Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone.
The news that the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre, after it failed to complete the necessary environmental impact assessments before clearcutting the land, has prompted national outcry over what role, if any, Finland should play in the global rush to build datacentres to keep up with rapid AI development.
Google’s Finland country manager, Antti Järvinen, has apologised for the forest clearings but claimed the company had acted “on the best understanding we had of the legislation at the time”.
With 145 new datacentres at various stages of planning, the Guardian’s Nordic correspondent, Miranda Bryant, looks at why Finland has found itself at the forefront of tech companies’ latest AI push - and speaks to the ecologist Mari Annala about the impact of Google’s tree-felling on the local environment.
Google’s Finland country manager, Antti Järvinen, has apologised for the forest clearings but claimed the company had acted “on the best understanding we had of the legislation at the time”.
Surely the government of Finland will treat Google’s invocation of “I didn’t know it was illegal” exactly the same way they would if a regular citizen said that after committing a crime.
Surely the government of Finland will treat Google’s invocation of “I didn’t know it was illegal” exactly the same way they would if a regular citizen said that after committing a crime.
I fucking hate the smol beanification of the rich so much.
Anyone with a brain: “You’re committing ecocide, this is a crime. What do you say in your defense?”
Porky:
One bone broken for every twig snapped underfoot.
This is the only flavor text I recall from any MtG card during the ~10 years I played. I think about it every time I hear a twig snap.
did they think being a vassal meant only suzerain obligations to them or some shit?
This should be the death penalty. Make everyone in the C-Suite roll a dice, lowest score gets the firing squad
Removed by mod
Someone here on hexbear wrote about this recently in the comments. I think they were Norwegian or at least familiar with Norway. Worth reading.
When google made this plan, I’m sure that they factored in the cost of whatever penalty they were going to need to pay for breaking the law and found that they would still profit.
and found that they would still profit.
* profit enormously.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
