‘We had wolves coming into the village’: Google’s destruction of a 1,300-acre forest unleashed the wolfpack in Finland
Source: Fortune ·
“We understand the concerns and have fallen short of our own high standards in this instance,” a Google spokesperson said.
From the source
Google has called Finland its home for over 15 years, but its most recent move in data-center expansion in the country has brought some unwanted neighbors for nearby villages. Wolves have descended upon Finnish villages in Muhos and Otanmaki following Google’s illegal felling of hundreds of thousands of trees to prepare for a multibillion-euro data-center expansion—prompting a stop order from Finnish authorities. “We had wolves coming into the village because all the wild animals moved out of the forest,” Anni Ranta, a resident of Otanmaki, told The Guardian. “They fled.” Google’s Finnish subsidiary, Tuike Finland Oy, cleared an estimated 330 hectares—or 815 acres—of forest near Finnish town Muhos and almost 200 hectares—or about 494 acres—near Otanmaki, before completing required environmental assessments. The clearings involved an estimated 400,000 trees across the two locations according to The Guardian. Finnish authorities ordered the tech giant to suspend all preparatory work at…
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