Google illegally demolished around 250,000 trees in Finland to make way for a data center, leaving behind a lifeless mud desert that forced packs of wolves into a nearby town in search of food and infuriated locals, according to a report.
The super tech giant, continuing its expansion into the booming artificial intelligence sector, has cleared 816 acres of forested land in northern Finland, the Guardian reported on Thursday.
Google is accused of felling the trees and clearing the land before obtaining full approval, as Finnish law requires companies to carry out a mandatory environmental impact assessment before any large-scale operation.
Finnish authorities, outraged by the massive destruction, suspended all development at two Google data center sites to assess the environmental impact.
The operation took place outside the rural town of Muhos – southeast of Finland’s fifth-largest city, Oulu – as devastating footage of the aftermath captured the vast, barren land filled only with tire tracks, muddy puddles and mounds of earth.
The removal of much of the trees destroyed the forest’s wildlife, forcing predators like wolves to forage closer to human developments in the village of Otanmäki, 80 km from the site.
“Wolves entered the village because all the wild animals left the forest,” resident Anni Ranta told the Guardian.
“They fled. What worries me about the data centers is also the noise, because it’s a hard rock floor. Even when we’re here talking,” she added, likening the sound to that of a drum.
Angry residents called Google, asking the company for a reprieve to help repay losses the community suffered during previous tech expansions on the land.
“It was done the wrong way. The American way. It doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense,” said Muhos resident Antti Jakonen, calling on the company to help restore the local salmon population that was destroyed by hydropower years ago.
Ranta revealed that she feared that the construction of data centers would provide an ideal target for Russian aggression in the already tense European domain.
“I don’t want them in Finland at all. I don’t like the idea of AI and the world changing and the way it’s changing. It’s happening too fast, too soon.”
Google’s two sites near Muhos and Kajaani, about 90 miles apart, are part of its $15 billion investment for AI infrastructure in the Nordic country, announced in September.
The Finnish Licensing and Supervision Agency has given Google’s project subsidiary Tuike Finland Oy a deadline of October 23 to suspend all its operations.
“In the opinion of the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority, important preparatory measures have already been taken in the project areas based on currently available reports, such as felling of trees, stripping topsoil, construction of construction site roads and storage areas, modification of ditches and culverts and stormwater development,” said Tommi Muilu, head of the Environment Department.
“In our opinion, the measures in question will modify the environment and cause impacts whose identification and assessment are among the key objectives of the EIA procedure,” Muilu said.
The removal of trees has led to water sources flowing near the site turning brown and polluting the streams that feed the Oulujoki River.
Google’s Finnish managing director, Antti Järvinen, said the company believed it had legislative approval to begin large-scale tree felling.
Järvinen’s explanation was called “pure arrogance” on the part of the trillion-dollar company Alphabet.
“They bought a huge area of land and they just started cutting it down, just like that,” she said. “It’s pure arrogance and it’s unbelievable,” said Hanna Halmeenpää, president of the Finnish Nature Conservation Association (SLL), according to the Guardian.
Opponents of the data center believe Google rushed to build the complex before Finnish legislation caught up with advances in AI to implement regulations.
Järvinen apologized for the destruction, as the company said it would work to protect water sources before replanting trees on about 321 acres.
“I wonder why we have to sacrifice so much of our nature. They give everything away too easily,” environmentalist Vesa Hyyryläinen told the media.
In July, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order banning all large-scale AI data centers in the state, the first such ban in the United States.
The executive order suspended new permits for so-called hyperscale data centers that sought to use the Empire State’s power grid for up to a year.
“I don’t want New York to just be first. I want New York to be first in the right way,” Hochul said at the time.
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