I am not convinced by this whole AI water scare. Doesn't the water just evaporate? It's not a finite resource like oil.

If the problem is that these companies are creating an externality by straining the local water supply, then maybe we should simply tax water more where appropriate? I don't think any sort of shame will be effective.

For the past decade water has been mismanaged in inefficient farming practices, like bad irrigation practices or production of alfalfa to feed foreign livestock. We also waste a ton of water on our big dumb lawns. "cooling datacenters" doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

▲

iteria a day ago | parent [-]

Fresh water is a finite resource. It replenishes extremely slowly in certain forms. Like ground water. Lakes and rivers can run dry if you pull too much from them, see: Iran. AI data centers are making the problem of overuse worse. We were already pulling too much water in areas. With these data centers, some places that didn't have a problem are starting to.

▲

rowanG077 a day ago | parent [-]

Fresh water is not a finite resource. You can simply make more by taking sea water and pumping in energy. It's not cheap but it's doable.

▲

abenga a day ago | parent | next [-]

In the short term (while you build your desalinators), and in local water-stressed regions, it very much is.

▲

dijit a day ago | parent | prev [-]

perhaps the most hackernews take in this thread.

desalination isn’t just expensive, it’s existentially costly in terms of energy consumption, and I don’t see any dyson spheres in production.

	▲	rowanG077 a day ago \| parent [-]
		With modern desalination facilities it costs literally on the order of cents per liter. It's an inconvenience at worst in the modern world. It costs approx 3kwh of energy to desalinate one cubic meter of water.