California's Cycle of Extraction: Gold, Groundwater, and the AI Boom

In a Guardian long-form essay, Mark Arax tracks California’s history of extraction—from the Gold Rush and hydraulic mining to modern groundwater pumping and a flood of AI-driven data centers—arguing that state policy and powerful interests turn water, land, and even human cognition into commodities, fueling environmental ruin and rural displacement even as leaders preach “abundance.”