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Comment by kevinpet | Hacker News Reader

Editorials are a thing. This is not an editorial. It's structured as a news report.

Credibility is a thing. Articles like this burn it quite quickly. It really is past time that the scientific community needs to make a public statement rejecting these types of "journalists".

The scientific community has burned a lot of credibility itself to make any kind of statement to that effect.

That's the thing, the popular impression is that this is the case. But if you read what scientists actually wrote/said you would realize that what science says and what activists and journalists claim science says are quite different. That's why its almost impossible for a journalist to get a quote from a scientists on this topic anymore. Its also why there are almost no scientists who are members of "green" political entities (eg Sierra Club) anymore. Did you see a quote from a scientist in this article? When was the last time you saw one?

> Did you see a quote from a scientist in this article?

The article cited the latest figures from Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

There's little need here for Niels Bohr or a bleeding edge virologist to lean in on annual summary stats on civil infrastructure usage.

Those are not scientists. They also compute GDP.

Why do they need "a scientist" to compound statistics?

They certainly have BSc Mathematics types. What is the additional scientific discipline you think needs to weigh in here?

Your post doesn't have a reply link for some reasons but here is my response. What they need is expertise in energy generation. They need to understand concepts like a duck curve, power storage and its material requirements, relative EROEI of various power generation sources and a basic understanding of when newer forms of generation are likely to be ready. For instance, they should understand that renewables need to be well sited. They need to understand that the solar albino of Ireland is (far) too low for solar PV to be effective. Things of this nature. Engineering things around energy generation and the physics of how a grid works. If you don't understand these things, you are throwing darts at a dart board when you try to provide analysis of various types of industrial infrastructure.

So, you want a different article then.

This article reports that Irish data centres use a particular percentage of the countries power.

> What they need is expertise in energy generation.

Okay, so an actual Electrical Engineer with grid scale experience.

> They need to understand concepts like a duck curve, power storage and its material requirements, relative EROEI of various power generation sources and a basic understanding of when newer forms of generation are likely to be ready.

Many people with a STEM background understand these things .. they are not generally called "scientists" in Commonwealth English.

"Many people with a STEM background understand these things .. they are not generally called "scientists" in Commonwealth English."

Sure, but none of them work at the institution referenced by the article. That isn't what they do.

Also, I don't want a different article, I want one informed by someone who has a real understanding of these topics. For example, if a datacenter is in Washington state, fresh water (and its fresh water we care about here) isn't consumed. In Ireland, probably some is consumed. This is because of wind patterns and where water vapor will be carried to from the datacenter. If its carried over land, fresh water isn't consumed. If its carried over ocean, then it is. Stuff like this is why you actually need knowledge of the issue, and not just an understanding of datacenter cooling systems.

This is The Register we're talking about. Of course it is heavily editorialized, that's half their schtick.

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