026/03/30/the-last-wild-places/