This ad appeared The Washington Times Weekly on October 19 & October 26, 2206 and the Washington Examiner October 21 & October 28, 2026.

Please click the photo to view the ad as it appeared in these publications.

COMING SOON

TO A SMALL TOWN NEAR YOU

Data Centers — the sprawling buildings that cover acres of land and house millions of square feet of hightech equipment — are popping up all over the country. No one, except the owners of the multi-billion-dollar companies, wants them. Yet, they are everywhere, and there appears to be no end in sight to their power and reach.

The well-respected Pew Research Center recently determined that there are more than 3,000 data centers now in the United States, with an additional 1,500 facilities in various stages of completion to come online soon. Roughly 67% of the new data centers will appear in rural areas, and nearly 40% will be in counties that currently do not have any data centers, meaning that more and more Americans will soon face the harsh realities of living next to one of these monstrosities.

Neighbors report increased traffic, higher water and electricity bills, and noise loud enough to disrupt sleep and even affect livestock on nearby farms. Worst of all, dozens of acres of beautiful open land are destroyed and never recovered.

Data Centers exist all over the country, but the southern U.S. is certainly the worst hit by the new trend. Virginia and Texas are home to the most data centers, with California, Ohio, and New York rounding out the top five. As for the future, Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, and Arizona have the most planned data centers. Examples of their impact include:

• More than 600 data centers are found in Virginia, with 90% of them in Northern Virginia. Already far too crowded with some of the worst traffic in the nation, Northern Virginia is now suffering even greater losses of valuable land, tighter living conditions, more strain on utilities, and near-constant noise.
• In Georgia, metro Atlanta is home to one of the fastest-growing data center markets in the country. This has forced Georgia Power to bring more fossil fuel power plants into operation.
• In northeast Pennsylvania, big tech was willing to pay more than $580 million for a huge 1,700-acre tract of land, forcing farmers and other families off the land they had cultivated and lived on for years.

Data Center developers work with big tech in mind, and they know these companies have hundreds of millions — and even more — to spend to make their enterprises more lucrative. Unfortunately, these developers have little regard for the land they destroy, the small family farms that they shutter for good, or the water and electricity that will be consumed.

Negative Population Growth, Inc., the nation’s premier organization devoted to achieving a smaller, truly sustainable U.S. and world population, has launched a grassroots campaign to stop these Data Centers from destroying even more land and resources. We simply cannot allow big tech to bulldoze our valuable farms and fields in search of billions of dollars in additional profits.

Go to www.NPG.org/StopDataCenters to sign our online petition today.