Have you ever tried to eradicate multiflora rose?
Multiflora rose is the scourge of fence lines and pasture on the farm. It is a highly invasive, thorny shrub that displaces native vegetation and forms a thick, impenetrable barrier. The thorns will slice through thick leather fencing gloves and puncture tires. Once established, it is never enough to simply mow it off at ground level; even excavating the root system is not enough to kill it. But hey — during the months of May and June, it produces fragrant white and pink flowers, so at least it looks pretty up to 16% of the time.
In related news, the Green County Zoning Department is considering regulation on Data Centers. Currently, the County Code does not specifically mention Data Centers, because how could it? At the time the County Code was written, the concept of a Data Center was as foreign to Green County as multiflora rose once was to Wisconsin’s native habitat.
Let’s take a step back and look at Data Centers from a bird’s-eye view. The purpose of a Data Center is to process, store, and manage the massive amounts of data that support online cloud services, artificial intelligence, online applications, and of course — the internet.
Smart devices and tech in general collect data points on each and every one of us. We joke about how our smart devices are listening to us, which is exactly correct — every conversation, tap, click, hobby, interest, sexual desire, lingering pause, words or phrases uttered in “private”, are all data points. Because these data points are constantly being collected, they require perpetually-growing, massive amounts of storage. There is no limit to how much data will eventually need to be stored, because data is being collected at an exponential rate.
How is this data used? An example: I am a pilot. I fly airplanes as a hobby. In order to operate a private aircraft within certain airspace, pilots are required to install ADS-B. I won’t bore you with the specifics, but ADS-B is a modern surveillance system that broadcasts — and therefore collects — every single action taken in that airplane at all times, including speed, altitude, flight path, etc. If a pilot is ever involved in an incident of any kind, that data is retroactively analyzed. It is illegal to turn off ADS-B, and although currently only required in certain airspace, there is always talk of making ADS-B mandatory for nationwide aviation.
Okay, chances are you are not a pilot, so it is easy for you to shrug off the severity of perpetual monitoring within general aviation. Let me ask you this: Have you ever operated a car?
By 2027 — next year — every new automobile must include technology that monitors driver impairment. This AI-powered system will constantly monitor and collect data points on the driver and will disable or prevent the car from starting, if the system deems the driver to be “unsafe”. The word “unsafe” is such a purposefully vague term and begs the question, who or what gets to determine what is “unsafe”, and in what context? Of course, data points collected by the automobile will absolutely be correlated with data points collected by other devices, on every single individual, all conveniently stored in your friendly neighborhood Data Center.
Right on cue, proponents of a Data Center can be expected to fall back on the pathetic, worn-out rally cry of “Job Creation”. As in, a Data Center will create jobs. If history has proven anything, it is the promise of “jobs” that is used as the catalyst for the elite to further infringe upon the freedoms and happiness of the hoi polloi.
Data Centers are coming to the Midwest because we have a good supply of water, which is necessary for evaporative cooling. An average-size Data Center will consume millions of gallons of water PER DAY (my emphasis). In related news, there is intense debate at the international level, as to whether or not access to water should be considered a basic human right.
The Green County Zoning Department needs to enact a perpetual — not temporary — moratorium on Data Centers. I cannot adequately express in words my deep, foundational level of opposition to allowing a Data Center in Green County, Wisconsin, so I will cite someone else’s words instead:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
All considered, welcoming a Data Center into our community is akin to planting multiflora rose for aesthetic purposes.
— Dan Wegmueller is the owner of Wegmueller Farms and his column appears regularly in the Times. His website is https://www.farmforthought.org.
