Denver Kanowski has lived on his bush block for 70 years. He has watched many gas projects come and go. Now, a $31bn datacentre is planned nearby. It will power Anthropic's AI, Claude. The datacentre will cover 725 hectares, making it Australia's largest. It is located near Dalby, about 180km west of Brisbane. Many local residents are unhappy. They feel once bitten, twice shy after past experiences with coal seam gas.
The datacentre requires a peak power of 2.16GW, equivalent to a quarter of Queensland's total energy demand. It will create thousands of construction jobs and about 1,400 long-term positions. However, residents like Denver Kanowski call it 'shortsighted stupidity'. Another local, Mordechai Winters, started a petition that quickly gained over 21,500 signatures. He says the council and government should not approve it.
In the United States, datacentres face strong opposition. Three-quarters of Americans oppose them, and over 500 counties have banned new ones. The developer, Zerra DC, claims the cooling system uses less water than typical datacentres, similar to a shopping centre. But critics worry about energy use, noise, and poor location. The site is currently a feedlot surrounded by gas wells and power plants. People fear the datacentre will disconnect them from nature and community values.
Sources: theguardian.com
The words in bold are from the article.
| 1. planned | a. need |
| 2. require | b. builder |
| 3. opposition | c. concerns |
| 4. petition | d. appeal |
| 5. signatures | e. scheduled |
| 6. approve | f. refrigeration |
| 7. developer | g. encircled |
| 8. cooling | h. authorize |
| 9. worries | i. endorsements |
| 10. surrounded | j. resistance |
1.e 2.a 3.j 4.d 5.i 6.h 7.b 8.f 9.c 10.g