Behind digital services are industrial cooling systems, transformers, diesel generators, and other machines operating near homes, schools, and working-class communities. The Pollution Behind the Cloud investigates the health and environmental burdens hidden behind the walls of data-center campuses.
The book examines diesel exhaust, particulate pollution, nitrogen oxides, generator testing, continuous mechanical noise, and low-frequency sound. It explains why examining one pollution source at a time can conceal the cumulative burden experienced by communities already surrounded by highways, warehouses, and industrial facilities.
Armando Oscar Olmos and Maria Teresa Zambrano Rivera call for independent air and noise monitoring, stronger permit conditions, cleaner backup systems, and enforceable remedies for affected residents. Technological progress must never come at the expense of a community’s health and quality of life.