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Comment by jandrewrogers | Hacker News Reader

> Each year, it will use millions of gallons of water to keep the chips from overheating.

Growing corn on that same 1200 acres would require on the order of a billion gallons of water. People have no sense of just how much water agriculture consumes.

In all probability, putting a data center on farm land is greatly reducing water consumption.

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Yeah. The power use is impressive, although still only 1/10th of the output of the largest power station in the world, the three gorges dam. The water use is not really a big deal at all. I don’t know why journalists inevitably have to mention both. And even the power numbers require much more careful contextualization.

I wish I had a good balanced article to link to when these discussions come up, one that really digs into the power use question and compares it to the power consumed by other human activities and capital projects. Does anyone know of one?

Doesn’t a typical McDonald’s require millions of gallons of water each week just for the beef alone, without even considering things like drinks and ice and boiling potatoes and washing floors?

By pointing out the obvious you miss out jumping on the bandwagon of everyone writhing in pain over how devastated they are for the environmental impact. Whenever AI is brought up you have to remind people how unsustainable it is and how it’s all about to fall apart and how the value isn’t there, among other topics. Off topic/on topic I’m reminded of death reports during COVID for particular states. When I went to go and look at the statistics of years prior to compare, they were at par if not less than the few previous years. Just an example of uncontrolled (mostly manipulative) outrage in action. I’d like to expect better of HN but I don’t: I’ve lost all respect for the moderation (dang and now tom) here over the years.

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