These five charts explain why nobody wants a data centre next door

Digital services and artificial intelligence require ever larger and more numerous data centres. Data explains why these facilities have become so controversial – including in Switzerland. For decades, data centres powered the internet while remaining largely invisible to the public. But as they grow in number and size, especially to meet growing demand for AI services, they have begun to run into public opposition. Around the world, communities are increasingly concerned about the amount of electricity, water and land these facilities require. Switzerland, one of the countries with the highest density of data centres in the world, is experiencing the same tensions. Environmental activists recently set up a protest camp near the site of a planned data centre in Beringen, in the canton of Schaffhausen. Those concerns are not unfounded. According to a recent United Nations (UN) report, by 2030 artificial intelligence (AI) could consume as much water as 1.3 billion people and require ...