A Time Magazine The investigation revealed that Elon Musk’s The AI Data Center in Memphis has led to an increase in the risks of pollution for the Boxown people, a predominantly black community with about 3,000 residents.
“It seemed to me that my chest was caving,” said Alexis Humphreys, 28, remembering his first asthma attack in 15 years after inhaling the smell of gas that circulated throughout his neighborhood.
How is the Musk Lamb Center that causes pollution and health risks in Boxown?
Musk launched the AI center a few kilometers from Boxown, creating what is now considered the largest supercomputer in the world called Colossus. The machine has about 230,000 GPU NVIDIA, a training power that allows Musk to overcome its competitors in the world of technology. These computers emit 35 temporary gas turbines, and, according to environmentalists, aggravates health problems due to the existing pollution problem in Boxtown, which has persisted for decades, for time.
The University of Tennessee analyzed the air quality in South Memphis in recent years based on NASA public satellite data and the European Space Agency. The researchers concluded that “the average nitrogen dioxide concentrations have increased by 3% by comparing the periods before June 2024 and then,” according to the time journalist Andrew R. Chow.
Additionally, “maximum nitrogen dioxide concentration levels have increased by 79% from the pre-educational levels in the areas that immediately surround the data center and 9% in Boxown nearby.”
“These emissions represent the highest risk for the most vulnerable residents of our city”
“ These changes in pollutant concentrations probably reflect the combined influence of emission sources in natural gas in the area, including the new lamb installation and the greater use of Allen’s power plant, ” said Joshua Fu, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Zhixu Sun, a doctoral student, said time.
Austin Dalgo, an academic primary care physician at South Memphis, said that increasing levels of nitrogen dioxide concentration is “alarming” and is a significant risk for Boxown residents and their health.
“Xai turbines lead to a public health crisis in Memphis by releasing nitrogen oxides: pollutants known for directly harm the lungs,” Dalgo told Time. “These emissions are the highest risk for the most vulnerable residents of our city, including children, the elderly and people with respiratory conditions such as asthma and COPD.”
While environmentalists and other experts believe that machine chemicals are harmful, Xai had a different view on how nearby communities would affect. The company, along with other supporters, such as the Grand Memphis Chamber of Commerce, “insisted that the turbines were legal, generated insignificant amounts of pollution and were only temporary,” chow reported on time.
Removing the Tennessee State Income Tax can cause greater damage to local communities
In April, they said that units would be replaced by cleanest models that regulate pollution levels, a movement that would be supposed to occur at some point this summer. Local proponents are concerned that the lamb approach is followed by other large companies, causing an increase in pollution and health risks for communities.
After Tennessee legislators repealed the State Income Tax by 2021, local governments began to trust large companies to generate revenue through property taxes.
“Property taxes are breast milk of how the government is financed.” Bobby White, head of the Grand Memphis Chamber of Commerce Government, told Time. “And we have not done so, historically, that people would be abandoned to get to Memphis. We have to get out of the mud.”
Dalgo wondered how the public would respond if the Musk lamb center placed communities outside the predominantly black neighborhoods.
“Imagine -the cry if these facilities had been placed next to the Research Hospital of the children of St. Jude, no one would allow it … Instead, they were placed in the courtyard of a historically black and undervalued neighborhood, reinforcing a long legacy of environmental racism in Memphis and our country,” he said.
Xai is building a second larger place in Whitehaven, which will have 550,000 GPU NVIDIA. In August, the commercial resource reported that a lamb subsidiary delivered 66 natural gas turbines to the site. In addition, the company announced a strong contract with the United States Department of Defense worth $ 200 million to strengthen technology tools within the country’s military.
Musk has not commented criticism of pollution and health risks of the center for black communities like Boxown.
