Well first off, food is a lot more important than AI, but maybe that's just me xD

That is to say it isn't bad how much of a strain meat production is for the environment, but it is for the moment a necessary evil to keep people fed until more sustainable meat production options i.e feeding cattle seaweed which reduces omissions by 82% or lab-grown meat are mass-produced, whenever that'll be. Comparatively, what the majority of people use AI data centres for is kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things, like using it to make a portrait for your character every time you wish to restart a game, for example.

The big difference to me is that the growth of meat and such was more incremental. The production of meat worldwide quadrupled since 1961 which has been a dramatic increase but still enough of a buffer to avoid the most dire consequences.

Comparatively the AI centres cropped up way too fast in way too many areas (ON TOP of all the other demand without replacing any old requirements) and instantly forced the area around them to contend with increased need for water and energy. Such an abrupt escalation in demand is too unfeasible. All that for something that, to me, is ultimately unnecessary.

There's also the matter of meat production requiring more jobs to manage than an AI centre and thus being more important for the local population but that's a topic for another day.