Opposing AI Expansion and Nuclear Advancement as a Matter of Principle
The Stargate Project, a multibillion-dollar AI joint venture, aims to revolutionize AI capabilities across the United States. Led by OpenAI, SoftBank, Oracle, and MGX, the project plans to invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure by 2029 [1]. The project's ambition is to establish AI as an essential utility, akin to water or electricity, through the construction of vast data centers [2][3][5].
However, the Stargate Project's resource extraction footprint is significant. To power its data centers and manufacture AI chips, the project requires enormous amounts of energy, land, and raw materials, mirroring historical patterns of economic expansion [2][5]. This expansion involves the construction of gargantuan data centers, concrete warehouses powered by millions of AI chips, which necessitate massive electrical power capacity and raw materials [2][5].
The potential impact on Indigenous communities is a cause for concern. Historically, Indigenous peoples have faced centuries of resource exploitation, including land, water, mineral, and cultural resource extraction by external actors [2][4]. The rapid buildout of AI infrastructure threatens further impacts on Indigenous lands and ecosystems due to its demand for land and natural resources, often with minimal free, prior, and informed consent from those communities [2][4].
This new phase of extraction, often referred to as technocolonialism, involves the extraction of AI development and data as critical resources, similar to physical resources [2][4]. Indigenous advocates emphasize the need for respecting Indigenous sovereignty and including them in resource management decisions to prevent repeating past harms and ensure their knowledge and rights are integrated in controlling these developments [2][4].
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the only U.S. facility for storing radioactive waste from weapons manufacture, has plans to expand its landfill for 69 more years, despite environmental concerns and potential risks to local Indigenous communities [6]. The nuclear industry has irreversibly poisoned native lands and water in New Mexico due to uranium mining, enrichment, testing, and waste disposal [7]. The combination of increased nuclear pit production and the development of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) has sent uranium stocks skyrocketing, with little regard for the impacts on Native communities [8].
The enrichment process for SMR uranium releases highly dangerous chemicals and radioactive materials into the environment [9]. Nuclear pit manufacturing, dormant since 1989, has been revived in 2025 at a rate of 30 pits per year, with plans to manufacture 80 to 100 pits per year by 2030 [10]. There are over 500 abandoned uranium mines on and near the Navajo Nation alone, posing grave environmental and health risks to local Indigenous communities [11].
Energy consumption by data centers is so astronomical that their existence would foreclose the possibility of ever reaching carbon emission goals [12]. The tech oligarchs leading the project, Sam Altman, Larry Ellison, and Masayoshi Son, made dubious promises of cancer cures and climate solutions at the press conference [13]. The Trump administration is scrambling to throw up data centers and their accompanying nuclear energy sources, as an AI economy is not yet fully established [14]. An AI economy would be global and comprised of two main pillars: data center construction and a surveillance/extraction infrastructure [14].
In conclusion, the Stargate Project contributes to data and resource extraction chiefly through constructing critical AI infrastructure, which carries significant implications for Indigenous communities whose lands and resources may be affected without adequate participation or consent [1][2][4][5]. It is crucial to involve Indigenous communities in resource management decisions to prevent repeating past harms and ensure their knowledge and rights are integrated in controlling these developments.
References:
- Stargate Project: A New Era for AI
- The Stargate Project: A Technological Colonialism Nightmare for Indigenous Peoples
- Stargate Project: The Race to Dominate AI
- Indigenous Peoples and the Stargate Project: A Call for Sovereignty and Respect
- The Stargate Project: The Unseen Costs
- WIPP Expansion Plans Spark Controversy
- Nuclear Industry's Poisonous Legacy in New Mexico
- Uranium Stocks Soar as Nuclear Production Increases
- The Dangers of SMR Uranium Enrichment
- Nuclear Pit Production Resumes
- Navajo Nation Faces Uranium Mine Health Crisis
- Data Centers and Carbon Emissions
- Tech Oligarchs Promise Cancer Cures and Climate Solutions
- AI Economy: A New Frontier for Resource Extraction
- The Stargate Project, with its focus on data center construction and AI development, raises concerns about environmental science and climate-change, as the project's resource extraction footprint, including energy, land, and raw materials, mirrors historical patterns of economic expansion.
- The potential impact on Indigenous communities is significant, as the project's demand for land and natural resources, often with minimal free, prior, and informed consent, recalls past instances of resource exploitation in Indigenous territories.
- The rapid buildout of AI infrastructure, also known as technocolonialism, highlights the need for policy-and-legislation and politics that prioritize environmental-science and respect for Indigenous sovereignty, to prevent repeating past harms and ensure the integration of Indigenous knowledge and rights in controlling these developments.
- The future AI economy, composed of data center construction and a surveillance/extraction infrastructure, poses a challenge for general-news and environmental-science, as the ascent of the AI-driven industry may foreclose the possibility of reaching carbon emission goals without proper regulation and consideration for the environment and Indigenous communities.
