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STORIES FROM MOTHER JONES AND ITS PARTNERS If you happen to be driving through Altoona, Iowa, anytime soon, you’ll probably take Interstate 80. If you do, you’ll spot the Altoona water tower and the roller-coaster peaks of Adventureland theme park, empty in the off-season. You’ll also likely notice, just off the highway, a hulking, windowless warehouse complex stretching hundreds of acres. That’s Meta’s Altoona Data Center, now the subject of a $5 million industry advertising campaign.    As a reporter for Grist, I spend a lot of time thinking about data centers, which are proliferating to enable Silicon Valley’s AI frenzy. More and more Americans are thinking about them, too, and many folks aren’t so sure they want the facilities in their neighborhoods. They’re worried about air and noise pollution, and that developers may be less than entirely honest about how many jobs the facilities will bring.    Big Tech knows its data centers have a PR problem, so now it is spending millions in the hope of convincing people the centers are job creators, responsible ratepayers, and generally a boon to American communities.    Sounds nice, but these claims may not stand up to scrutiny. As Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First told me, research suggests that tech data centers create vanishingly few jobs relative to comparable community investments by other industries. (In Altoona, the local casino employs more than twice as many people as Meta’s facility does.) Meanwhile, public backlash is growing, ads or no ads: From April through June of 2025, community groups blocked or delayed at least 20 data center projects, representing an estimated $98 billion of potential investment.   Will the industry’s rosy ad campaign move the masses? Virginia activist Elena Schlossberg is doubtful. As she put it, “There’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube.” Read my story and decide for yourself.   —Sophie Hurwitz

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TOP STORY JIM WEST/UCG/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY People Hate Data Centers, so Big Tech Is Spending Millions to Rebrand Them Jobs! Clean energy! Lower bills! A bit of skepticism is in order. GRIST

SPONSORED CONTENT BY THE BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS It is 85 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday Clock Last week, experts at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock the closest it has ever been to metaphorical apocalypse. Nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies threaten life as we know it. Watch the announcement featuring Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa.

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EDITOR'S PICK JON AARS/NORWEGIAN POLAR INSTITUTE  Something Very Unexpected Is Happening to Norway’s Polar Bears Could climate change be making them healthier? VOX

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