Kudzu, a climbing, creeping perennial vine that’s native to Japan and southeast China, was introduced to the United States in 1876, during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. It was promoted as a great ornamental plant for its sweet-smelling blooms and sturdy vines. From the 1930s through the 1950s, the US Soil Conservation Service promoted it as a powerful tool for soil erosion control, and it was planted across the South.
There was, however, a problem. What people didn’t know at the time was that this beautiful, fragrant plant was a killer that overtook and grew over anything in its path. It quickly got out of control, growing at 1 foot per day, with mature vines reaching 100 feet. It thrives in places with mild winters and hot summers, and climate change has made it easier to spread outside the South as other regions become milder.
In 1973, this invasive species was categorized as a weed, nicknamed ‘the vine that ate the South,’ but efforts to eradicate it have only been marginally successful. It can now be seen in parts of the Midwest and the upper South, where it has crowded out all other species, and in East Texas, where I grew up, old houses left abandoned for a year or more are often completely enshrouded in kudzu vines.
Data centers, it seems to me, are becoming the kudzu of the 21st century. A data center is a facility that houses computer systems, telecommunications equipment, and systems that store, process, and manage large volumes of data. They are critical infrastructure for modern digital operations, supporting everything from our global financial system to cloud storage services and telecommunications networks. The concept was born with the rise of computers in the 1950s and 1960s, but it was in the 2020s, when AI and generative models increased the demand for high-density, energy-intensive data centers, that they began to spread like kudzu.
While these data centers cropping up across the world are essential to our modern digital economy, and create jobs and increased tax revenue, they also pose significant environmental, health, technical, and community challenges.
Data centers consume large amounts of energy, and their cooling systems require enough water daily for each facility as a town of 50,000 people. They rely on fossil fuel-based electricity, which contributes to increased carbon emissions, and they cause increases in utility rates, voltage spikes, and outages in communities where they’re built. Communities near data centers can face health risks from particles emitted by diesel backup generators and discomfort from noise pollution from the generators and cooling systems. In addition, overuse of local water resources can deplete supplies, affecting households and agriculture.
Like kudzu, which was planted all over the South without consulting residents, data centers are sometimes approved by local governments without citizen input. Unlike kudzu, which is nice but not essential, data centers serve an essential function. What’s needed around the globe, though, is a more thoughtful, deliberative process of deciding where and how many can be built in any given area. In some areas, citizens are pushing back and preventing construction. In others, construction is proceeding without regard for citizens’ wishes. I don’t think either is the right way to go. Progress is inevitable, but we don’t have to accept the negative impacts we can’t control.
We need to use our organic data-processing capability—otherwise known as the human brain—to develop the necessary infrastructure to support our modern economies without destroying them in the process. | NWI
