On October 23, 2026 we will take action together to oppose the unchecked expansion of hyperscale AI data centres across Europe, the UK and beyond—an expansion that imperils people and planet.
The issues
- Jobs and economy: [DCs employ very few people and have a poor track record of promising jobs but delivering very few, often flying in specialized teams to build and operate the data centres and leaving only temporary construction jobs or low-paid cleaning and security ones. DCs receive public subsidies yet contribute very little to the local economy. The AI services they house are used to deskill and automate away jobs as they actively try to dismantle workers’ power.] [a heist!]
- Climate: AI data centres use astonishing amounts of power. Increasingly this demand is met by fossil fuels, undermining our ability to reduce pollution, meet our climate goals and locking us into dependency on dirty energy. The fossil gas industry sees AI data centres as a lifeline, while the nuclear industry is hoping small modular reactors will be used to power data centres in the future—the timeframes for which are unrealistic and incompatible with climate targets.
- Water: The UN special rapporteur on water has called for a moratorium on data centre expansion because of the huge demand for water that data centres create to cool their servers. The cooling demand is greatest when the weather is hottest—depriving people and nature of water when they need it most.
- Housing: New homes are delayed or left empty because data centres captured all the available grid connections. Meanwhile, countless communities face housing shortages, rising rents and overcrowding.
- Bills: As energy bills climb for ordinary citizens - fuelled by data centre expansion - governments offer data centre developers discounted energy rates.
- Global impact: Many affected communities around the world are sounding the alarm at the destruction of nature and harms to health and climate caused by accelerated demand for metals and critical minerals needed to manufacture computer chips for data centres—chips that will be replaced every 5 to 10 years. Local communities are rising up against the loss of green space, drinking water, clean air and nature as previously protected sites are earmarked for AI data centre developments.
- Big tech power: Big tech companies use their huge financial resources to lobby governments to fast-track construction and allow them to hide emissions, preventing local people from having a voice and truly knowing the tradeoffs. Data rights groups are signalling the alarm about what the AI driven expansion of digital surveillance into every corner of our lives, including public services, will mean for privacy, data rights and civil liberties.
- Securitization and militarization: [use of DCs in warfare and surveillance – DCs increasingly providing compute and storage for battlefields abroad and to house tools that are used against civilian populations, tech companies lucrative contracts with defense spending, rise of national security rhetoric to allow DCs to operate in secrecy and without contestation.]
- Mental health: [Crisis of mental health especially among young people who suffer from social isolation, depression, and anxiety while using digital services that hook us through manipulation to serve a bottom-line, not our well-being.]
On October 23, 2026, a coalition of groups and local campaigns, concerned with a range of issues from hyperscale data centre expansion, are calling days of action to Stop Dirty Data Centres to [OUR DEMAND – stop now until answers to our questions].
Events
There will be a range of actions local groups and individuals can take wherever they are. To stay in touch and register your organisation’s interest, please contact [NAME, EMAIL].
[PLACEHOLDER FOR SOME ONLINE FORM]
Supporters
Organised by
- Org name
- Org name
[Probably a wall of logos]
Supported by
- Org name
- Org name
[Probably a wall of logos]
Resources
- Arrojo, P. (2025). El nexo entre el agua y la energía—Informe del Relator Especial sobre los derechos humanos al agua potable y al saneamiento (A/HRC/60/30). Asamblea General de la Onu / Consejo de Derechos Humanos.
- Gómez Delgado, A. (2026). El precio de la nubes: La expansión de los Centros de Datos en Aragón. Tu Nube Seca Mi Río.
- Rikap. (2026). Teoría de la dependencia digital. Caja Negra.