Just a note that forestry in Finland is managed, this means it is planted and harvested on a rotating basis. There seems to have been a huge messup here without securing the proper permits first. But any reporting you read describing it as an environmental problem will be nonsense as the trees would have been harvested at some point anyway.

However I understand that data-centres have become a political issue, and therefore my facts will be meaningless to a half of readers.

The raw timber was never the issue here. The environmental impact is, and exactly why this is major news now.

Removing forest soil has exposed anaerobic soil layers to oxygen. It also causes rainfall to flood into nearby freshwater. The Oulujoki river basin is now facing contamination with acidic runoff and sedimentation.

Uncontrolled hydrological changes may have an irreversible environmental impact. Similar destruction of hydrological environments was huge news in 2024, when a forestry corporation destroyed the habitat of endangered freshwater pearl mussels.

People in Finland don't take irreversible environmental damage lightly.

yeah I was wondering about this since when I looked on the map the "forest" area in question appears to be rather new and was clearly part of a reforestation effort also the first thing I saw when randomly looked at the street view in the area was logging trucks harvesting the trees.

>> trees would have been harvested at some point anyway.

Ya but they would have been replaced with other young/growing trees, not racks of 4090s in a concrete box.

You didn't need that last sentence.

You deserve an upvote - if only to base it in reality.