‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre
Behind a wire fence lies a vast gaping wound of earth. Before Google’s arrival a few months ago, an estimated quarter of a million trees occupied the 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest near the town of Muhos in rural northern Finland. Now they are all gone.
After the tech company illegally stripped the entire area to build a datacentre – taking even the top soil with it – all that remains is a vast expanse of mud indented with the trail marks of machinery, puddles and mounds of earth, roots and branches. Residents say that brown water flowing off the site is going into a stream that feeds the Oulujoki River.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2026/oct/22/finland-google-felling-trees-datacentreOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
27 replies
The correct response to this would be prison time for Google execs. China kills greedy execs.
And a 1m/tree fine (400b in total) :3
I oppose the death penalty, but holy hell is it good that they hold the people at the top personally accountable for crimes.
This isn't something that just happens overnight. The local government and law enforcement also needs to be held accountable for failing to stop this.
It kind of did actually, they went forward without license awaiting the results of an environmental damage assessment report. Aslo Finland is quite sparsely populated ( ~18/ km2)
Yeah 100%, seems that the Finnish ( and the European) law & mindset is not ready for this sort of BS . The Finnish Gvement actually endorsed this Google investment without even thinking of the consequences. Sort of like money is always good for our country bla la. But in this case it's actually not true, unless you really tax them/make them pay.
This story is like a warning for others what could happen one day - or maybe already has happened - in your own backyard.
No it did not "kind of happen overnight".
What's your source?
Any finnish article that talks about the timeline.
Afaik they asked for permissions in March, the permission was pending and they already were felling trees.
Few months later they are like "oh there is this building law that can give us permissions"
They also file that and get permission for "preliminary construction proceedings" or something like that, while the permission from the first place that is trying to calculate the environmental impact is still pending, they halt the site in october.
So about 6 months it was going and someone should have stopped it if permissions were not cleared.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20251890
To see something ilke this makes me furios.
In times of climate change, they just don't give a fuck. Think about all the wildlife that is killed or cast out by this.
You can't leave Google fast enough, that's for sure.
Fucking evil company.
400k trees in total. Inconceivable number.
Someone in another reply said they should be fined 1m/tree...
400b seems fair :3
Fine them to oblivion
Just cancel the building permits.
They already proved they won't follow even basic requirements.
Not just fines please. I'm a big fan of "you have to put it back the way it was before we can let anything else proceed with the project" as well
That includes the 50+ years of growth needed to get it back to the "way it was". Of course.
Oh, definitely.
And jail time for executives, board members, and majority shareholders.
I’m a big fan of community service. Making them wake up at 5am for the next 30 years to plant trees sounds great.
Seize the land and 'fine' them by having them pay to replant the forest
If it was in fact illegal, when is rebuilding the forest scheduled to start?
I bet Petteri Orpo ends up with a job at Google for a very large salary once he's thrown out of office.
That's heartbreaking. When do we set those motherfuckers on fire?
So what, just catch the responsible person there? Then you can figure out who actually gave the commands, while the construction progress is halted. It's a illegal building site anyway, you'll do nothing wrong by just going ahead.
What can we do as citizens? Somebody an idea? E.g. reach out to the authorities in finnland an eu
Drop Google completely. Don't use it. They're telling the Americans who to kill and enabling Israel's genocide.
Wear sandals. Fight like a dead man.