EARLY Access: Shawn Ryan Show #322 Erin Brockovich [Audio]
Erin Brockovich is an environmental advocate, consumer activist, and author who rose to national prominence after helping expose one of the largest groundwater contamination cases in U.S. history involving Pacific Gas & Electric. Her investigation led to a landmark $333 million settlement and inspired the Academy Award-winning film Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts. For more than three decades, she has investigated environmental contamination, corporate misconduct, and public health issues, working alongside communities to hold powerful corporations accountable. Today, she is focused on the rapid expansion of AI data centers, raising awareness about their impact on water resources, energy infrastructure, and local communities while leading a nationwide initiative to track data center development. She is also the author of several books, including Superman's Not Coming, which explores America's water crisis and the importance of protecting one of our most essential resources.
Comments (4)
Big fight in Emporia, Kansas on data centers right now. Lots of locals trying to stop it. Bureaucrats trying to push it through.
Not all data centers use the amount of water that’s claimed here. And I’ve seen residents complain about the construction of a data center (DC) literally adjacent to their backyard, yet it abuts land zoned for industrial use that they knew about when they bought their house. I’m sure there are some bad things happening, given the scale of DC construction, but keep in mind that this is a complex situation and don’t paint with too broad of a brush.
Shawn, I enjoyed your conversation with Erin Brockovich and agree that communities need protection from the harmful effects of data centers. However, I’d also love to hear you revisit this issue alongside the warnings Andrew Bustamante shared a few years ago about China potentially overtaking the U.S. Could we find safer, less disruptive ways to build the AI infrastructure we need, rather than creating roadblocks that could ultimately give China a major technological and economic advantage? David Sacks talks about this risk often, and I’d really value perspective from both sides.
These corporations do the most harm to the greatest amount of humans and at every turn they walk away and it just cost them money, which isn’t even their money , there are no repercussions to any of their actions why would they stop?