Environmental impact
Latest stories covering Environmental impact, with summaries and links to related coverage.
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Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data center
news
4 min read
Finnish regulators ordered Google project subsidiary Tuike Finland Oy to suspend operations at two planned data-center sites near Muhos and Kajaani after extensive site preparation, including tree removal, began before a mandatory environmental impact assessment was completed. The Finnish Licensing and Supervision Agency set an Oct. 23 deadline and said the work could alter the environment in ways the assessment process is meant to identify. Google is developing the sites as part of a $15 billion Nordic AI-infrastructure investment announced in September. The Guardian estimated that clearing near Muhos in northern Finland removed about 250,000 trees across 816 acres. Regulators cited removed trees and topsoil, construction roads and storage areas, altered ditches and culverts, and stormwater work. Residents and conservation advocates said the deforestation displaced wildlife, including wolves that entered nearby Otanmäki, and muddied water sources feeding the Oulujoki River. Google’s Finland chief, Antti Järvinen, said the company believed it had legal approval to begin the clearing and apologized. Google said it would protect water sources and replant trees on about 321 acres. Finnish Association for Nature Conservation chair Hanna Halmeenpää called Google’s conduct “pure arrogance,” while residents also raised concerns about noise and broader effects on the local environment.
The same AI request emits 8.5 times more CO2 in Texas than in Sweden
tool
6 min read
Berget AI released an open-source method for calculating the carbon emissions of individual AI inference requests, developed with the Stockholm Environment Institute, WattTime and Klimatkollen. The Swedish AI infrastructure provider has added per-request emissions tracking to its customer console and published its calculator and methodology under an MIT licence. The method follows the Green Software Foundation’s SCI for AI specification and accounts for infrastructure energy use, cooling and hardware manufacturing, while excluding model training. Using identical hardware, Berget AI estimates that a typical Kimi K3 request emits 0.38 grams of CO₂e in Sweden, 1.6 grams in Ireland, 2.5 grams in Germany and 3.2 grams in Texas. The Texas estimate is 8.5 times Sweden’s, chiefly because of differences in grid emissions intensity. The example request uses about 4 Wh of energy, consists of 5,000 input and 387 output tokens, and is measured on a shared B300 deployment. Hardware manufacturing represents 89% of the Swedish result, while electricity represents 90% of the Texas result; the Texas request also uses about 6 mL of cooling water. The calculator applies location-based average grid emissions and can estimate any model and region. Berget AI said it will add marginal-emissions estimates next month and expand coverage to chip-manufacturing water and energy impacts. The company corrected earlier Ireland, Germany and Texas estimates on 21 October 2026 after reviewing its grid-intensity sources.
Google cleared 300 hectares of Finnish forest
news
2 min read
Finland’s Permit and Supervision Agency, LVV, has asked Google’s local project company, Tuike Finland Oy, to explain forest clearing connected to a planned data center expansion. Google is investing €13 billion in AI-focused infrastructure in Finland, but public reports cited by LVV indicate that roughly 300 hectares of forest—about 420 football fields—were cleared before the full project’s environmental impact was assessed. Google said the clearing complied with Finnish laws and regulations and that the site was surveyed before work began to avoid damage to environmentally valuable areas. Hanna Halmeenpää, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, disputed that account, saying satellite imagery indicates that areas requiring protection had already been leveled. She has asked LVV to halt construction while authorities determine whether formal approval was required before the clearing. The investigation could suspend work on the project. The proposed development is subject to environmental commitments covering energy sustainability, job creation, and support for the local environment. Large data center projects require substantial land and power resources, intensifying scrutiny of AI infrastructure expansion in Finland and elsewhere.