Finnish police said on Thursday they had launched a criminal investigation into suspected breaches of environmental law at the construction site of a planned Google data centre in northern Finland.
What would Pentti Linkola say about this I wonder :)
Surely to God foreigners (especially foreign corporations) can’t just come and do that shit in a country. There must have been some signoff by the local authorities, otherwise isn’t that an invasion?
No, it isn’t an invasion. Google bought and owned this land, then started construction before getting the permits to do so.
This is like you buying a small vacation land by a lake in another country, then starting to build a cabin on it before getting permits to build. You aren’t invading that country.
Judging from the content of the article, the problem is that Google’s local subsidiary started on construction prematurely before the environmental assessment paperwork was complete (but after they already owned the site). Short of keeping a watch on the site 24/7, I don’t see how the local authorities could have prevented that. It’s possible that they may have been lazy and complacent, but absent actual evidence I doubt they were complicit.
Our society operates to a large extent on an underlying assumption that most people will not try to do anything blatantly illegal in plain view. Finland has just learned the hard way that this is not true of large American corporations.
Fuck AI and fuck Google
They need to be declined use of the site and forced to pay for revegetation.
Honestly go after the contractors that did the clearing too. They should know that this kind of thing requires permits and google clearly didnt show them any proof of those.
The criminal investigation needs to be carried against the managers at Google, not some small-time contractors.
Did you see the size of that forest? Nothing small-time about that. 330 hectar, 250000 trees. Of course going after google has priority, but companies need to be scared to do things like this without checking very thoroughly that they are allowed to do it, otherwise anyone can just do anything and claim ignorance afterwards. There should be prison time for everyone who greenlit this.
Like, the guys collecting a check who drove the bulldozers? No, obviously leave them alone. But the owner of those dozers, that made a profit “moving fast and breaking things” needs more than a fine.
for everyone who greenlit this
As in the people who decided that this project should be put in action yeah
Just agreeing and reenforcing your point for the fella above
What if they knew, and did it anyways as fast as they could because the fine is nothing but the cost of doing business to them. Slap on the wrist, the trees are already dead, building it anyways shut up or Trump/the US will make you’re life terrible if you complain.
They were probably paid way more to clear it than fines would amount to.
For google its a slap on the wrist, for a construction contractor you might just bankrupt them out of existence with a big enough fine.
I think that’s the point. For Google billions is the cost of doing business. For the contractors it could be criminal negligence which means personal liability.
But they’ll be fine because Google has the money to cushion them for their professional sacrifice
Will Google have a reason to do that though? Won’t they just leave the contractors to fend for themselves?
