The Times - UK (2022-01-03)

the times | Monday January 3 2022 2GM 27

demand,” Frans Rooijers, director of

the environmental research agency CE

Delft, said. “Those targets must now be

increased to prevent the extra electri-

city demand from being produced by

gas and coal-fired power stations.”

Even before this project, data storage

consumed some 3 per cent of the Neth-

erlands’ electricity, a share that is ex-

pected to rise to more than 10 per cent

by 2030. The issue is fast becoming a

problem across Europe. In Denmark,

where Meta has a major data centre,

15 per cent of energy produced will

power servers by the end of the decade.

Zeewolde council approved the com-

Tourists dangle

for hours in

freezing cable car

Page 30

What would Nicole

say about green

French car adverts?

Page 29

Joe Biden faces the prospect of a

primary challenge from the left wing of

the Democratic Party amid unrest over

his age, poll ratings and failure to push

through his legislative agenda.

The president has entered 2022 in a

vulnerable position, with polling indi-

cating the Republicans are well-placed

to seize control of the House of Repre-

sentatives in November’s midterms.

Biden was dealt a serious blow last

month when Joe Manchin, a Demo-

cratic senator from the conservative

state of West Virginia, all but doomed

the flagship “Build Back Better” plan,

which had been the linchpin of his

domestic agenda. Adding to the uncer-

tainty surrounding the White House is

Biden’s age: he will be 82 shortly after

the 2024 presidential election.

Corbin Trent, co-

founder of the progres-

sive No Excuses pol-

itical action com-

mittee — and

former communi-

cations director

for Alexandria

Ocasio-Cortez, a

leading light on

the American left

— told Politico:

“He’s deeply unpop-

ular. He’s old as shit.

He’s largely been inef-

fective. And I think he’ll

probably get demolished in the

midterms. DC is filled with people who

want to be president.”

It is considered unlikely that any

prominent progressive politician would

take the risk of challenging Biden.

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren,

for example, have wielded significant

Facebook has been hit by anger at plans

to build a giant data centre in the

Netherlands that will use as much

electricity as the nation’s railway

system or a major city.

Meta, the social media giant’s parent

company, said it stipulated that the 410-

acre complex at Zeewolde must be run

from renewable power sources. How-

ever, the plan is rapidly becoming the

biggest headache for the government

because its scale threatens the nation’s

climate change targets.

The server farm for content on Insta-

gram, Facebook, and WhatsApp will

consume 1,380 gigawatt hours of

energy — representing about 10 per

cent of Dutch wind energy production.

“We find it irresponsible to saddle a

future generation with this energy

issue,” said Ben Sonneveld of the Leef-

baar, or “Liveable”, pressure group,

which has eight elected councillors.

“For the energy transition, this

means that there will be considerable

Outcry over Facebook’s Dutch data farm

plex before Christmas. However, the

senate, the country’s upper house of

parliament, has challenged the deci-

sion, meaning the government must

make a final ruling.

It has polarised local politics. Jaap

Lodders, a farming representative, ac-

cused councillors of being “led by

empty promises and commitments that

cannot be substantiated” rather than

the “actual local consequences”.

Mark Rutte, the prime minister, has

promised new rules for data centres but

has also said he wanted to encourage

more foreign investment. He will make

the final decision on the centre as some

of it is to be built on government land.

Hendrik Visser, a Zeewolde council-

lor and supporter of the project, said

such facilities were “simply necessary”

in the 21st century. “They have to go

somewhere.” The centre will create

some 400 jobs. Gerrit Jan Gorter, the

mayor, has accused opponents of the

project of being taken in by “fake news”

and “myths” over energy usage.

“People still believe what’s in the news-

paper,” he said.

North

Sea

NETHERLANDS

Amsterdam

Rotterdam

25 miles

GERMANY

Data centre to

be built here

Zeewolde

Netherlands

Bruno Waterfield Brussels

Hard-left Democrats plot

to unseat ‘failing’ Biden

influence in the president’s administra-

tion. Instead, a challenge could come

from lesser-known candidates with

little to lose. They could include the

former Sanders campaign co-chair-

woman Nina Turner, or Marianne

Williamson, a 2020 presidential hope-

ful who later endorsed Sanders. Joe

Sanberg, an entrepreneur in favour of

raising the minimum wage to $18 an

hour, was another touted as a challen-

ger by Politico, though a spokesman

denied he would consider running.

Any contest would have echoes of

1980, when another struggling Demo-

cratic president, Jimmy Carter, had to

see off a primary challenge from Ted

Kennedy. Carter entered the presiden-

tial election later that year in a weaken-

ed state and lost to Ronald Reagan.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ former presi-

dential campaign manager, predicted

that a progressive would emerge to take

on Biden. However, he said this would

not be a “repudiation” of the president

but proof of the party’s shift to the left.

“Progressives are ultimately ascend-

ant,” Weaver said. “And if nothing else,

a progressive running who gets a lot of

support will demonstrate that the ideas

that the progressive movement embra-

ces are, in fact, popular.”

Biden was not the progressive choice

for president but has largely been

praised by the left while in office. He

recently supported making an excep-

tion to the Senate filibuster rules to pass

voting rights legislation, a key issue for

that wing of the party.

Should the president decide not to

run for re-election, it is considered like-

ly that a strong list of progressive candi-

dates would emerge, possibly including

Ocasio-Cortez, who would be 35 and

therefore just old enough to qualify.

Politico reported that progressives

will not stand aside if Biden declines to

run and throws his support behind

Kamala Harris, his vice-president.

Harris has endured her own struggles

with low poll ratings.

United States

Keiran Southern Los Angeles

T

he debating

chamber of

South Africa’s

houses of

parliament has

been destroyed by a fire

that was still burning

last night and was

possibly the result of

arson (Jane Flanagan

writes).

The blaze caused the

roof to collapse, sending

flames leaping skywards,

and the pall of smoke

over Cape Town could

be seen from miles away.

The Hawks, the

country’s priority crime

investigation unit, took

over the inquiry from

police after reports that

the sprinkler system had

been tampered with.

A 51-year-old man is

due to appear in court

tomorrow over the

incident.

The alarm was raised

at 6am yesterday and

soon more than 70

firefighters were in

attendance.

“This is a disastrous

event that should sadden

all of us,” President

Ramaphosa said during

a visit to the site, which

he described as “the

home of our

democracy”.

A spokesman for the

parliament said: “The

entire chamber where

the members sit... has

burnt down.”

Firefighters warned

that other parts of the

parliamentary complex,

which is modelled on the

House of Commons and

dates from the late

1800s, were in danger of

collapse after fierce heat

caused cracking. No

casualities were reported

but historians are

concerned about rare

books and artefacts.

The fire broke out as

the ashes of Archbishop

Desmond Tutu were

being interred at St

George’s Cathedral a few

minutes’ walk away.

A private family service

began at 6am as the

cleric’s remains were

laid to rest.

Tension has been high

in South Africa since

deadly riots swept the

provinces of KwaZulu-

Natal and Gauteng in

July, which Ramaphosa

called “an attempted

insurrection”. Senior

figures in the governing

African National

Congress blamed that

violence on “renegades

with a nefarious agenda”

within their own party.

Fire rips

through

Cape Town

parliament

ELMOND JIYANE/GCIS/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

Firefighters at the

portico of South

Africa’s parliament.

A man, 51, will appear

in court tomorrow

More than one in three Americans

believe violence against the

government can at times be

justified, a New Year’s Day poll

suggests.

The figure is higher among

Republicans, at 40 per cent, and

independent voters, on 41 per cent,

but only 23 per cent of Democrats

feel that way, according to the

Washington Post-University

of Maryland survey.

The percentage of

American adults

who say violence

is justified in

some

circumstances

has been rising

steadily: in 2015,

a poll found that

23 per cent of

respondents were

in favour while in

2010 the figure was

just 16 per cent.

A majority, 62 per cent,

still believe that violence

against the government can never

be justified, but that number has

dropped since the 1990s, when it

was as high as 90 per cent.

It is almost a year since Donald

Trump supporters, fired up by his

false claims of election fraud,

attacked the US Capitol building

in an attempt to stop the process

formalising Joe Biden’s victory.

Third in US

back violence

against leaders

Keiran Southern

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Nina Turner, left, a former Bernie

Sanders aide, with Alexandria Ocasio-

Cortez, may challenge Joe Biden