Andy Masley on the data center backlash

Over seven years teaching high school physics, Andy Masley learned how to explain abstract quantities like watt-hours in an accessible way. That skill has made him one of the most effective critics of the growing environmental panic over data centers.

Data centers really do produce noise and air pollution, and large construction projects do occasionally disrupt nearby water supplies. But Masley worries that the current discourse is so distorted that it will produce “wild overreaches and confused responses” rather than sensible regulation of real issues like construction runoff and on-site gas generation in overburdened communities.