This tracks for Seattle.
Also like, y’know what helps a ton with pollen? Wearing a respirator. I haven’t had bad seasonal allergies in years because I mask up outside during pollen season.
GNU Anthony Head. And a wail to the heavens. 💔
these are getting weird
The problem is - and this is where I’m clearly not a lawyer - most ESA lawsuits require the harm to have happened. You can’t un-build a data center as appropriate relief one it opens and starts harming all the animals (and subsequently breeding, conservation, and education programs) at the zoo.
The zoo is circumspect about what it fears might happen, but we know enough about the environmental impacts of data centers for the severity of the situation to be clear. Zoos are dependent on ticket income to run: with a data center next door Nashville’s current 1 mil annual guests won’t come back.
For anyone interested: the ESA has a provision prohibiting “take” (doing the prohibited things) in captive settings. This is the statue PETA uses to successfully sue and shut down crappy zoos for much smaller welfare/health issues than those that would be caused by a data center next door.
Do you like clouded leopards? Nashville has one of the most successful breeding programs for them in the US.
You should sign the petition, but boy, I hope the zoo is doing something substantive behind the scenes.
I cannot emphasize the degree to which a data center next to a zoo is a massive endless Endangered Species Act violation. If this happens it /will/ be the end of the facility.
Air quality issues kill birds. Constant loud noise destroys animal welfare. Both decimate visitorship. The zoo will close.
A funny side effect of having re-listened to the Magnus Archives so many times is that when fact-checking image attributions for work, all Creative Commons licenses are narrated in my head by @jonnysims.bsky.social. No regrets.