Summary: Protect Our Desert – No Data Centers in Nevada
Core Campaign Message
The “No Data Centers! Protect Our Desert – Protect Our Water” movement—led by the organizations: Handmaids of Las Vegas and Indivisible Henderson-Boulder City—is mobilizing Southern Nevada residents to halt the encroachment of industrial data centers into fragile desert ecosystems like Boulder City and Henderson. The central premise is clear: our limited natural resources belong to local communities, families, and the desert ecosystem—not corporate data servers.
Key Issues & Concerns
- Severe Resource Drain in a Hyper-Arid Climate: Data centers generate immense heat and rely on energy-intensive cooling systems or massive quantities of water. In drought-prone areas, placing industrial servers threatens groundwater reserves and puts a bottleneck on vital local water reclamation pipelines.
- Grid Strain & Renewable Goals at Risk: Beyond water, these mega-facilities place extreme demands on the power grid. Expanding grid capacity to satisfy data demands risks forcing utilities to rely on fossil fuels (such as natural gas plants), threatening Nevada’s clean energy mandates.
- Circumventing Community & Local Autonomy: Developers are actively attempting to bypass local zoning restrictions and residents’ public input—sometimes by shifting projects onto federal lands (like Bureau of Land Management territory) or pushing broad ballot measures after facing local pushback.
- High Environmental Strain, Minimal Local Return: While transforming historic desert landscapes into sterile industrial zones and producing noise, heat, and air pollution risks (such as diesel backup generators), these sprawling facilities yield very few permanent local jobs for the community.
Call to Action & Community Rallying
The campaign urges residents to step out from behind screens and demand accountability directly from local officials at City Hall meetings in Boulder City and Henderson.
- Demands: Strict environmental oversight, protection of groundwater and energy grids, and preservation of local community autonomy over land use.
- What Supporters Bring: Signs, reusable water bottles, public comment statements, and solidarity to show corporate developers that Nevada’s desert resources are not for sale.