Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-04-22 Wednesday

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

Democracy Now! Wednesday, April 22, 2026

From Berkeley, California, this is Democracy Now. The community after community, Americans are fighting back against status centers being built by some of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world. They are opposing the destruction of their local environment, soaring electric bills, and the diversion of scarce water supplies. Today is Earth. day. We'll take an in-depth look at how communities across the United States are fighting a growing environmental threat. The vast expansion of data centers being built to fuel artificial intelligence. The main legislature has just passed the nation's first statewide temporary ban on large data center construction. Will the governor sign it? We'll speak to the lawmaker

behind the bill. includes a temporary, targeted pause on new data centers that haven't been permitted yet. So we can put the right guardrails in place. This is about transparency, affordability, and putting Mainers first. Then to Memphis, where the NWACP is suing Elon Musk and X-AI for pollution from its data center power plants, will speak to Memphis organizer, Hishon Pearson. What's happening in Memphis is a human rights. violation. Elon Musk and

X-A-I are violating our human right to clean air and a clean, healthy environment. We'll also talk to Crystal Two Bowls of Oglala Lakota Nation and the group Honor the Earth about how native communities

are being impacted by data centers. Then to the Arctic sunrise, a green peace ship sailing with a global smooth flotilla, which is en route to Gaza. Why are environmental activists participating. We'll go live to the Mediterranean Sea and find out. All that and more coming out. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump announced Tuesday he's extending the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely at the request of Pakistan. An Iranian official tells BBC that Iran has still not decided whether it will attend a new round of peace talks with the U.S. later this one. week. Vice President J.D. Vance has canceled a planned trip to Islamabad, Pakistan. Despite the ceasefire, the U.S. continues to blockade Iranian ports. But earlier today, Iran attacked three cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, seizing two of them. Iran's foreign minister of Basarachi called the blockade an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire, warning to Iran knows, quote, how to resist bullying, unquote, and threatening to completely close the strait of Hormuz and strike

energy and desalination infrastructure across the region. Meanwhile, the head of the International Energy Agency declared Tuesday, the U.S. Israeli war in Iran, has created the worst energy crisis the world has ever faced. It comes as satellite images reveal multiple large oil spills spreading across the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz is a direct result of U.S. Israeli and Iranian strikes on oil facilities and vessels, with environmental experts warning of an impending ecological disaster. The Pentagon confirms 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 415 wounded in the U.S. Israeli war on Iran. Meanwhile, according to the U.S.-based human rights activist news agency, over 3,600 people have been killed in Iran by U.S. Israeli strikes, among them 254 children. A 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon showed new signs of collapse Tuesday, as Hezbollah fired rockets and drones at Israeli forces for the first time since the truce took effect last Friday. Hezbollah said the strikes were in response to Israeli attacks on civilians and the destruction of homes and villages in southern Lebanon.

Both sides accused each other of breaking the truths, even as Washington prepares to host a second round of talks between Israel and Lebanon tomorrow. Hezbollah is not involved in the ceasefire negotiations. Meanwhile, the Israeli military announced Tuesday that two soldiers have been sentenced to 30, days in military detention and removed from combat duty after one soldier used a sledgehammer to smash the head of a statue of Jesus Christ in southern Lebanon while the other soldier filmed him. An Israeli Army reserve is shot and killed two Palestinians near a school in the occupied West Bank in the village of Altmugayir, northeast of Ramallah on Tuesday. The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the victims as 14-year-old Ozanasan and 32-year-old Jihad Abu Naim,

who were killed in a joint attack by Israeli settlers and soldiers that left three others wounded. Eyewitnesses say there was a volley of gunfire after settlers and army forces arrived in the village. The Israeli military said the gunman was an off-duty army reservist who had not been mobilized, that he had not been arrested and that the incident was under investigation. This is Katham of Hajj Ahmed who witnessed the attack. This is a reality in our village. It's a displacement operation. They aim to displace us.

They attack us from all sides by shepherds, regular people, farmers, and both the army and the settlers are exchanging roles among them in the attacks. Two senior Hamas officials in Gaza have told the New York Times, the group is prepared to relinquish thousands of automatic rifles and other weapons belonging to its police force and internal security services. The official said those weapons could be transferred to the Palestinian Administrative Committee established to govern Gaza under the Board of Peace, the international body led by President Trump, to oversee the so-called ceasefire. But Hamas's offer falls short of the full disarmament and demilitarization of Gaza demanded by Israel, while Israeli forces continue attacks on the besieged territory.

The Trump Justice Department indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center Tuesday on an 11-count federal fraud case. It alleges the prominent civil rights groups secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to paid informants embedded inside white supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance. The indictment, handed down by a federal grand jury in Alabama, charged the organization with bank fraud, wire fraud,

and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Southern Poverty Law Center rejected the charges as politically motivated, saying its informant program is used to monitor threats of violence and that the information gathered is routinely shared with local and federal law enforcement. This is Southern Poverty Law Center's interim CEO, Brian Fair. This use of informants was necessary because we are no stranger to threats of violence. In 1983, our offices were firebombed, and in the years since, there have been countless credible threats against our staff. For decades, we engaged in unprecedented litigation to dismantle the Klan and other hate groups.

Several reports have revealed the two U.S. Embassy officials who died in a car crash in northern Mexico as they returned from a drug trafficking enforcement raid were covert CIA agents. The deadly accident on Sunday in the border state of Chihuahua also took the lives of two Mexican officials and has prompted the Mexican president, Claudia Shanebaum, to start an investigation into the involvement of U.S. agents and kids. counter-narcotic operations in Mexico. President Shane Baum spoke from Mexico City. We are investigating what these people were doing and which agency they were from. So far, the information we have is that they were indeed working together with the Chihuahua government. Let's put it that way. So the attorney's office needs to conduct a full investigation to determine if the Constitution or the national security law was violated.

and that Chihuahua state authorities need to provide all the truthful information. Two unnamed U.S. government officials who spoke to the intercept, confirmed the CIA has been running clandestine operations in Mexico as part of Trump's expanding intervention and crackdown across Latin America. In more news from Mexico, farming and indigenous communities and environmental activists have vowed to fight plans. by Mexican President Claudia Seenbaum to expand fracking in Mexico. Last week, Shanebaum admitted to backtracking on her opposition on fracking,

which marked a policy departure from her predecessor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was a staunch opponent of oil and gas drilling. Mexico's national oil company Pemex has reportedly engaged in fracking for years, including in the state of Vera Cruz, where local leaders say their lands have been devastated. Opening the door to fracking is a betrayal to the people, to the indigenous peoples, to the original peoples of this country,

because during the previous president Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador's six-year term, one of his campaign promises was precisely to ban fracking in our country. President Claudia Scheinbaum was supposed to continue that. Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen, Said Tuesday, DHS will likely run out of funds to pay its employees by early May amidst the ongoing partial government shutdown that stretched for a record 67 days. President Trump earlier this month had approved the release of $10 billion in emergency funds from a so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act as negotiations on Capitol Hill remained a standstill.

Mullen took to Fox News last night to blame Democrats for the shutdown, while Republicans have repeatedly blocked key demands to reform or defund ICE. They've recently proposed a budget that would grant DHS up to $140 billion in new deficit spending for Trump's deadly immigration crackdown. This is DHS Secretary Mullen. My payroll through DHS is just over $1.6 billion every two weeks. So the money is going extremely fast. And once that happens, there is no. emergency funds after that.

Democratic Congress member, Sheila, cheerfulness McCormick of Florida, resigned from the House Tuesday less than an hour before the House Ethics Committee was set to discuss what sanctions to impose on her for violating more than two dozen House rules and ethical standards. The Allegation Center on how her family's health care business received roughly $5 million in COVID-19 disaster relief funds that Florida had miscelled. mistakenly overpaid, money prosecutors alleged was funneled through a network of businesses and family members to fund her 2021 congressional campaign. Sheriff Ellis McCormick was indicted on federal

criminal charges last year and is pleaded not guilty. She still faces a separate federal criminal trial in Miami. A new analysis by the National Women's Defense League has revealed dozens of U.S. Congress members have been accused of sexual misconduct over the past two decades. More than 50 accusations of workplace sexual harassment, largely coming from legislative staff, had been made against at least 30 lawmakers of both parties. The group also looked at dozens of accusations of sexual harassment outside the workplace against U.S. lawmakers, as well as misconduct on the campaign trail. This comes after Republican Congressmember Tony Gonzalez of Texas and Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California resigned from Congress.

Congress earlier this month. Both of them faced potential expulsion votes after they were accused of sexual misconduct. On Monday, the House Ethics Committee released a statement calling for survivors of sexual misconduct to report their accusations to congressional authorities. Many lawmakers are now calling for the expulsion of Republican Congressman Cory Mills of Florida as he faces an ongoing probe from the House Ethics Committee into allegations both of financial misconduct and sexual harassment. Mills has denied the allegations. And voters in Virginia approved a new congressional map drawn by the state's Democrat-controlled legislature. It would give the Democrats an electoral advantage in 10 of Virginia's 11 House

districts. Democrats could also pick up as many as four new seats in this year's midterm elections. Virginia's currently has six Democrats and five Republicans in its congressional delegation. The move is the latest chapter in a redistricting arms race that President Trump ignited last year when he urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional maps. Trump had asked lawmakers in Texas to create five more seats that favor Republicans in the state shortly after California voters back to plan to create five seats that favor Democrats. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report.

I'm Amy Goodman. Today is Earth Day. Events are being held around the world centered on the theme, Our Power, Our Planet, with a focus on renewable energy. The first Earth Day was held 56 years ago on April 22, 1970. That date is often considered the start of the modern environmental movement. Well, today, we're going to be held. begin by looking at a pressing environmental issue facing communities across the United States,

the vast expansion of AI data centers being built to fuel artificial intelligence. Critics warn the AI data centers are a threat to local land, energy, and water resources. According to the group Food and Water Watch, a single large data center can consume as much energy as 2 million U.S. households. Last month, Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders and Democratic Congressmember Alexander Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation to impose a national moratorium on new AI data center construction. The bill would halt all new construction until Congress passes federal laws to protect workers and consumers and ensure the technologies don't harm the environment.

This is Congress member Acacio-Cortez. More than 100 local communities across 12 states have already enacted local moratoriums on data centers, and Congress itself has a moral obligation to stand with them and stop big tech from ruining their communities. Our legislation in the House and the Senate would hit the brakes on construction of new data centers until we address several of the key areas of harm AI poses. In the state of Maine, lawmakers research. recently approved the nation's first statewide moratorium on large data centers. But the governor of Maine, Democrat Janet Mills, has yet to say if she'll sign the legislation. This comes as Mills is in a tough primary race for a U.S. Senate seat against fellow Democrat Graham Platner.

We go now to Freeport, Maine, where we're joined by Melanie Sachs, a Democratic Maine state representative who sponsored the state. statewide moratorium on new data centers. Welcome to Democracy Now. It's great to have you with us. Can you explain what this legislation does and the significance of the main legislature being the first in the country to pass a statewide moratorium? We'll see what happens with whether the governor signs the legislation. But if she doesn't and doesn't veto it, it still will go into effect. Correct. And good morning. Thank you so much for having me, Amy. I put forward the bill because this same governor or wonderful governor, Janet Mills, actually put together an AI task force full of her own state agency members as well as business members and a bipartisan set of legislators. In that report, which came out in fall of 2025, it said two things. That main residents are concerned about the impacts of data centers on both their electric rates and other utility rates. rates, as well as on our wonderful environment we have here in Maine. When you think of Maine, you think of our wonderful natural resources. So the second recommendation, not only that

called out the fears of Maine residents, but also that we needed a playbook. The recommendation was, we need to meet the moment and put together regulations that perhaps look at the opportunities, but certainly the impacts that these have. And so that's why I brought this bill, which is going to put together a collaborative council full of, again, state agencies, right-payer, protectors, environment, tribes, municipalities, altogether to say, what is the regulatory framework that main needs to meet the moment, to meet the moment? And at the same time, to putting a temporary limited, targeted pause on the development of these data centers so that we can make sure that regulatory framework is correct.

Can you talk about, well, it is a Democrat-controlled legislature. The governor is a Democrat. She's running for Senate. Whether you've gotten any signal about whether she will sign the bill, and what is the deadline here? So she has until April 25th to either sign the legislation, veto it, or let it go into law without her signature. I know she's carefully considering it. We just finished our session here in Maine. So she had several hundred bills go to her desk.

I know that this is a bill that she has said she is generally in favor of. However, there was one project that has surfaced, as several have, during the course of this legislation, that we had been told, of course, no data centers are coming to Maine. Both the AI task force and my committee, I chair the Energy Committee here in Maine. We've been told that really there were no data centers here in Maine, but lo and behold, when I put the bill in, several of them surfaced, which was so interesting, that had been working in secret. One such project actually is closer to fruition than others,

and that is the one that she's concerned about. So let's talk about the Data Center project in Jay, which saw the closure of several paper mills over the last years. Governor Mills and others argue the data centers boost jobs. What is your response? And though we're talking to in Freeport, you grew up in Jay. father actually worked in one of those paper mills. Right. I grew up in New Sharon Maine, which is a community very close to Jay. And yes, my dad did

work at that very same mill that is slated for development with the data center. So I know the area. I know what economic development means. One of the reasons I put in this bill, however, is because we have the evidence from all across the country of the harm that these data Center projects can potentially do. Limited economic opportunity with a very few local jobs done. This developer has promised anywhere it's gone from 100 to 125 to 150 permanent jobs. Also, they've talked about, well, it's going to be a lesser footprint than that of the former mill, but we actually don't know that because the Sentinel Data Company, which is sort of a churn and burn co-location, they bring somebody in. We don't know what that design looks like. And we also don't have

the permitting, the emissions, the regulatory framework around the electric load that might need to accommodate a particular project. The last thing I will say is, it is more, these projects are more than just the locality where they are located. These projects impact the grid, electricity rates, utility rates, water usage for the entire community and sometimes statewide. So we really need to look at something like this. It's been offered as almost a baby data center soothingly saying, look, this won't have the same impact. However, the projected load that we've been able to get out of the developer actually can be 10% of Maine's entire load for this one data center. So we really do need to make sure that we meet the moment.

State Representative Sachs, how has the AI industry responded to your bill? Why are we seeing also this rapid expansion of data centers in states like yours in Maine? Right. I would say that Maine, while we do have a little bit higher electricity rates than maybe other communities, we're one of the lower in New England. We have an amazing workforce and we have abundant natural resources with a cool climate. I understand why they might think that we are right for opportunity. My concern is that this project, along like many of the other projects that surfaced during the bill, were done in complete secrecy without community engagement. AI hasn't actually come to talk to me, But the problem is they're also not talking to the communities. We now have had several communities, like your lead in peace, that have had to put their own local moratorium on data centers because they're just concerned about the impact of these projects without notable gain for the communities.

And that's really one of the reasons that I'm so excited about this bill is to make sure that communities have the opportunity to engage and that the framework is correct. We're talking about what almost half a dozen other states are looking at the kind of regulation you proposed and legislature passed. And can you talk about who specifically, can you name names, are the AI lobby and how they strategize to how they tried to defeat this bill in Maine? Right. So we did, we do have several lobby firms that have, tried to actually write amendments to the bill or have tried to offer other reports on the bill

when it came out of committee. I'm not paid by a lobbyist. I don't read their speeches on the floor. And I don't think that that's in the best interest of Maine to just seed our policy to lobbyists. I think that we need to make sure that we are writing the policy that is good for Maine and not include them on, say, this council, or to have that sort of orientation towards our communities and our natural resources. I write my own bills. I worked very closely, actually, with the administration

to write the initial bill, because I think this is important for Maine to be able to take charge and say, this is how we protect ratepayers, this is how we protect our natural environment, and this is how we look out for our communities. And that is really the important part about this bill. It is not a permanent pause or ban.

It is a temporary ban to make sure that we have the work of the council and then the time to put those regulations in place to protect Maine. Melanie Sachs, Democratic Maine State Representative from Freeport, sponsored the statewide moratorium on new data centers, the first in the nation to be passed by a legislative. legislature. Now the governor has until April 25th to sign it, veto it, or just let it become law. Coming up, we go to Memphis, Tennessee, where the NAACP is suing Elon Musk and XAI for pollution from its data center power plants will speak to Memphis organizer Kishan Pearson.

And when they're gone, he kills the competitors of its foods, food too. I'm talking about the birds, the aphids, the insects, and the trees. Because there's innumerable extinct species among these. We've been enacting a story for 12,000 years. The one that says that man must follow no natural law. The one that says that man is distinctly separate from every living thing. That man is yet a result of evolution. that man is the end result of evolution.

Yes, you know that the clan of Cain killed the clan of Abel so that Cain could bear the fruit of Abel's land. So man has been killing his brother from the beginning of the agricultural revolution. Mass killings and mass graves, globalization of slaves, genocide and extinction, All the functions of civilization. The taker story by Chicano Batman. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. On this Earth Day, we're continuing our look at community resistance to the construction of AI data centers.

We go now from the state of Maine, which just passed a statewide moratorium on the construction of new data centers, to the city of Memphis, Tennessee. Last week, the NAACP sued Elon Musk's X-A-I, accusing the artificial intelligence company of polluting black neighborhoods with toxic emissions from its makeshift power plant fueling its data centers in Memphis. The lawsuit alleges XAI is violating the Clean Air Act

by operating over two dozen methane gas-burning turbines without legal permits. The massive X-AI do. Data centers are known as Colossus and Colossus 2. We go now to Memphis, where we're joined by Kishon Pearson, Executive Director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. Kishon, thanks so much for joining us again. We talked to you almost exactly a year ago. Can you talk about what is Colossus and Colossus 2?

Talk about the power these data centers require and what kind of regulation there is. Thank you, Amy, for having me back. It's good to be back. And we are unfortunately in an even worse position than we were a year ago. At this point, we now have two facilities, Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, that are being powered by illegal and unlawful methane gas turbines. These turbines generate enough power to power over half a million homes. This is unprecedented. The amount of power. pollution that we're being exposed to, nitrogen, dioxide, formaldehyde, chemicals that we know cause cancer. And so in this moment, we have to do something similar to what Maine is doing, and we are demanding a moratorium of some sort come to fruition. But here in Memphis, we are unfortunately a cautionary tale about what will and possibly can happen if you don't have the right rules and gar rails in place. Last year, Elon Musk explained why he decided to build colossus in Memphis.

Well, we needed a building. We can't build a building, so we must use an existing building. So we looked for basically for factories that had been abandoned, but the factory was in good shape, like the company had gone bankrupt or something. So we found an Electrolux factory in Memphis. That's why it's in Memphis, home of Elvis. And also one of the oldest, I think there was the capital of ancient Egypt. So that's Elon Musk.

Kishon Pearson, you're the director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. That's MCAP. It's the NWACP that's suing XAI, accusing the company of polluting black neighborhoods. The facility next to historically black neighborhoods runs on two dozen methane gas power turbine generators, which you've said emit significant amounts of nitrogen oxide. and other toxic chemicals. Talk about what Elon Musk has said and why you think that this is particularly hurting black communities.

What Elon Musk said is basically smoke and mirrors because what we know is that Southwest Memphis continues to be targeted. Memphis Community Against Pollution has stood up against multiple corporations and billion-dollar organizations who've sought to see our community as the path of leach resistance where they could push forward these environmentally unjust and these environmentally racist projects. These projects specifically focus on a neighborhood, on a community, and on a region where you see an increased poverty level, and you also see an increased amount of black families. Just like all over the south, you see a concentration of AI

data centers in communities that are largely black or marginalized. This is nothing new. This is Elon Musk presenting an option for Memphis, which we know is untrue. Elon Musk was invited to Memphis. Unfortunately, our city mayor joined with Ted Townsend of our Greater Memphis Chamber, and these folks wooed the terrible decision that we continue to see operate like a cancer in our region. XAI has not promoted or really led to the jobs that they said they would. They have not been in communication with the community.

significant way, but what they have done is continue to pollute our air, to do it unlawfully and illegally, and not include even our government officials. We are in a place now where we are literally worse off than we have ever been. XAI continues to pollute at a level even higher than our Memphis International Airport. This has been terrible for our region, and it's terrible for our future because our community is going to continue to suffer. Our children have the highest rate of ER visits for respiratory illnesses and issues in the state of Tennessee. And it's only going to continue to get worse. Elon Musk claims he chose the former Electrolux building in Memphis because he wanted to expedite his AI applications using an abandoned building instead of a new one. What was

Electrolux previously? And how did Musk's company, um, and how did Musk's, uh, company? X-A-I go about purchasing the building? Yeah, so Electrolux was a company who came into Memphis doing something very similar to what we're seeing X-A-I do. They offer hyperbolic promises and ended up a colossus failure. And Electrolux was a company, a machine company, and they got breaks from our Shelby County Health Department from our Shelby County government and our city of Memphis government. They actually received the building at a discount. at a discount and got payments in lieu of taxes or pilot program to help them finance it.

And then they left. They got the money and then they left. Leaving this facility open and XAI purchased the facility and started their environmentally unjust project. And so we are seeing this cyclical activity. And it's in the same area. We cannot bifurcate the fact that Southwest Memphis has continued to be the and target of a lot of these extractive corporations in an extractive ecosystem.

One last thing I do want to add is that in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King came and he marched with sanitation workers in the city of Memphis. That was fighting for environmental justice, and that is the fight that we are continuing. It is no mistake that environmentally unjust projects continue to put pressure on the city of Memphis and continue to extrapolate what we know is our right to health, healthy environment and clean air. And so with this project, we will continue to fight back and we will continue to work alongside the NAACP, the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earth Justice, as well as our partners in coalition in South Haven, the Safe and Sound Coalition.

Our families are suffering. Our region is suffering. We can't continue to fall for smoke and mirrors. We have to do something that protects us. to do it now. Kishon Pearson, I want to thank you for being with us, the executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman. On this Earth Day, we go now from Memphis to Montana, where we're joined by Crystal Tubals, a long-time Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne activist. She's the executive director of the group Honor the Earth,

which has launched the No Data Center Coalition. Honor the Earth has been closely monitoring the construction of data centers in or near indigenous lands. She's joining us from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana. Crystal Tubles, welcome to Democracy Now. Can you give us an overview? You've made a crowdsource map of data centers and their relation to indigenous lives. across the United States, talk about how you see this issue of data centers. Yeah, good morning, Amy.

Thank you for having me. I think, you know, similar to what we just heard, we're seeing the targeting of native lands. But for us, when we talk about hyperscale data centers, we typically talk about the entire AI infrastructure because that's the driving demand for the hyperscale data centers themselves. And so we're looking at the physical impacts of the data centers. we're also looking at the critical minerals and the mining that's going to be needed to power and create things like GPUs and servers and the chips, even the air conditioners for these hyperscale data centers,

which often, and especially with this push for that mining to happen domestically now, we're going to be looking at that mining happening on indigenous lands. We're also looking at the uranium just now being added to the list of critical minerals. And so that's also going to be happening to power nuclear for fuel. And so we have to also look at these hyperscale data centers that are creating using massive amounts of electricity. And where is that energy going to come from? Now they're shifting towards nuclear. They're looking at revitalizing the coal industry and expanding frac gas until they can get nuclear online.

And so we try to connect all of those dots across the board, knowing that all of those industries right there are going to target indigenous. lands as they have in the past and as we've already experienced. The other thing that we're seeing is that they're targeting indigenous lands because we have large, many of our large land-based tribes, we have access to that. We have access to water. There's tax incentives that come along with it. We have a lack of legal infrastructure oftentimes to hold these accountable, these companies accountable. Also the promised economic development that these corporations come with when you are dealing with communities that often live in extreme poverty, the promise of these jobs is something that appeals to them, right? And then we also have the jurisdictional issues that happen on

indigenous lands. So all of those create an environment that is very conducive to these hyperscale data centers being built on native lands. Talk about the issue of secrecy surrounding the locations and owners of these data center projects. why your map, this crowdsource map, is actually has been so hard to compile. Yeah. So oftentimes these corporations, the hyperscale corporations, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, meta, and Amazon, they're oftentimes using their subsidiaries and then using also native-owned energy companies to approach our communities.

But they're also coming with NDAs in hand. So what we're hearing from different Native nations is that corporations will come. They'll start by talking about solar panels and installing that on their lands. And then it quickly shifts to a hyperscale data center. But often, before they even get to that conversation, they're asking them to sign an NDA. And so that makes our tribal leadership accountable to them and not to the people who they're actually supposed to represent. And so oftentimes we don't know that these projects are coming to our lands until we hear in a press release or on the news or we hear rumors of what's happening. And so we've had to actually use

our networks as organizers and activists to really build those relationships and to figure out where they're proposing these hyperscale data centers. So right now we're looking at about 103 to 160 proposed hyperscale data centers on native lands. Crystal Tubos, the Tulsa City Council just passed a nine-month moratorium on data centers. The Seminole Nation, unanimous, passed its own moratorium. Can you talk about how, out of all the states in the country, an anti-data center movement is gaining momentum in Oklahoma. Why Oklahoma? I mean, right now, we have a really strong team from Honor the Earth that's located in Oklahoma, and they've been on the ground in these communities, hosting town halls, having meetings,

reaching out to the tribes, attending tribal council meetings, knocking, petitions, just everything across the board. But Oklahoma is oftentimes considered a sacrifice zone. And so for us at honor the earth, we really made it an intention to invest in those communities. And especially because we have activists and organizers on the ground there. And so what we're seeing now is that they've been able to build multiracial, um, coalitions with folks in agriculture, uh, ranchers, landowners, etc. And they've built these coalitions and they are working with local communities and local municipalities and local tribes to push back and put in some kind of buffer and protections for our communities.

We also have, you know, Muskogee, we're able to block a resolution that would have move forward a hyperscale data center. And so, you know, it's really a testament to the powerful organizing that's been happening there and people pushing back. The other thing is like if we can get these victories in Oklahoma, which is basically the crossroads of every extractive industry in the United States, then every other state needs to follow suit. And there's not an excuse for us to be able to push back in our own communities. Crystal Tubal's, you've called data centers, continued colonialism in the name of imperialism.

Can you explain what you're saying? You are also very active in the standoff at Standing Rock, where indigenous people from Latin America, the United States, Canada and their non-native allies, thousands gathered to fight the Dakota access pipeline. What connections do you see between these? Yeah, I think Indian country is always a target for extractive industry. And what history has taught us is that any time outside industry comes into Indian country and has all these big promises of jobs and economic development and language revitalization and all of these things that it tends to not work out for us.

We are never the ones that actually truly benefit from that. And we're always the one that ends up having to sacrifice our relationship to land, air, water, our communities and our non-human relatives as well. And so what we can see from that and learn from that is like that is a continuation of settler colonialism in the land grabs that we had seen back in the 1800s. Now we're just seeing a modern day iteration of that where these corporations are coming in because we have large land bases, grabbing up the land, building, saying that they're going to build with the tribes, offer these things, go back on their promises. And then yet again,

we are left with the damages and the results and the negative impacts of that. And so I think history tells us that this is just another, this is the same thing with a new face, a new name. And so for us, it was really important that we called it what it is, which is, you know, data colonialism, right? And really pushed back on the physical and the material. And the material. impact on our lands. A recent Bloomberg analysis found electricity costs go up nearly 267% near data centers. Yet a lot of these data centers target poorer tribal nations. If you can talk about the environmental costs, the amount of energy that's required,

and also the economic costs. Yeah. I mean, we're looking at. that from what we know, like a lot of times these data centers come with NDAs. So it's really difficult to know exactly how much water usage that they're going to have or how much impact they're going to have on the grid. But what we do know from existing hyperscale data centers that have already been built is that we're looking at anywhere between 300,000 to like up to 2.7 million. I've heard even 5 million gallons per year of water that's being used. Right. And like these

corporations, they come in and they present this closed loop water system that they're going to be using and they tell our nations that there will be zero impact to the water. They also tell us that in fact, they're going to use water positivity and they're actually going to increase the usage in the quality of the water so we can actually use it more, which both have been dispelled since then, but it's a very strong narrative. So we know that there's going to be negative impacts on the water based on existing hyperscale data centers. We also know about the noise pollution that comes with these, right? Many times they have diesel generators,

but also the noise alone from a hyperscale data center is around 97 decibels. For those of us that know what an LRAD is, a long-range acoustic device, it's a sound cannon that can rupture your eardrums. That's at about 140 decibels, right? So 97 to 140 is not a big jump. And so you're looking at, you know, hearing loss,

for long-term exposure to the sound that's coming from them. Also, a recent study came out and said that hyperscale data centers can increase the heat and create heat islands up to 16 degrees on the land around them. So if you think about the impacts on ecosystems and the temperature increase of the water that's going to happen, we're looking at ecological collapse around these hyperscale data centers in our communities. And then that's not to mention the rare cancers that have been tied to. hyperscale data centers, as we heard before, is the respiratory issues that come from breathing

in all the toxins that they emit as well. And then the electricity itself, they need massive amounts of electricity to be powered. And what we're seeing is that they're putting a massive strain on the grid. And so for Native communities, oftentimes our homes and our communities do not have an updated electricity grid, right? The country in general does not have one in tribes more so. So, What we're looking at is rolling power outages that are going to be coming. Also the threat of fires. When you don't have up to code electricity in your, our electricians in your home, updating the wiring and whatnot,

you're looking at the risk of fires if you're going to flood that much electricity into the grid, right? And what we're seeing already is that these hyper, these data centers, these corporations are already working with groups like our public service commission, our county commissioners, and they're approving upfront costs. where the rate payers and taxpayers pay for these hyperscale data centers up front before they're even built. So we've already been seeing increases almost double in our electricity bills here in Montana. One winter, I think last winter, we seen a young woman with a trailer house have an electricity bill of $900 as a single person in a trailer house in Montana, and we did not have an extreme winter that winter.

And so we're already feeling the impacts of the electricity and the cost. You're also looking at the jobs. So they come with promises about jobs and economic development, which in the construction phase, yes, there may be up to 1,500 jobs that are available. Oftentimes those jobs will not go to local community numbers. They will go to construction companies who already specialize in building hyperscale data centers. And then once construction phase is over, which can last up to two years, those jobs drop all the way down, sometimes to three full-time jobs.

And so we know that for sure in Rapid City, South Dakota. They've made that public where they go from 1,500 to three full-time jobs. And so they actually are not following through on any of the promises that they're making to our communities. Crystal, two, Bowles. I want to thank you for being with us in this Earth Day special. Crystal is Oglala Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, an executive director of Honor the Earth, speaking to us from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, in Montana.

Coming up on this Earth Day, we go to the Arctic Sunrise, a Green Peace ship, sailing with the Global Samud Flotilla, which is en route to Gaza. Stay with us. I've been thinking about greed. I've been thinking about how to talk about grief. I've been on the same. Trying to find a way to talk about greed. Rising and twisted in its command.

Lose like a virus. Seeking out ever, never stops. The work has never ever done. A creeping, choking, killing, escaping. Green, sweet, a snare. I've been trying to think about how to talk about greed. Greed by Sweet Honey in the Rock decades ago in our firehouse studio. This is Democracy Now and Democracy Now.org.

I'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show from the Arctic Sunrise. That's the name of a green peace ship sailing across the Mediterranean Sea with the global smooth flotilla. The flotilla includes more than 70 vessels and thousands of participants from all over the world who are sailing to Gaza in attempt to break the Israeli siege and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians. The Arctic sunrise is accompanying and providing technical support to the flotilla in a show. of solidarity for part of the trip. This flotilla builds on previous voyages to break the Israeli blockade in 2025. The flotilla

sailed with 42 boats. Two days ago, in what the global Samud flotilla calls an unprecedented active civilian intervention at sea, at least a dozen vessels from the flotilla, encircled one of the largest cargo ships in the world, the MSC Maya, that they believe was delivering raw materials for weapons. to Israel. The MSC Maya is operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company, MSC. In a press release, the Global Samud Flatilla said the disruption, which reportedly lasted less than three hours, was inspired by and builds on the precedent of dock workers who have, quote, been on the front lines of resisting unjust supply chains using their collective power to halt the movement of goods tied to oppression

and war, unquote. We go now to the Mediterranean's. sea, where we're joined by two guests. Pujarini Sen is the project lead on board the Arctic Sunrise for the Greenpeace Project supporting the Global Samud Floatilla. And Saif Abukeshik is a member of the Palestinian Global Samud Floatilla Steering Committee. You're both sitting next to each other, describe the scene on the ship, and most significantly, on this Earth Day, why a Greenpeace is. ship is joining the

Samud Flotilla. Saif, let's begin with you. Thank you, Phil. Thank you for having us. It's an honor for me to be joining from Greenpeace. They have provided technical support for our boats that made it possible for

us to continue this journey. So I think you're giving struggles a space where they can work together and understanding the impact that happens on environment. on people in different location goes into the same line of confronting

those powers that try to confiscate resources and oppress people. So I don't think that there is an exclusivity in the work that we do, rather than it's important where wherever we can intersect, wherever we can meet each other halfway, we should do that to make sure

that those struggles are supporting each other. I'm sure my colleague can give more insight about having us here on Earth Day. Absolutely. Thank you, Seth. For Greenpeace, it is an honor and we're absolutely humbled to be able to support the Global Somers Flotilia on this mission. This is, Greenpeace has a long history of creative, nonviolent action. And we have a long history of action on the water as well from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. This flotilia is sailing to try and open a maritime corridor where governments have failed.

and we hope that the support that we are providing will help them to succeed in doing that. Can you talk about this disruption of a cargo ship en route to Ashdot and Haifa ports? Tell us what happened when you intercepted the MSC Maya. Yes. I mean, this route of the Mediterranean, we talk about the genocide and we talk about the siege on Gaza. It's very important to address how this genocide and how this siege being enabled. When countries like Spain decides to vote on an embargo, military embargo, to prevent this kind of ships to go through the Mediterranean,

and they try to find other ports when they don't declare the content of what they have on the cargo, and they just sail to maintain and enable the Israeli government by providing them with the needed materials to continue committing genocide and maintain the illegal siege on Gaza. People need to react. Governments are allowing this to happen. When they don't take action, when yesterday the European Union voted to maintain the association agreement with Israel, which violates all the principles and values the European Union has. And still, they voted to maintain it and not to stop that association agreement. So this, we were discussing always that when the system fails, civil society needs to step in. And I heard an inspiring speak today from Fabian, one of the directors of Greenpeace, who said, It's not actually that the system is failing. The system is designed to do what it's doing right now, to maintain oppression, to maintain the confiscation of resources,

and to oppress people. And therefore, we have to confront this. We have to confront these routes. This is the first civilian action that challenge of a flotilla that challenge this route, that challenged, as you said, one of the biggest cargo ships in the world. And we approached the cargo ship because we are with sailing boats. Legally, it is lawful for us to,

sail in the Mediterranean and any cargo ship need to change the route. What is very interesting looking at the map that this cargo ship changed its route in our direction instead of going in the other direction against the space where we were. We tried to communicate, we tried to show signs to explain for them that participating in delivering this material to Israel is part of complicity. We cannot just wait on symbolic statements right now, on people saying that we could or we don't support or we are in favor or concrete ones. And many people come to ask about Fultilla being a symbolic action.

So many years we have of historical, non-violent direct action. It is very strange when we start to define non-violent direct action with symbolism, the salt march of Mahatma Gandhi, the hunger strikes of prisoners, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people who marches around the street. The three years of strike in Palestine in 1936, and there's a long, long history. Those all are non-violent, direct action. The flutilla is just one action more within this process. Pugherini Sen, we just have about 30 seconds, but Greenpeace typically targets fossil fuels and corporations.

Why did you join this? Flotilla? Greenpeace does target fossil fuel companies, but like I said, we also have a long history of nonviolent direct action. Having said that, fossil fuel companies also benefit from wars, from genocide. For example, Greenpeace in Norway has taken the fossil fuel giant Equinor to court because of that ties with the DELA group, which is an Israeli company that enables the genocide. So we don't view these issues as separate. They're very interrelated. And we've also worked in Spain, for example, and in Canada, to push for an arms embargo.

So for us, these are, these issues are interconnected and need to be addressed together. And that's why we are supporting the global summit deal now. Pujerini Sen, I want to thank you for being with us, project lead for Greenpeace on board the Arctic Sunwerey. Prize. Poudarini and Saif are joining us from the Mediterranean Sea on board a ship. Saif Abukeshik is a Palestinian activist and member of the steering committee of the global Samud Flotilla. And that does it for today's show. I'll be traveling to cities where the new documentary about Democracy Now, called Steel This Story Please, is opening theatrically. Tonight will be at the Roxy in San Francisco and at the Rialto Elmwood and Berkeley.

Then we head to Seattle, Thursday and Friday, for 7 p.m. screenings at the SIP, Uptown Cinema. I'll be with the co-director of the film, Carl Deal. Then on Saturday to Portland, Oregon for two screenings at the Cinema 21. On Sunday, I'll be back at the IFC Center in New York, Sunday evening, and then to Toronto, to Boston, to Washington, to Baltimore, and beyond. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.