Google illegally cuts down 250,000 trees for data center in Finland

Quarter of a million trees across 330 hectares have been illegally cut down by Google –  taking even the top soil with it – near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland with brown dirty water from the construction site flowing into the local Oulujoki River, residents say.

Finland is at the top of the list for tech giants’ data centers sites, with 145 being planned or in construction across the country, mainly due its cool climate which saves tech firms heaps on energy costs.

Finland had ordered Google to stop construction at the site, and another 100km south-east in the village of Otanmäki, earlier this month as the company had failed to procure the necessary environmental impact assessments before digging up the land.

Google’s Finland country manager, Antti Järvinen, apologized last week for the trees but excused himself saying that the company had acted “on the best understanding we had of the legislation at the time”.

In Muhos, ecologist Mari Annala from the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (SLL), said “It doesn’t end. It goes on and on,” at the scene of the construction site, having surveyed it with her drones.

The Google data center projects at Muhos and Otanmäki are part of a $14.5 billion AI infrastructure project that has attracted criticism from Trump who would rather the centres were built in the US instead of Finland and has urged Google to reconsider.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that attracting investment was a “top priority” for his government and that “the value of the data economy extends far beyond direct investment” promising “lasting benefits for both parties.”

Aside from the 250,000 trees chopped down at Muhos, Mari Annala estimates that an additional 150,000 trees were felled at Otanmäki, she added that the wood from the two sites cannot be sold to wood-processing plants as it had been cut down illegally.

“It has been done in the wrong way. American style. No sense. No sense at all,” Antti Jakonen, Muhos resident, said, protesting the way his town’s trees were cut down.