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'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

techwerkers.nl

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Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#61

Post by bix6 »

> In recent years, people from Extinction Rebellion Netherlands have focused heavily on large scale disruptive action of ‘business as usual’.

Everyone talking about how stupid and ineffective this is. The whole point is to interrupt business as usual to draw attention to the stupidity of our continued head in the sand path. The damage (or lack thereof) is largely irrelevant. The fact a regular person is risking jail to try and stop business as usual is the entire point. It starts with one person.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#62

Post by simonsarris »

exabrial wrote: post #7

Right, all they're going to do is rip the concrete out and repour it, causing even more damage to the environment (concrete production and curing is unbelievably C02 intensive) I don't disagree we shouldn't be expanding power consumption unless we've moved the vast majority (>90%) of the load off fossil fuels, but this certainly didn't help anything.

very minor nit but no CO2 is released during concrete curing. And over time (decades) the calcium hydroxide in concrete reacts with CO2 to pull it out of the air, producing calcium carbonate.

    Ca(OH)2  + CO2 → CaCO3 + H2O
(producing the concrete of course makes a ton of CO2, since its basically the reverse reaction, which is accomplished by generating a lot of heat)

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#63

Post by ButlerianJihad »

tadfisher wrote: post #29
Legend2440 wrote: post #9

[flagged]

Maybe the loom smashers should have won. I'm not sure we ended up on the better timeline.

Yesterday I watched Bernadette Banner visit a Loom Museum and try them out for herself. A few takeaways:

1. Looms were a serious physical workout, and could honestly be hard on one's body

2. The mechanical looms they operated were pre-electric, pre-industrial, but still incredibly complex and amazingly fast compared to previous iterations

3. The operators of looms, living in abject poverty, took these jobs so that they could eat and support their families, and incidentally became the top experts on weaving cloth during their lifetimes, which all basically collapsed when looms were automated and mechanized.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#64

Post by appreciatorBus »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #43

Companies at this scale only speak existential threat. If you can't pose one, they don't even know you exist. I question whether this made enough of a dent to be noticed, but it's a start.

Companies at every scale speak marginal gains/losses. Microsoft looks at this the same way your local drugstore considers shoplifting. They will look at property damage in the context of potential revenue & margin, possibly accounting for cost of mitigations. If it continues to make sense, they will continue. If it doesn't they will consider raising prices until it does make sense, or relocating to jurisdictions with fewer elites play acting as activist proletariat. Since your local drugstore won't be local if it leaves, it's only options are to close down or raise prices or lock everything up.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#65

Post by AnimalMuppet »

inigyou wrote: post #40
abirch wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand why people are frustrated with the current system in general. You wouldn't design it this way. We need more young politicians shaping the laws and more entrepreneurs improving society.

That can't happen, because political positions are basically hereditary. Do you know what happened to every other hereditary political system?

I call baloney. What percentage of the US Congress and governors, say, are people whose parents were in Congress and/or governors? I have no hard data, but my gut feel is less than 25%. That's basically not hereditary.

Anyone with hard data, step right up...

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#66

Post by junaru »

vitalyan8184 wrote: post #38
junaru wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah people will hear about this and subscribe to chatgpt pro in spite. You have to be special to think this is comparable to paint throwing on works of art or blocking public roads. Everyone outside tech hates AI.

[flagged]

It just redirects me back to this site.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#67

Post by ourmandave »

bix6 wrote: post #50
abirch wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's similar to the people who block roadways to protest climate change. Usually it makes the commuters frustrated and doesn't change anything. Personally I think data centers should pay a 100% fossil fuel tax. Markets respond to incentives.

Data centers should just pay anything really. They get massive tax breaks, eat up huge swathes of industrial zoned land, and piss off anyone nearby. And for what? 3 permanent jobs and a penny worth of tax revenue.

I was going to say 4 permanent jobs, because they have to hire a security guard.

But they'll just use AI powered flock cameras instead, so never mind.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#68

Post by wk_end »

Aunche wrote: post #5

What exactly are they trying to accomplish? I doubt they would just abandon the project. They would just redo the concrete which would emit even more emissions.

In the interest of playing Devil's Advocate, even if they're unlikely to abandon an existing project over this, accounting for potential sabotage and the cost/delays of redoing work might change the calculus of future projects?

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#69

Post by cliglot »

> We're probably just a few short years away from the current generation of right-wing populists

Right wing populists are nearly as useless as left wing populists now. The people they put into power and now betraying them for monied interests and they’re powerless to stop them. Fools thought they were the harbinger but in reality they were just the vessel.

It’s why major populist characters like MTG and Massie are giving up and getting slaughtered by puppets in a suits in primaries. It’s why Trump has been friendlier to the neocons that spent years insulting him than populists that helped propel him to power.

The real ghouls on the right that need to be stopped are the neo-reactionaries. I knew we were headed for strange times when the Silicon Valley elites simultaneously opened their pockets for the second term. It was purely a power play and it’s seemingly been effective.

I suspect the populists, right and left will care no more for the world they envision than they would for the status-quo even.

Re: 'We used acid to sabotage Microsoft hyperscale data centre construction'

#70

Post by appreciatorBus »

bix6 wrote: post #56
appreciatorBus wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think fossil fuel taxes are a great idea, but if one consumer, data centers, should pay it, shouldn't all consumers (private car owners) pay it too? That's the only way we'll be able to make good decisions about what types of fossil fuels are useful (i.e. more good than harm) and which are pointless luxuries.

No. Industrial vs consumer use is night and day. Industrial has much higher draw of resources and should pay more as a result especially when total capacity needs to increase specifically for them.

The reason an industrial use uses x times more than a consumer is because the industry is selling products and services to x consumers. You can't compare them 1:1.
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