Fallen in love with data centers yet?
Support our nonprofit journalism STORIES FROM MOTHER JONES AND ITS PARTNERS If you happen to be driving through Altoona, Iowa, anytime soon, you’ll probably take Interstate 80. If you do, you’ll spot the Altoona water tower and the roller-coaster peaks of Adventureland theme park, empty in the off-season. You’ll also likely notice, just off the highway, a hulking, windowless warehouse complex stretching hundreds of acres. That’s Meta’s Altoona Data Center, now the subject of a $5 million industry advertising campaign. As a reporter for Grist , I spend a lot of time thinking about data centers, which are proliferating to enable Silicon Valley’s AI frenzy. More and more Americans are thinking about them, too, and many folks aren’t so sure they want the facilities in their neighborhoods. They’re worried about air and noise pollution , and that developers may be less than entirely honest about how many jobs the facilities w...