Google illegally demolished an estimated 250,000 trees in Finland to make way for a data center, leaving behind a lifeless mud wasteland that forced packs of wolves into a nearby town in search of food and infuriated locals, according to a report.
The finish government should shaft all data centre plans and force Google to plant 250,000 new trees + pay a hefty fine. Something tells me that’s not what’s gonna happen, though.
No more corporate fines. It’s time for personal accountability.
You can get up to a year in prison for taking down or harming a single public tree not in your property. But 250k?
Well there’s likely a bunch of people responsible so I guess we divide 250k by the sum of perpetrators to figure out for how long we’ll keep their rotting corpses in jail.
It’s not like those trees had any intrinsic value or anything.
I’m more interested in the consequences, a fine sounds like a bribe now, how is it going to get fixed?
Finnish government are told to send an angry worded letter to Google, so citizens can see they are protecting the nature.
I feel so bad for the wildlife 😟
Depending on density, that’s only a square mile worth of trees. In my area, 250,000 would be the low end of a square mile, probably closer to 1/2 to 3/4. Don’t get me wrong, it’s bad, but every solar farm in NW Florida is far larger than that. (Someone will point of the difference in use cases. Don’t. I get it.)
Its 330 hectares (815 acres), as it is written in the article
That’s 1.27sqmi.
Don’tBe EvilCorporate Kombat!
Fight!
Topsoil is an underappreciated resource.
Edit: Seriously, depending on the environment in Finland, this is a civilizational damage that could take centuries to repair.
The difference between Haiti and the Domincan Republic comes down to the DR preserved its forests and topsoil (thanks to a brutal but environmentally conscious dictatorship), but Haiti deforested with abandon. [Source: The much and rightfully maligned Jared Diamond]
this is a civilizational damage that could take centuries to repair.
The google forest cuts were 0.05% of the annual felling in Finland. Are we doing civilizational damage 2000 times worse, every year, than what Google did?
Does your lemmy client not allow you quote full sentences? I wrote depending on the environment.
Also, there’s a difference between responsible logging and clear cutting.
Strike them hard, something like “sorry, you breached our trust in the most disrespectful of ways, so now you’re barred from conducting any sort of business in our country for 20 years, and that includes any shell companies you set up”.
I would go with “forever” personally
With perpetuity throughout the universe
They should disown them and take back all the land. AND make them pay then for all the needed restoration of nature, several years probably.
Seize the data center. Google built it but doesn’t get to use it. Google will be a lot more careful about placement of data centers if that keeps happening.
Datacenters do not bring jobs or tax income! I scream into a room of people who do already know that but it breaks my heart seeing the damage done there.
They bring massive land, energy, and water use, and are manned by only a skeleton crew of tech workers, even a small town wouldn’t notice a bump in population or revenue.
Leaders who approve them are either too naive and stupid by not understanding this (and thus should be voted out) or they are corrupt and accepting bribes (and should be kicked out or minimum voted out)
I have hope that Finland will do something about it. Force google to plant trees, massive fine, plus so much more is a good place to start.
I have hope that Finland will do something about it.
The current government is fully JD Vance tier corporate drones. National Coalition Party parallels Bolsonaro’s PL with its regard for environmental issues. They are only interested in getting their fellow empty-suit fuckwits bigger salaries, at the expense of everyone else in Finland. The only thing they campaign on is “Immigrant Invasion!” and “Communists are ruining the Country!”
So, why were they elected? aren’t they best Finland has ?
Refugees fleeing the Middle East and Ukraine after decades of war have become an agitation point for easily gulled Finnish isolationists.
Ah fuck feel for you brother. We’re struggling with the same in denmark.
Do not piss off the Suomi. The Russians know about it and Google is going to find out.
Eh, comparing what Soviet Union did in 1939 (ally with nazis and start a major war) versus bringing in new business?
Shit, you think Internet trolls are bad, Finland has some of the OG trolls in those woods and you don’t want to piss them off
I think the trolls are over in Sweden or Norway nowadays. We have snipers, though.
The Internet thinks you’ve got your own trolls
https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Peikko
https://finland.fi/life-society/finnish-mythical-creatures-still-lurk/
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were also snipers, though. I’ve known a few Finns, you are all badass…
