They (usually) pump water out of the ground because they don’t need it to be filtered or treated. The hot towers turn liquid water into vapor, which they (usually) pump outside. The vapor floats into the air and then gets carried away and dumped somewhere else, like the ocean.
Yes. It ends up in the ocean. Where there is infinite water. Do you know why there are places with almost no water, even though there is an “infinite” water source on earth? It’s not because they live far from the ocean. It is because ocean water is salty. Salty water is not apt for human consumption.
When you throw fresh water in the ocean, you are essentially destroying that water. Even if the H2O molecules are still there.
We should start by removing tax incentives to build data centers in water stressed areas. It makes no sense to encourage building centers where the impact on water affects people.
Yeah, man. Consumed in the same way that we mean water is consumed in every other context. Doesn’t change the fact that the ground water is now sky water. Ground water takes months to decades to replenish, using it isn’t harmless to the ecosystems you take it from.
You’re wayyyy underselling it here. Some aquifers take thousands of years to refill - and some won’t ever refill because they were filled when climate conditions were different.
If an aquifer under a desert was filled when the region had regular rainfall, that water isn’t coming back on any human timescale. If we pump it out and a data center evaporates it away - poof, it’s gone from that area. Pretty much forever.
There’s no reason AI datacenters couldn’t be closed loop systems and just reuse the water. There are a multitude of ways water could be used more efficiently, it just has to be regulated.
The problem is that it accelerates the cycle of freshwater to undrinkable salt water (most rains down into the ocean) while the cycle taking that water back to clean watersheds is no faster than before, which contributes to depletion of limited drinking water - especially since municipalities are often all too eager to strike deals with data centers to provide cheap hookups to the drinking water supply.
The logic of saying that it’s all staying in the water cycle feels kinda like dumping all the food in your fridge into a septic tank and saying well none of the atoms where destroyed and it’ll all come back through the grocery store in a millenia. Sure in the grand scheme it’s a big closed loop, but the loop moves slowly and unevenly.
Not entirely. If it’s pumped from the water table, it can take many years for it to filter its way back in through the bedrock.
My dad had a house on a mountain and when his well went dry, I celebrated when it started raining. But then he said it wouldn’t matter, as that rain wouldn’t hit the water table for years, and it would just run off and away mostly.
We could start by using non pottable water in the first place. In Canada, no data centres use groundwater extraction because of stricter regulations. You can shake your fist at the clouds, but far better to lobby your government to pass regulations to protect groundwater.
Say, you wouldn’t have a problem if I dumped my household sewage in your municipal water supply, would you? After all, I’m technically not consuming any water - no molecules are being created or destroyed - just borrowing it for a few hours.
They (usually) pump water out of the ground because they don’t need it to be filtered or treated. The hot towers turn liquid water into vapor, which they (usually) pump outside. The vapor floats into the air and then gets carried away and dumped somewhere else, like the ocean.
Exactly. The water isn’t destroyed, just put through it’s normal cycle.
Yes. It ends up in the ocean. Where there is infinite water. Do you know why there are places with almost no water, even though there is an “infinite” water source on earth? It’s not because they live far from the ocean. It is because ocean water is salty. Salty water is not apt for human consumption.
When you throw fresh water in the ocean, you are essentially destroying that water. Even if the H2O molecules are still there.
We should start by removing tax incentives to build data centers in water stressed areas. It makes no sense to encourage building centers where the impact on water affects people.
Yeah, man. Consumed in the same way that we mean water is consumed in every other context. Doesn’t change the fact that the ground water is now sky water. Ground water takes months to decades to replenish, using it isn’t harmless to the ecosystems you take it from.
You’re wayyyy underselling it here. Some aquifers take thousands of years to refill - and some won’t ever refill because they were filled when climate conditions were different.
If an aquifer under a desert was filled when the region had regular rainfall, that water isn’t coming back on any human timescale. If we pump it out and a data center evaporates it away - poof, it’s gone from that area. Pretty much forever.
There’s no reason AI datacenters couldn’t be closed loop systems and just reuse the water. There are a multitude of ways water could be used more efficiently, it just has to be regulated.
And there’s no reason I couldn’t be a bicycle if you attached wheels to me. We’re talking about what is, not what could be.
So reach out to your representative to encourage them to implement regulations.
The problem is that it accelerates the cycle of freshwater to undrinkable salt water (most rains down into the ocean) while the cycle taking that water back to clean watersheds is no faster than before, which contributes to depletion of limited drinking water - especially since municipalities are often all too eager to strike deals with data centers to provide cheap hookups to the drinking water supply.
The logic of saying that it’s all staying in the water cycle feels kinda like dumping all the food in your fridge into a septic tank and saying well none of the atoms where destroyed and it’ll all come back through the grocery store in a millenia. Sure in the grand scheme it’s a big closed loop, but the loop moves slowly and unevenly.
Awesome analogy with the food dumping. Neatly illustrates what really is expended is the amount of (low) entropy.
Source?
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2304.03271
This is why regulation is so important. We (law makers) need to define the box AI datacenters can work inside.
Not entirely. If it’s pumped from the water table, it can take many years for it to filter its way back in through the bedrock.
My dad had a house on a mountain and when his well went dry, I celebrated when it started raining. But then he said it wouldn’t matter, as that rain wouldn’t hit the water table for years, and it would just run off and away mostly.
We could start by using non pottable water in the first place. In Canada, no data centres use groundwater extraction because of stricter regulations. You can shake your fist at the clouds, but far better to lobby your government to pass regulations to protect groundwater.
Oh well that makes it completely okay!
Say, you wouldn’t have a problem if I dumped my household sewage in your municipal water supply, would you? After all, I’m technically not consuming any water - no molecules are being created or destroyed - just borrowing it for a few hours.