Environmental advocates across the United Kingdom are preparing for weekend demonstrations targeting the rapid growth of artificial intelligence data centers, citing concerns about their environmental and community impacts.
The coordinated demonstrations, organized by environmental charity Global Action Plan, reflect mounting worldwide opposition to these power-intensive facilities that support the expanding AI industry’s computing needs.
“Big Tech’s unchecked construction of hyperscale AI data centres is putting the UK’s climate targets at risk,” stated Oliver Hayes, Head of Campaigns at Global Action Plan.
The largest demonstration, dubbed the ‘March Against The Machines,’ is scheduled to begin Saturday at noon outside OpenAI’s offices.
Britain currently operates approximately 450 data centers according to a November 2024 techUK analysis, though no official government definition exists for these facilities.
Energy regulators report that 140 data centers have requested grid connections, potentially demanding 50 gigawatts of electricity. To put this in perspective, Britain’s peak power consumption on February 11 reached 45 gigawatts.
OpenAI announced in January it would develop community plans for each location in its Stargate project, a $500 billion investment program to construct AI data centers for training and processing.
Technology companies are now making direct investments in power infrastructure as energy availability becomes a major bottleneck for AI growth, with the demand for larger and more numerous facilities pushing electricity consumption upward.
In Havering, located in east London, Ian Pirie from Friends of the Earth Havering criticized local development plans as “completely inappropriate in a semi-rural Green Belt area,” pointing to the facilities’ energy and water requirements and agricultural land loss.
Leigh Tugwood, Co-chair of Iver Heath Residents Association, who is opposing construction in Buckinghamshire, expressed worry that data center projects are being rushed through without proper community consultation.
“We are, therefore, in support of a moratorium on all future hyperscale data centre development unless and until there is informed debate, a public inquiry and a meaningful community-designed engagement framework that ensures ownership of the process by those most likely to be impacted,” he stated.
