Musk’s Colossus Data Center Complex Is Poisoning the Air in Memphis

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Elon Musk is building a gigantic data center complex in the Memphis, TN, and Southaven, MS, area. The site is called Colossus and may eventually include: three or more hyperscale data centers; a wastewater treatment facility to convert sewage into clean water for cooling; Tesla Megapack battery systems for energy storage; and a large gas-turbine power plant, purchased from Duke Energy and in the process of being rebuilt. The overall project is projected to produce a gigawatt of compute. 

Musk has been making a lot of verbal promises and operates under some regulations, but he is prioritizing getting the centers running over reducing pollution or water usage. He has been running the complex since 2024 on a large number of portable gas turbines that produce toxic emissions, including formaldehyde and nitrogen oxide. Colossus also draws some of its power from the local grid and uses millions of gallons of water per day from local utilities. 

Residents of South Memphis and other nearby communities are suffering from respiratory problems and other illnesses including cancer. 

Musk is privatizing the gains and socializing the costs at the expense of human health. Based on Musk’s track record for predicting his future accomplishments, I wouldn’t bet on his meeting the environmental goals for the project any time soon, if ever.

Talk about Colossus online:

While you’re here enjoying DonkeyHotey’s latest cartoon, please take a moment to read these articles on related topics: 

• The Religious Movement That’s Done With Democracy
• 1,500 Companies, $4 Trillion, and No One’s Allowed to Look Under the Hood
• Other DonkeyHotey cartoons

The cartoon above was created by DonkeyHotey for WhoWhatWhy from these images: Elon Musk caricature (DonkeyHotey / Flickr – CC BY 4.0), body (The White House / Wikimedia – PD), box (Gregsedits / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 3.0), cone (Famartin / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 4.0), sky (Nikola Belopitov / Wikimedia – CC0 1.0),  steel (Lars Lentz / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 1.0), and logo (SpaceXAI / Wikimedia).