Source : BRICS NEWS
HELSINKI, October 24, 2026 — Google has been accused of illegally cutting down 250,000 trees in Finland to make way for a data centre, driving wolves into nearby villages and angering residents, BRICS News reported on X on Saturday.
The post, published at about 11.54pm Malaysia time and marked “JUST IN”, read: “Google accused of illegally cutting down 250,000 trees in Finland for data center, driving wolves into villages and angering locals.”
https://x.com/BRICSinfo/status/2114022825497370848
The claims follow an investigation by The Guardian, which reported that an estimated quarter of a million trees once stood on the 330 hectares of forest near the town of Muhos in northern Finland that Google’s subsidiary stripped to build a data centre, taking even the topsoil with it. Residents told the paper that brown water from the site was flowing into a stream feeding the Oulujoki River, and that wolves that once lived in the forest had begun roaming into neighbouring villages.
Earlier this month, the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority ordered Tuike Finland, the company representing Google, to suspend all environmentally significant preparatory work at Muhos and at a second site near Kajaani until mandatory environmental impact assessments are completed. The company had reportedly been logging across almost 200 hectares in the Kajaani area, around the village of Otanmäki.
“Extensive preparatory measures have already been taken in the project areas based on the currently available reports, such as the removal of trees, the stripping of topsoil, the construction of construction site roads and storage areas, changes to ditches and culverts, and stormwater arrangements,” Tommi Muilu, head of the authority’s environmental department, said, according to Fortune. He said those measures would change the environment and cause impacts that the assessment process is designed to identify.
The suspension does not cover planning, measurements, soil surveys or other work with minor, easily reversible impacts. Tom’s Hardware reported that Google’s Finland country manager has apologised for the unauthorised clearing. Google did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune. The New York Post put the cleared area at Muhos at 816 acres.
The two sites are part of Google’s €13 billion investment in Finnish artificial intelligence infrastructure, announced in September and billed as the company’s largest single investment in Europe. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo welcomed the project at the time as “a clear testament to our strengths”. Google already runs a data centre in the town of Hamina, opened in 2011 in a former paper mill. The Hamina site is cooled with seawater from the Gulf of Finland, and its waste heat is sent to local homes and businesses. In September, Google also signed a 22-year deal with Fortum to help extend the life of the Loviisa nuclear plant.
The controversy has prompted a national debate over data centres in Finland. More than 96,000 people have signed a citizens’ initiative calling for tighter controls on the sector, including a “data centre fee” to compensate communities for environmental damage and resource use, Fortune reported. The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation said the sites had been reduced to “sand”.
Source: BRICS News on X, The Guardian, Fortune, Tom’s Hardware and the New York Post.
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