First comparison result I found was the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization

They say Finland has over 22 million hectares of forested land https://fra-data.fao.org/assessments/fra/latest/FIN/home/ove...

So Google reduced the forested land by 0.00000013%

I'm so tired of every news outlet trying to turn everything datacenter related into a panic-worthy event.

The real story is a debate about whether they followed the right procedures. Google says they did. The chair of a Finnish Nature Conservation Association says maybe they didn't:

> She is asking the LVV to halt the entire construction site so that authorities can determine whether Google tried to bring the forest down without first obtaining formal approval.

So they want to halt construction to determine if any permitting approval wasn't done appropriately? This is getting so much press that I assumed they had actual evidence that this was illegal, not just someone's suspicion and request to investigate.

> So Google reduced the forested land by 0.00000013%

Hacker news strikes again with mathematical genius tier logic...

If I kill your first born son that's only like 0.00000013% of the mass of living creatures, who cares right?

This article is a bit old, LVV has already ordered Google to stop construction until the YVA processes are done. What is still unclear is if Google will face any repercussions for acting before the YVA was done, but it is looking unlikely.

Edit: One source in English but even this is a while ago: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvj6jkx6g1r0o

Forested land is rotated with trees to provide a sustainable resource without removing it.

Google bulldozing a square mile of trees is not comparable to normal forestry operations, because they are not replacing it with trees. They are replacing it with a massive concrete building which will produce loads of heat and suck up loads of local power and water.

This is why there is outrage, not because they are destroying the trees but what they are doing in the place of them.

The first think I did when I saw the number is to google how much trees finland has.

Estimated 33 trillion trees. I think they will do fine with 250k less trees.

> I'm so tired of every news outlet trying to turn everything datacenter related into a panic-worthy event.

I guess you being tired means you also just skip reading the actual article and start arguing about some point no one made? The problem isn't "Google reduced the forested land by 0.00000013%" but that Google "began bulldozing large swaths of forest before the required environmental review of the full plan was complete", and then on top of that, Google seems to have gone beyond just rushing through it, and also cleared forest "that should have been protected have already been leveled. Beyond the loss of so much forest, the outcome could be dire for wildlife preservation"

Maybe don't turn every comment section into some tirade against news outlets when the news they carry in this case isn't even relevant to what your tirade is about.