The Fight for Our Future
For major tech companies, the future has never been bigger. Companies like Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Google have massive, billion-dollar expansion plans, transforming current data center operations into sprawling compounds and increasing extraction and emission levels. These initiatives are poised to move the world further away from a green, sustainable future and harm our poorest neighbors as profits soar. Thankfully, organizations both within and outside these companies have begun combating the looming ecological threat posed by these companies. Within companies such as Amazon and Google, resistance has been growing to the current environmental promises, leading to the creation of cross-company organizations like the Cross Company Alliance, which challenges tech companies to divest from fossil fuels (Trellis). At Microssfot, which still holds significant investments in fossil fuel companies, employees founded the Sustainability Connected Community, which has helped shape Microsoft’s climate goals since 2019 (Grist). While the Sustainability Connected Community achieved early success in shaping internal policies surrounding the use of fossil fuels, it was unable to convince the company to crack down on emissions from oil and gas partners, as the company was simultaneously embracing oil and gas companies while promoting its cloud services (Grist). Along with internal measures, community organizations have formed near massive data centers. In Indiana, the Citizens Action Coalition has launched a campaign to address concerns about the growing number of data centers in the state, the resources these centers will consume, and the lack of transparency from tech companies regarding their water usage and impact on local communities (Citizens Action Coalition). The CAC has also begun legally challenging the authority of these tech companies, forcing them to pay larger utility minimums and forcing the companies to issue more detailed reports about the impact of these centers (Citizens Action Coalition). In Memphis, community groups have begun protesting Elon Musk’s xAI data center, which has increased nitrogen dioxide levels in surrounding communities with its 35 gas-powered turbines (Time). In Boxtown, the community that the datacenter borders, increases in respiratory issues are becoming more common, especially in the elderly, children, and people with preexisting conditions like asthma (Time). Citizens have begun protesting the city’s support of Musk’s centers, with state representatives like Justin Pearson becoming critical supporters of the anti-Musk movement. They argue that the community's suffering outweighs any financial support xAI pays in taxes (Time).
These stories of corporate and community resistance echo Arne Naess’s exploration of self-realization in “Self-realization: An Ecological Approach to Being in the World.” The actions of major tech companies reflect Naess’s idea of the “narrow self,” in which human lives and interests are seen as higher-order concerns than those of nature (Naess 235). When companies like Microsoft or X support climate-endangering practices, such as the burning of fossil fuels or the extraction of water, they view that action not necessarily as morally right, but as separate from the rest of the ecosphere. This narrow view of self encourages these companies to flatten their understanding of their environmental impact. In this narrow view, any environmental destruction and harm to surrounding communities can be offset by general climate pledges or the capital gains of innovation. Organizations combating big tech’s extractive practices mirror Naess' description of the “ecological self.” These organizations acknowledge that humanity should be interested in the health of the environment, or as Naess writes, the “widest community” (Naess 236). It is our responsibility to view our role as both a subject and an object in the environment, and it is in both our interest and the world at large to combat extractive and emissive practices by big tech. It is our responsibility to fight at the community, state, and national levels against the rampant expansion of big tech because humans exist as part of a global identity. Although we contribute to climate change, we also have the unique liberty to change it, not just as concerned citizens worrying about its impact on the most marginalized, but as concerned creatures part of a larger biosphere. We as humans are given a unique capacity to affect the state of the world more than most other living and non-living things, and it is our duty to stop its destruction by our own hands.
Works Cited
Clancy, Heather. “Climate Activism at Amazon, Google, and Pinterest.” Trellis, 28 July 2025, https://trellis.net/article/jeff-bezos-amazon-employee-climate-activism-howto-your-company/.
Stone, Maddie. “Microsoft Employees Spent Years Fighting the Tech Giant’s Oil Ties. Now, They’re Speaking out.” Grist, 8 May 2024, https://grist.org/accountability/microsoft-employees-spent-years-fighting-the-tech-giants-oil-ties-now-theyre-speaking-out/.
"AI Data Center Build Out Creates Unprecedented Risk to Hoosiers" Citizens Action Coalition. https://www.citact.org/ai-data-centers. Accessed 11 Dec. 2025.
Chow, Andrew R. “Inside the Memphis Community Battling Elon Musk’s xAI.” TIME, 13 Aug. 2025, https://time.com/7308925/elon-musk-memphis-ai-data-center/.
Naess, Arne. “Self-Realization: An Ecological Approach to Being in the World.” Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century, pp. 225–39.