One year ago, Apple began a staunch defense of its proposed data center in Galway County, Ireland, as a group of locals attempted to derail construction by reciting various environmental concerns for the area if Apple successfully built the facility.
The delayed data center was supposed to be met with a decision this week, but now The Irish Times is reporting that a final verdict has been delayed yet again, with the Court Services confirming this week that the case will not be heard until October 12. While there are some residents opposing the data center, there remains a large group fighting with Apple to help bring jobs to the area.
According to local resident Paul Keane, who spoke with Business Insider, some of those on Apple's side have "totally lost hope."
But Local resident Paul Keane, who is a member of the Athenry for Apple Facebook group, said: "Some have totally lost hope and more are now more fearful of a complete loss of confidence in investment for the west and long term damage to the country simply because we couldn't get our act together."
The residents against Apple attempted to halt construction last November by claiming that the permission it was granted by independent planning body An Bord Pleanála was invalid. They alleged that An Bord Pleanála didn't perform a proper environmental impact assessment of the proposed data center at Derrydonnell, located on the outskirts of Athenry, where the residents live. Apple successfully asked the High Court to fast-track the case, but a final decision was still set for months later, and now it has been pushed back even further.
When Apple announced the Irish data center in February 2015, it also announced one for Denmark. Construction for that site has completed, and now the center is ready to go live sometime later this year. Around 300 jobs would be created over "multiple phases of construction" at the Irish data center, which would help power Apple's online services across Europe, including iTunes, the App Store, iMessage, Maps, and Siri.
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First, we have to stop demanding more and more from the companies that build facilities to provide it. (N.B. I don't see this happening.) It's laughably hypocritical to say "gimme, gimme, gimme" and then when they want to build for it, say "yucky, yucky,yucky!"
Second, we need to stop reproducing so much. Almost every pressing problem in the world is caused by there being too many of us. (N.B. I don't see this happening either.) Yesterday I met a woman who had five children, five, and I thought immediately that it's the most selfish thing I could imagine. What itch is she scratching anyway? (And, by the way, she's on public assistance to help pay for raising them.) How many more billions of human organisms should we expect this planet to support and still have our unspoiled lushness all around us? There's currently a bill moving through congress to prohibit offshore wind farms that are close enough to see. We're a joke.
I love and am awed by nature's majesty. But until we own our footprint on the planet, all this complaining about data centers (and directed towards one of the greenest major tech companies there's is, no less) rings pretty hypocritical on the large scale.
Not only that, but beauty itself is worth something. Nowhere will stay "lush" if you keep replacing nature with metal and concrete boxes. Yeah, and I'd gladly tell that to anybody struggling for a job. Beauty is not reserved for the rich; if we get time, we all enjoy being outside in nature. The idea that everybody except the rich should only concern themselves with work - with no patience for nature, art, music, etc - is exactly the kind of mental prison we need to break.
There are more important things in life than just money.
Picture below.
Those people there protesting (and many not protesting, but those who have skills in data-centers or even unrelated jobs that would have worked there or would be someway connected to that farm, and are now unemployed or making less than what they deserve), should go home and reflect what voting in environmentalists causes, and what does really mean.
Everywhere in Europe, you see outdoors for these parties with emotive messages with doggies and kitties, but what they REALLY want is not the good of dogs and cats, it’s to impede progress and make us all grow and eat grass if possible (but only those straws rejected by the rabbits, because...)
Is this really necessary to have clean water, clean air and clean soil, and keep the fauna and flora working well?
I can’t see how a data center (solar powered, of course) could be so bad in such a lush environment like Ireland.
Perhaps some sub’s will hire temporary employees if they can’t handle the work but for the most parts these “jobs” already exist. So stop it already. The only meaningful jobs that will be created are those of the employees or subcontractors who work there after it’s built.