Showing Up Matters: How Local Advocacy Can Shape the Future of AI
It doesn’t take a lot of committed people to make a difference. In my rural community, we have been doing our best to prove that point when it comes to advocacy against AI data centers coming to our county. You’ve probably heard a lot about data centers, AI or otherwise recently, but here’s a quick rundown of some of their climate impacts:
- They use a lot of electricity, which often comes from (or increases demand for) fossil fuel-powered electricity
- They use a lot of water in cooling, which can put further pressure on drought-stricken areas, local communities’ water supply, and even deplete natural aquifers
- Sound pollution can cause long-term negative health impacts for nearby neighbors and harm wildlife by interfering with migration
- Local communities bear the brunt of increased electric and water costs from the increased demand
More issues exist, but these give you a quick overview of how they’re harming God’s Creation, human and other-than-human alike. My faith calls me to be a good steward of God’s Creation, which means standing up against AI data centers being built where I live while advocating for better protections for all communities at the state and federal levels.
In my neck of the woods, our local community alliance has been doing this work, and with a couple of church members, neighbors, friends, family, etc., you can too!
We started by educating ourselves about the topic, learning about the different types of data centers, their impacts, and separating the facts from the fear. While we continue to educate ourselves, we also started going to local city and county board meetings and zoning meetings. In our small county, almost no one attends these meetings regularly, and when even two or three people show up, those on the boards take notice. We take notes and share so that no one person has to go to every meeting.
We then had some 1:1 conversations with those working for the city and county, as well as members of the boards. We worked to find common ground about caring for our local community, its residents, and our natural spaces, and shared how AI data centers could impact those. We also spoke directly to the boards and committees during their open comment period to share our opinions about AI data centers potentially coming to our area.
Thanks in part to our actions, the city passed a one-year data center moratorium. This is a step in the right direction, and we will continue to show up and be in conversation to make it permanent. We haven’t had as much movement with our county board as they claim bureaucratic inability to act in preventing data centers, but we are continuing to push them towards caring better for all of our community and Creation.
AI data centers are unpopular across the political spectrum, which provides a great opportunity to build relationships that can be used in the future on other climate advocacy work. While going to board meetings and zoning meetings aren’t the most exciting climate actions, they are a real way you can make an impact for a better future, a Blessed Tomorrow, for all of us.
About the Author:
Rev. Clayton Summers served at the Walter Scott Camp & Learning Center for 5 years. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, a member of the Center for Indigenous Ministries (Disciples of Christ), and a goat herder. His spouse Alix and he enjoy spending time with their son Tal, their cats, and playing table top role playing games.
Additional Resources:
Watch the 2026 National Faith + Climate Forum
Watch the 2026 American Climate Leadership Awards
Join the Campaign: One Home One Future
Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Children and Youth Report 2023