The heat is alarming. And we are melting. Almost. Sweating as if I'm just going to vaporize into this thin air. No matter how much water I drink, it doesn't feel enough. On top of it, if I order food from outside, it likely has lot of sodium, which makes me even thirstier.

I read stuff online in forums and it seems like there exist places in the wrold where a 28C summer is unexpecetdly hot. Well, I am an 45C summer. I'm available for an AMA.

Don't we tackle it by planting trees?

While studying geography, I got to know that the earth heats up from the ground up. What that means is that the heat from Sun does not directly heat our atmosphere. Instead, the Sun's heat first warms the land, which in turn warms atmosphere from bottom. This is contrary to what I earlier believed to be true. Maybe my little brain logic doesn't always work.

I'm pretty sure the part about Sun heating ground first, isn't any forbidden knowledge. It should make the case stronger for planting more trees, right? Trees do not absorm heat as much as dry ground and trees help keep the lower environment cooler. I'm sure each one of us has experienced the feeling of cool shade under a tree.

So, just plant more trees, I guess? Now, to be honest, I don't think the ruling class likes trees - except the ones in their personal gardens and zoos (trees for me but not for thee). So called development projects are mandating uprooting trees en-masse. And these days, you don't even need to replant the trees in the same city where you uprooted them from. Just plant them anywhere in the state. Any sane person with bare minimum knowledge of environment & ecosystems will understand why that's a recipe for disaster. Heck, even "public parks" these days have more photos of local politician than the number of trees.

What are we getting, if not trees!

DATA CENTERS! Repeat after me, DATA CENTERS!! We are getting DATA CENTERS!

Let me get this straight - I don't hate data centers or server farms - if they serve a genuine purpose. BUT massive data centers that eist solely to add frivolous investor value and run water guzzing AI models to kill human creativity - not my idea of a productive use case.

My country isn't exactly water surplus. We have states that have long drawn fights over river water sharing. Water certainly isn't a free resource here. Yet, one of these states is boasting about an upcoming AI data center. Same goes for electricity. Our grid doesn't have the capacity to transmit even our existing generation output. We totally can not serve the needs of a data center??

...okay, I'll stop, because...

...this debate isn't about data centers. It's about people.

Talking about this matter becomes tough, because we stress too much on why a data center is bad, why this new road project is bad, why this new architectural style is bad etc. Let's center our discussion around people.

The people are not getting enough clean water or air. The people are not getting enough electricity to have a regular lifestyle. The people deserve parks, trees, nature, jungles. The people deserve a liveable city, where they aren't constantly competing with a bazillion others for sustenance.

When humans aren't getting enough clean water to drink, it becomes heartbreaking to see the same precious resource being diverted to an outsider. Extrapolate it to every resource.

When we talk data centers, there certainly are positives to it. I cannot point out whether the downsides outweigh the benefits, at least in my country, but many groups in the USA have already decided that the cons outweigh the pros.

And now those datacenters are shifting to the third world.

It is still very hot in here

My problem doesn't end at datacenter. More precisely, it starts at that.

We've been fed a lopsided view of development. One that places numbers above humans. Numbers lie. They always lie. Statistics are easily fudged. What cannot be fudged is the life chances an individual gets.

Trees will be uprooted for quick GDP gains and new infrastructure will be put up which is not climate sensitive. It is very hot in here and it will remain as such.