Nobody actually cares about water use. It's a totem for other activism efforts. Data-centre protests aren't about water, they're about wealth inequality and Altman, Musk and Zuckerberg being hated men.

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Rzor 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>Data-centre protests aren't about water

I suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ.

	▲	JumpCrisscross an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ I suspect they’re more concerned about “rising electricity cost[s] and air-noise pollution.”
	▲	protocolture 10 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		>>Data-centre protests aren't about water >I suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ. Pulling myself together here to be as polite as possible but could you perhaps read the quoted text and your own post again and try and square that circle? Otherwise, are you perhaps in the running for some kind of internet non sequitur award I am unaware of? I would vote for your comment if you simply make me aware of how to do so.

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culi 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They're about the environment. They're about corruption and local city councils being bought out. They're about white collar crime and all the skirting of regulation these developers are getting away with. They're about the affordability crisis. They're about one more tool that promises a massive concentration of wealth. They're about tools of war that have already resulted in the bombing of an elementary school. They're a backlash to silicon valley ideology. And imo, most of all, they're about class. I can't remember the last time the poor of all the political spectrum have been so united against something and the rich on both sides have been this apathetic to supportive.

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JumpCrisscross an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Right. Big umbrellas seldom achieve policy goals. They’re about mobilising folks for something else. People don’t actually turn out over water. That’s the root of the problem and answer to rayiner’s conundrum.

Farms could double their water usage while datacenters halve theirs; the contours of protest wouldn’t materially change.

If you want to create a political coalition today, and have an AI datacenter being debated near you, rally against it. Like, try to stop it. But if you do doesn’t matter. The coalition is what matters. The datacenter—like the water—isn’t actually what anyone is angry about.

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rayiner 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> And imo, most of all, they're about class. I can't remember the last time the poor of all the political spectrum have been so united against something and the rich on both sides have been this apathetic to supportive.

Being more worried about data centers than agricultural aquifer use is a damning indictment of the poor in this country, right up with the surprisingly bi-partisan nature of anti-vaxx thinking (https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/14/poll-rfk-maha-vacci...)

	▲	culi an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't even mention water waste in my comment yet you out of touch techies managed to return to your industry talking point AND hate on poor people in one go of it. And yes, despite your industry talking points, water waste is absolutely a major concern. Unlike residential use, where 80% of the water is reclaimed, open loop data centers (which are over 90% of data centers) allow almost all the water to evaporate. Similarly, about 30-40% of water used in agriculture filter back down to the water table. Agriculture use is also dispersed over large areas whereas data centers draw from a single pipe. Closed loop systems also have their own environmental concerns and need to "bleed the lines" every month or so to get rid of the toxic sludge that builds up. They also use dramatically more electricity which requires a lot of water to generate. The point being, if you live somewhere where a new data center is getting built, you WILL see a massive spike in your electricity bill. What do you get in return? Sam Altman buying another politician? Another elementary school bombed? I agree that agricultural waste is out of hand but at least people get a tangible benefit out of it. You keep trying to ignore all the points and change it to a topic you think you can win but you're still misinformed on that issue. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-cent...