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.

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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.

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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.

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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.