water supplies are a) not a problem in the east b) a big problem in the west that could be more or less solved overnight by cutting livestock feed agriculture by like a fifth. data centers are a rounding errorwater supplies are a) not a problem in the east b) a big problem in the west that could be more or less solved overnight by cutting livestock feed agriculture by like a fifth. data centers are a rounding error
That being said, water management in the east is going to become a problem in the other direction as the amount of annual rain keeps increasing and water systems become overloaded with too much water.
But humans can write a 100 word email easily and already need resources to live anyway
also there is some slipperiness going on with the word "used" here. water for data center cooling is typically recirculated, you lose some to evaporation when dissipating the heat but not remotely 100 percentalso there is some slipperiness going on with the word "used" here. water for data center cooling is typically recirculated, you lose some to evaporation when dissipating the heat but not remotely 100 percent
Just hopping in to say that "Where the Water Goes" is a great book.
Not Texas, but "Where the Water Goes" by David Owen is a fascinating examination of the Colorado River and how every drop of water in its flow is politically fraught. Excerpted in the New Yorker here.
The Colorado River system supplies water to more than thirty-six million people, but it is being threatened by overuse, long-term drought, and climate change.
Water cooling is a closed system in these cases isn’t it? No water is being lost. Hell, they’re probably using heat pumps to extract the heat and generate more electricity
I am walking up to you with a laptop and overhead projector to further elaborate on the utterly insane way we use west coast water to grow crops to feed cows which we milk then pour down the drain because the subsidies are lucrativeI am walking up to you with a laptop and overhead projector to further elaborate on the utterly insane way we use west coast water to grow crops to feed cows which we milk then pour down the drain because the subsidies are lucrative
were you in philly when PWD sent out a letter which basically said "use as much water as you like there is no reason to conserve other than your bill and if we ever do have a drought we will tell you"? hard to convince people who come from places with water issues
I'd consider the data centers a nice bonus.
all the people being like “but but AI is Useless and Bad” better be using computers from 2000 or earlier only and be unvaccinated or they’re benefiting from AI