What I don’t know about Finland would fill a small library. As a fan of Formula One, I know that many Finnish surnames have multiple k’s — Mika Hakkinen, and Kimi Raikkonen, for example, not to mention World Rally driver Tommi Makkinen. In the world of motorsports, some like to say, “To finish first, you must first be Finnish.”

It’s also a great place to view the northern lights, and it tends to be cold there. Those low temperatures have attracted data center developers, because keeping warehouses full of computers cool is much easier to do when it is near freezing outside instead of broiling hot.

That is one reason why Google is planning to spend $13 billion building two new data centers in Finland. Things are not going well for Google, however. It started out with the slogan “Don’t be evil,” but has transitioned to being one of the largest invaders of personal space, as it helps governments around the world keep track of citizens who dare to think thoughts not sanctioned by official policy.

According to The Guardian , the company sparked outrage in Finland after it chopped down about 250,000 trees to make way for its data center in the town of Muhos on the border with Sweden. Then it was revealed it felled another 150,000 trees at another site in Otanmäki, which is located in the southern part of the country. Recently, the Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) ordered Google to stop work on both projects because it failed to complete the necessary environmental impact assessments before clearing the land.

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