“The developers would say, yeah, but the water returns because it evaporates. It's going back to the environment. And then the indigenous would say, yeah, but to us, that water is dead. Water that has passed through an electronic system is dead.”

When we know, I think that's also like the point of having energy companies do the whole spearheading is that we only learn about the final client very later on. And to the big tech companies, this is super beneficial, right? They don't get their hands dirty so early on in the process. Again, the TikTok case, this is exactly what happened. It was a renewable energy company. And at one point, we were able to find out, like with government sources, it was TikTok. So we were able to name TikTok. And that changed the game because people recognize TikTok. They know TikTok is a social network. They use it. I think they're able to connect that infrastructure to what it actually means. If you tell people it's a renewable energy company, they're like, how does this make sense, right? In the final equation. So it's very important to be able to name them. The TikTok data center in terms of impacts, I think the biggest concern in that area is water. So we're speaking of this town that is right next to Fortaleza. Fortaleza is the capital of Sierra. And this town is a very, in terms of area, it's a very big town, city, or whatever it's called. Caucaya is the name of it, where you have the coastal area, this middle area that is like the urbanized area, and you already have an area that is in the countryside, and that's very dry. But still, right next to the data center, you have communities that don't have access to clean, potable water because the water never reached them. And what these communities are saying is that, you know, we already have some months in the year where we're not able to get water from our cisterns. What will happen with the data center pumping out more water from the ground? So they're concerned about the water impact. Again, energy is still a problem in that area. These same communities, they tell us that when it rains, sometimes they go for days without power. So power is also a problem. But the biggest impact there is that this data center is on indigenous land. And I think that makes the story very different, right? Because we're not speaking only of very tangible impacts, but we're speaking of this more spiritual level. So right next to the data center, there's a big body of water. It's a lagoon. It's very big. And to the indigenous that live there, that has a sacred meaning. TikTok is pumping water out of the ground, but it's connected to that body of water. So they're saying, if this dries up, what does this mean for us? Like, you know, this lagoon has such a sacred meaning. If it's gone, how does our spirituality continue? These are things that don't make it into environmental reports. They oftentimes don't make it into the story, but these are things that should be considered, right? The indigenous are speaking about this very frequently. They also have this interesting understanding. You know, TikTok would say, or like the developers would say, yeah, but the water returns because it evaporates. Like it's going back to the environment. And then the indigenous would say, yeah, but to us, that water is dead. Water that has passed through an electronic system is dead. It's useless. Like, you know, the spiritual component is gone. So again, you will never read this in an environmental report. There's also, I think, a level of racism there where we don't consider the meanings of these things for these communities, but it should be considered also. So I would say that's the impact in the TikTok case. In many other cases, again, I would say the impact is water. So data centers that are coming up in Sao Paulo around my area, water is a problem. I would say we're not having a problem with water right now because this has been the rainiest September ever. But usually September, we have rationing, water rationing in many, many houses. And data centers are coming up in this area and many close together. What water will they use? So this is again a question. Recently, We saw the announcement of a data center in Beling, Du Pará. So that's already the Amazon. And they've been calling it the first Amazonian data center, as if this was like a good selling point. The community there is really worried about what this means. It's interesting because the problem there is power. The area where the data center will be built is an area that goes without power for many days. Water is not really a problem there because, of course, the Amazon is so humid, although they're going through a drought now. But what communities there have been saying, and also journalists, activists, is about this boundary that they're worried will be crossed. Like if you're able to install a data center on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, what happens if you go next, like after, right? So they're worried about breaking this boundary of, which has been an invisible line that hasn't been crossed yet in terms of like technology companies. So I think these would be the impacts. Again, we're still very early on. Things haven't happened. I think in two years, we'll be able to say what is actually, how are these data centers impacting? These are just some forecasts that we have based on what we've been able to learn about energy consumption and water consumption and the areas where these data centers will be installed. But I wouldn't say we're in a situation where the prognosis is good, where like we're, you know, abundant natural resources. Please come and use up whatever you would like. This is not the case, but this is what is being sold to these companies, also internationally.