Erin Brockovich wants people to think more about the environmental impacts of the data centers powering artificial intelligence – most of all, the people building the data centers themselves.
During a recent interview with Katie Couric on the journalist’s podcast, “Next Question,” Brockovich said that she began receiving emails earlier this year about the harm data centers were causing – 30 or 40 initially, from one community.
She then launched the Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting project as a place to both share what information she had, and solicit additional complaints from the public – through this effort, she received nearly 16,000 additional emails from people all around the nation.
“I was just gobsmacked,” Brockovich said. “What started out as one town and curiosity really became the whole country.”
Brockovich, a trained paralegal, made her name as a consumer advocate and activist by building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company in 1993. The case alleged that PSE&G had contaminated the water supply for the community of Hinkley, California when an anti-corrosive chemical leaked from one of its cooling towers. The case was settled in 1996 for $333 million, the largest settlement of its kind in U.S. history at the time.
Studies have shown that AI data centers are similarly harming communities throughout the country – in fact, Brockovich called the issue “Hinkley on steroids.” Global data centers used 448 trillion watt-hours of electricity combined last year, which amounts to more than that used by all but 10 nations in the world. The centers also used up 1.2 trillion gallons of water in 2025, and produced roughly 208 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Brockovich adds that, to make matters worse, much of the development of these data centers happens amid a great deal of secrecy. She reports numerous complaints about the lack of transparency on tech companies’ part to inform people living near data centers about what was happening in their own backyards.
“If they’re so great and if it’s not any problem, why the secrecy?” she asked, adding that their failure to communicate clearly with residents is “sketchy.” She noted that even city and state officials, who spoke with her off-the-record, reported being “left in the dark” by those building the centers.
After years of advocating for access to safe natural resources for Americans, Brockovich feels certain of one thing: “Our land, our water, our health and our air are the greatest gifts we have. Every one of those resources is worth fighting for.”
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