I don’t know Finnish politicians, but I’m pretty sure MOST politicians around the world will bend a little, then a lot, when that sort of money comes knocking.

It’s what Google are counting on. I hope they get hit with a lot. Not just fines, but told to replant the whole 330 hectares.

Then officials can come to their decision. If the officials then decide that they could clear 250,000 trees, then so be it, and that will have pissed off Google, and imo would be the best way to let them know that they can’t do what they did.

I admit I’m biased against politicians and companies like Google, so I don’t have much faith in everything going swimmingly.

Glad to hear it. Might be harder for Google to pay off the relevant people so. 145 data centres is a lot of pull for the politicians to suggest they are needed.

Whatever the outcome of this, it’ll make no difference to Google.

They speeded up the process by ignoring any Laws that they otherwise would have had to wait for to permit the land clearance, and probably pay off the correct people to justify why it was a necessary decision. This way, they pay whatever fine Finland gives them, and they still build their massive data centre which will generate trillions for them harvesting.

Finnish authorities are considering applications for a total of 145 new datacentres at various stages of planning, including a €13bn (£11bn) artificial intelligence infrastructure project by Google that the US company has called its largest ‌investment in Europe.

Finland fucked.

Technically, Google is ‘USA’s Yandex’.