{"id":285919,"date":"2026-07-05T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/the-nashville-zoo-has-become-an-unlikely-battleground-in-americas-data-center-race\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T06:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:45:10","slug":"the-nashville-zoo-has-become-an-unlikely-battleground-in-americas-data-center-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/the-nashville-zoo-has-become-an-unlikely-battleground-in-americas-data-center-race\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nashville Zoo has become an unlikely battleground in America\u2019s data center race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/05\/us\/nashville-zoo-data-center\">The Nashville Zoo has become an unlikely battleground in America\u2019s data center race<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/05\/us\/nashville-zoo-data-center\">https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/05\/us\/nashville-zoo-data-center<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-07-05 06:30:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.cnn.com\">www.cnn.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6ohx00003b66wotf368v@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            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\u2019s animal health director.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6qcb00023b66iyc6oooh@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Cradled in her arms, the newborn suckles eagerly, its tiny paws paddling the air with every gulp.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6qcb00033b66imypd1az@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            Schwartz spends her days helping the cub use the bathroom, socializing it and patiently teaching it how<strong> <\/strong>to safely interact with its keepers as it grows. It\u2019s 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.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6qcb00053b66llflmyn4@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            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.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6qcc00063b661o4jcu7i@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            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.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6qcc00073b6667m3qoe4@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            DC BLOX, the Atlanta-based digital infrastructure company behind the proposal, says the zoo\u2019s concerns will be addressed through its modern data center design.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6qcc00083b662ds2yjq7@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            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.\n    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-elevate inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph_elevate\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmr2i6qcc00093b66fusff2np@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">\n            \u201cI 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,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/05\/us\/nashville-zoo-data-center\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nashville Zoo has become an unlikely battleground in America\u2019s data center race https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/07\/05\/us\/nashville-zoo-data-center Publish&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":285920,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/c-55209893755-763e1f776f-o.jpg?c=16x9&q=w_800,c_fill","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-285919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285921,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285919\/revisions\/285921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}