Nashville Zoo collects 248,000 names on petition against AI data center proposed next door

The proposed construction of AI data centers is a topic of controversy across the country, with a most recent example causing alarm at the Nashville Zoo, where a data center is proposed next door.

According to the website change.org, the zoo opened an online petition on Tuesday to voice opposition to the proposed project. As of Saturday night, nearly 250,000 signatures were gathered.

The Nashville Zoo Communications group posted the following remarks:

AI Data Centers are being built at an alarming pace, posing possible risks to diverse and vulnerable communities. The next one could be located just feet away from one of the most fragile and rare collections of animals in the country unless Nashville Zoo supporters and city leaders intervene.

At Nashville Zoo, our top priority is to protect our precious animals and their environment. We are equally committed to the health and safety of our visitors, staff, and neighbors living nearby. Yet, with no regulations or safeguards for use in place, developers intend to build a 69,000 square feet data center on land abutting the Zoo. They assert the community need not worry, that building a data center next door to one of the region’s most delicate environments will cause no harm.

No one has shared studies or environmental impact assessments. Just their word. That’s why the Nashville Zoo is asking the community to join in vehemently opposing the proposed data center being built adjacent to the Zoo. One simple Google search shows growing concerns about data centers’ environmental and public health impacts nationwide. Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water; straining power grids, depleting natural resources, and damaging our watershed. How are we to know this new data center will not lead to irreversible damage to the animals we exist to protect?

The zoo says it is home to about 3,000 different animals, and it's visited by about 1.4 million people each year.

The petition lists dozens of Nashville "decision makers" who will presumably receive the petition. They include Nashville's mayor and vice mayor, 40 members of the Nashville city council, and three members of the Metro Nashville school board.

The petition is located at this address .