Chandler high schooler's letter protesting AI data center among New York Times contest winners

Our next guest this morning is a little younger than most of the voices you hear on our show. But she’s got a lot to say.

Katie Chan is just 15-years-old. She’s a junior at Hamilton High School in Chandler. And she’s one of just seven students winners of the New York Times’ third-annual open letter contest.

She wrote to former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who lobbied for an AI data center being built in Chandler, just a few miles from Katie’s home. She and a group of students from her school protested the move and eventually the Chandler City Council unanimously rejected the proposal.

The Show spoke with Chan more about her letter and how she got interested in public policy at such a young age.

Full conversation

KATIE CHAN: Yeah. So, my interest in public policy actually started back when I was in seventh grade, four years ago, when I started congressional debate. And congressional debate is a form of debate that simulates real-life Congress. So, in this event, you would debate a lot of bills and resolutions and pieces of legislation that real-life Congress would also be debating.

Throughout the tournaments that I’ve attended, I’ve debated about topics like healthcare, education, military, the environment, housing. It’s honestly a really wide variety. And as I started getting into high school, I became more interested in how I myself could get involved in fighting for the ideas I care about.

LAUREN GILGER: You’re writing in this letter that you want to stay here. You want to go to U of A, maybe become a doctor. Obviously, you’re young, but you have goals. But you write that the Arizona that you know is disappearing. And I think this is a feeling that a lot of us who have lived here for a long time have. You write, and I’m going to quote this here, “I’m scared that Arizona will one day be too hot to live in, that the streets will be empty and there won’t be anybody left to enjoy the sunsets that turn our grocery store parking lots pink and orange.”

Have you felt that change here? What does that feel like in your everyday life?

KATIE CHAN: I feel like the summers have been getting hotter and hotter and hotter. And as I did more research to write this open letter to look at the actual statistics for this heat, in fact, in March, I believe, of this year, we had the earliest 100-degree day ever. And I feel like that was just really putting a number to the feeling that I had, which was that, like, humans, like I’m not sure how possible it is for us to survive in this extreme heat for much, much longer, especially since we’re also — we’ve always been facing issues with water scarcity and just electricity use and other environmental issues like that.

LAUREN GILGER: How does it make you feel as someone who clearly, you know, loves this place?

KATIE CHAN: It makes me feel a little bit anxious. I really wish that there was more like being done or like more things that policymakers or legislators would do to like communicate with young people, to communicate with the public about their opinions and how they can maybe take action to try to combat these negative environmental effects that are clearly impacting local communities.

LAUREN GILGER: OK, so let’s talk about that, because you wrote this open letter as part of this competition for the New York Times, were one of seven winners out of very, very many entries. And you wrote it — you address it to former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Tell us why.

KATIE CHAN: So, I originally like chose the topic of AI because I’ve debated about AI and its potential impacts in various sectors like healthcare, education, the military, national security. And I’ve also like debated and researched about AI data centers. And I originally like found out a while back that Kyrsten Sinema was actually behind this effort to try to get a data center built here in my own community in Chandler.

And since she was a senator for a long time back like during my childhood, I had heard about her a lot. And honestly, like it was just kind of surprising, and I thought it would just be very interesting to also write an open letter like more broadly that was questioning how we should balance technological development with the real-life environmental impacts that may sometimes be negative. And I thought that writing the letter to Kyrsten Sinema would best get this contrast across.

LAUREN GILGER: And that data center that was proposed in Chandler that Kyrsten Sinema backed was just a couple of blocks from your house, you say?

KATIE CHAN: Yeah.

LAUREN GILGER: I mean, so you went with a group from your school to protest that. What was that like?

KATIE CHAN: I feel like it was honestly just like really encouraging to be able to see that all of us young people could come together and try to express our opinions. And I think it was also really interesting seeing like how there were a lot of like disagreements about this. And I think this is something that goes with a lot of societal issues, not just environmental, that there will be a lot of disagreement.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, and that data center was unanimously rejected in Chandler, so we should say that. A lot of folks though will argue that we, you know, we need data centers, too, which I’m sure you’ve read in your research for debate, right? Like that they are what store our photos, they’re the reason your phone works, right? Like, and not just for AI, but for a lot of things. What do you make of those arguments? Like, do you see a balance?

KATIE CHAN: Yeah, I don’t really consider myself strictly like leaning to one side or the other. I feel like we really should, when going about public policy and data centers specifically, try to find a balance. I think it would be a great idea for policymakers and just these construction workers and designers to consider more environmentally friendly ways of developing these data centers, like better ways, more efficient ways of like cooling, for example.

LAUREN GILGER: So, maybe some more creative solutions to the environmental impacts, which include water, but also heat, right, which is why you’re talking about the heat in the Valley. What do you hope for our state’s future as someone who grew up here and wants to stay, but, you know, you’re not sure you can at some point? Do you see it as something that’s savable?

KATIE CHAN: I still believe it is savable. I really hope that lawmakers from both ends of the political spectrum here in Arizona, at least, can try to work together to find a middle ground on this issue in regards to climate change and data centers, and trying to find more creative solutions to maybe keep the economic benefits of these data centers, but also try to protect the environment at the same time.

LAUREN GILGER: So, a hopeful view there. How do you view your role and the role of other young people in being a part of shaping that future? Like, do you think it’s going to take a lot of you or, you know, a lot of you getting very involved to make the outcome look a little different?

KATIE CHAN: Yeah, I personally believe that more young people should try to get involved and stay engaged in these like societal issues that are especially affecting their own community. Young people are the future generation, and we will, at the end of the day, be the people impacted by these policy decisions that are made about the environment and a lot of other issues.

LAUREN GILGER: Did you get any response from Senator Sinema?

KATIE CHAN: Not yet. Hopefully in the future.

LAUREN GILGER: Let me ask you lastly, because you sign the letter “from one human to another.” Tell us why.

KATIE CHAN: When I was writing the letter, like a recurring thought of mine was in this age of AI being so quickly, rapidly developing, how can we determine like what is human and how can we like keep that human part of ourselves? And the main idea behind signing off with “from one human to another” was that oftentimes, like as a young person, there’s a gap between me and people like me versus all of these politicians who are often much older than us.

But I was trying to convey the idea that when it comes to the climate crisis, that regardless of whether you’re a young person like me or you’re a former politician like Kyrsten Sinema, we are all humans at the end of the day, and we should really unite and try to find some common ground, because at the end of the day, we are all sharing this Earth, and we all need to work together to try to protect it in the best way possible.

LAUREN GILGER: Well, certainly giving me a little hope for the future. Katie Chan, junior at Hamilton High School in Chandler, one of the winners of the Learning Network Student Open Letter Contest published in the New York Times. Katie, thank you so much for coming on The Show. I really appreciate it.

KATIE CHAN: Thank you so much for this opportunity.

KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created for audience accessibility. Transcripts are created on deadline with the assistance of AI tools and then edited, and may not be in their final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio segment.