Georgia-based company Edged US broke ground on an AI Data Center on the East side of Council Bluffs in October, without the consultation of the public.

 The servers in AI data centers are extremely energy-intensive; much more so than standard Internet data centers. And the companies that run them have the bad habit of not paying their fair share, instead passing on their high energy costs to area residents, who often pay significantly more on their electric bills for power that they didn't even use. In Council Bluffs, much of the electricity comes from MidAmerican Energy's coal plant in the Manawa district. The increased demand for power will mean an increase in fossil fuel emissions in the area. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the burning of coal releases coal particles, ash, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and heavy metals into the air. Exposure to and inhalation of these emissions can lead to respiratory, developmental, neurological, and developmental damage. Carbon dioxide is also released by burning coal. Carbon dioxide in the air prevents heat from the Sun from escaping the atmosphere, which heats the planet up, leading to hotter seasons and natural disasters. Ten years ago in Iowa, we could expect snow on the ground in mid-October. These days, you can't even expect to have a white Christmas. But our environment isn't the only thing that is negatively affected by data centers.

AI itself has made many things worse in the past two years. First of all, Google is now unusable. What was originally the perfect place to have your questions answered can now not be trusted to give you true or correct information, or to even understand what you're asking at all. Secondly, studies have shown that having AI work, write, and think for you can weaken neurological pathways, which can (and does) lead to cognitive atrophy. As a third point, excessive interaction with AI chatbots can lead to a phenomenon called "AI psychosis", wherein users experience delusions fueled by chatbots that affirm their beliefs to make them happy, regardless of facts.

If you live in Council Bluffs or even the surrounding area, the completion of this AI data center may:

• raise your electric bill
• make you sick
• increase the frequency and severity of droughts
• make truth harder to find
• make you go crazy

By signing this petition, you assert that you don't want this AI data center in Council Bluffs.