The Nashville Zoo has become an unlikely battleground in America’s data center race

Source Domain: www.cnn.com

Before the sun has fully risen, Dr. Heather Schwartz is already warming up a bottle. A clouded leopard cub no bigger than her hands wiggles impatiently, waiting to be fed by the Nashville Zoo’s animal health director.

Cradled in her arms, the newborn suckles eagerly, its tiny paws paddling the air with every gulp.

Schwartz spends her days helping the cub use the bathroom, socializing it and patiently teaching it how to safely interact with its keepers as it grows. It’s around-the-clock work at the Nashville Zoo, the only institution in the United States to successfully breed the species this past breeding season, to help the vulnerable animals survive.

But now zoo officials say a planned data center just beyond its perimeter could introduce constant noise, light and industrial activity that may disrupt the environmental conditions critical not only for the clouded leopard breeding program, but for the more than 3,000 animals that call the zoo home.

The dispute has become part of a broader national debate over the rapid expansion of data centers to support growing demand for cloud computing and artificial intelligence systems.

DC BLOX, the Atlanta-based digital infrastructure company behind the proposal, says the zoo’s concerns will be addressed through its modern data center design.

There are some 4,000 data centers throughout the US. In communities nationwide, residents have increasingly challenged proposed developments over concerns about electricity demand, water consumption, noise, light pollution and environmental impacts.

“I think this is indicative of the type of interactions that data centers are now finding themselves having to deal with: concerned communities because of larger concerns around power, noise,…

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