The Hidden Environmental and Health Threats of AI: Data Centers and Alaska’s Future
Data center development is expanding across the United States, and Alaska is beginning to see proposals for large-scale facilities of its own. This includes a massive project on the North Slope that could involve a 50-year lease to STAK Energy Corporation.
But what would these projects mean for Alaska’s communities, environment, and strained energy infrastructure?
Data centers require enormous amounts of energy, water, land, and infrastructure. They generate pollution, hazardous waste, noise, light pollution, and air pollution from fossil fuel powered electricity and diesel backup generators.
The proposed North Slope project could have an especially significant footprint. According to the project’s own documents, it would consume more than twice the amount of natural gas currently used by all of urban Alaska and require a new dedicated natural gas pipeline.
Join Alaska Community Action on Toxics on Tuesday, September 22nd at 10 a.m. AKDT for a conversation about the environmental and public health impacts of data centers in Alaska, what these projects could mean for Alaska’s energy and natural resources, and how communities can respond.
We will be joined by Natasha DeJarnett, PhD, MPH, BCES, Assistant Professor at the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and a professorial lecturer at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, who brings expertise in environmental health, extreme heat, climate change, and environmental health disparities; Krystal Lapp, Interim Executive Director of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, who brings an Alaska-based perspective on responsible development, energy systems, and environmental health; and Lenny Siegel, Executive Director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight and a longtime advocate for public oversight of the environmental impacts of the technology industry.
Together, they’ll explore what Alaska can learn from decades of tech-industry development elsewhere, what is happening here, and what communities need to know as data center proposals move forward.
CHE-Alaska is part of CHE’s broader network, which is an international partnership of almost 5,000 individuals and organizations in 87 countries and all 50 US states that are committed to addressing environmental impacts on human health across the lifespan.
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Featured speakers
Natasha DeJarnett, PhD, MPH, BCES is an Assistant Professor in the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville Division of Environmental Medicine researching the health impacts of extreme heat exposure and environmental health disparities. She is also a professorial lecturer in Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Most recently, Dr. DeJarnett was the Deputy Director for Environmental Justice Data and Evaluation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Dr. DeJarnett has been a leader in environmental health research for 20 years. Her positions in the executive branch of the government, academia, as well as national environmental and public health non-profits have helped to advance our nation’s most ambitious environmental justice agenda, progressed research agendas for the environmental health workforce, established successful national climate change and health initiatives, supported community empowerment, and inspired the next generation of environmental health professionals. In addition, she champions environmental health and justice through her leadership in multiple national and local nonprofit boards.
Krystal Lapp is the Interim Executive Director of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, based in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her work focuses on environmental policy, responsible development, and ensuring that Alaska communities have a meaningful voice in decisions affecting their lands, waters, energy systems, and quality of life. She brings a community-centered perspective to conversations about emerging development pressures in Alaska, including the rapid growth of data centers and their potential implications for energy demand, infrastructure, water use, and environmental health. Krystal is committed to advancing solutions that protect Alaska’s ecosystems while promoting transparent, equitable, and accountable decision-making.
Lenny Siegel is the executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, an organization that promotes and facilitates public participation in the oversight of environmental activities such as remediation of federal facilities, Superfund sites, and Brownfields. He is also a member of the steering committee of Chips Communities United, a coalition organizing for an equitable and sustainable semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Lenny has worked for decades on environmental issues surrounding the tech industry and has served on numerous regional and national environmental advisory groups, including committees of the National Academies of Sciences. His many publications include: The High Cost of High Tech: The Dark Side of the Chip (1985). He served as mayor of Mountain View, California, the birthplace of the semiconductor industry, in Silicon Valley, in 2018.