Before Nokia mobile phones, the most important export product Finland had was a tree cut down and processed into wood pulp, then paper or cardboard. Later the industry "optimised" this to just the pulp, letting someone else create the paper.
That is, on the political-economic level we've never seen our forests as anything but a source for a cheap material stream. Turning a forest and a high voltage power line into a source of bits and waste heat fits perfectly into this equation.
I should maybe add a bit of context to the first claim. Google has had a data center at a former paper mill site in Hamina since 2009. That begun as an industrial reuse at a time when data centers weren't yet an overhyped industry, so received widespread approval (including myself).
When that site was expanded a decade later, Google cut down a protected woods area and got away with a reprimand. This kind of break-the-law-who-cares is a common event throughout Finnish industries.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20252354
Yle UutisetGoogle hakkasi liito-oravien puut HaminassaGooglen tytäryhtiö Tuike Finland hakkasi laittomasti liito-oravan levähdyspuita ja kulkureittejä Haminassa datakeskuksen laajennuksen yhteydessä vuosina 2018–2019.
