In the comments someone mentioned 400 golf courses in Arizona, and it got me to wondering...
In the US, golf courses consumed 1.68 million acre-feet of water in 2022[0] (down 29% from 2006, they are pleased to report), which works out to 1,499 million gallons per day.
So golf courses consume three times as much water as AI. Were's the proportional level of outrage over that issue, I wonder?
> On the one hand, a huge dam reservoir does increase the level of water evaporation relative to an undammed river by increasing the amount of water surface area.
That depends entirely on the depth of the river and the depth of the reservoir. If the average depth of the reservoir is deeper than the average depth of a river there is less surface area.
I find it interesting that people go to such great lengths to come up with anti-environmental positions, even when the issue they're talking about it overwhelmingly obvious without doing deep research into it.
Even without pawing over the exact numbers, having a cursory understanding of how a datacentre works should highlight to you that excessive water consumption is going to be a problem. I couldn't imagine writing essays to try and argue against that in the first place. And to be an order of magnitude wrong in your position... sheeesh.
I think its important to ask: we will have to tackle water scarcity, but for what end? how many and who benefits and what compromises will be necessary?
This is true when examining the environmental impact of anything.
The current projection is ~200k acre/ft by 2070 from seawater sources. It'd be cool if the AI/data center folk would combine our three ares of strength: (1) wind; (2) seawater desalination; and, (3) mass liquid piping. We'd use excess offshore wind to desalinate seawater and pump it inland.
12 comments
[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 35.0 ms ] threadIn the US, golf courses consumed 1.68 million acre-feet of water in 2022[0] (down 29% from 2006, they are pleased to report), which works out to 1,499 million gallons per day.
So golf courses consume three times as much water as AI. Were's the proportional level of outrage over that issue, I wonder?
[0] https://gcmonline.com/course/environment/news/water-manageme...
That depends entirely on the depth of the river and the depth of the reservoir. If the average depth of the reservoir is deeper than the average depth of a river there is less surface area.
Even without pawing over the exact numbers, having a cursory understanding of how a datacentre works should highlight to you that excessive water consumption is going to be a problem. I couldn't imagine writing essays to try and argue against that in the first place. And to be an order of magnitude wrong in your position... sheeesh.
This is true when examining the environmental impact of anything.
> Does it make sense to include this water evaporation in the share of water consumed by data centers? I think it’s debatable.
https://www.twdb.texas.gov/innovativewater/desal/doc/2024_Th...
The current projection is ~200k acre/ft by 2070 from seawater sources. It'd be cool if the AI/data center folk would combine our three ares of strength: (1) wind; (2) seawater desalination; and, (3) mass liquid piping. We'd use excess offshore wind to desalinate seawater and pump it inland.