If people really cared about water usage, they'd be trying to shut down golf courses instead of data centers.

ok123456 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

People have. That's a common objection to golf courses.

The difference here is that data centers are both economically and environmentally extractive. People in the community, or at least in the surrounding area, will play golf there. Data centers are purely extractive, and that's why they have become so galvanizing. It's transferring probably the only real asset these communities have left, their open spaces, directly to the elite.

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milkshakes an hour ago | parent [-]

> data centers are purely extractive

please, tell me more

> people in the community, or at least in the surrounding area, will play golf there

going to go out on a limb here and guess that net-net, a datacenter provides more benefits to a broader spectrum of society than a golf course does.

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ok123456 an hour ago | parent [-]

That is quite a limb to go out on.

What is the exact value proposition of AI as it exists right now for the average person who lives where these things are being built? They don't even get jobs. With golf, they can enjoy the outdoors and escape a little bit.

	▲	goodmythical 43 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not entirely certain, but I think a data center might just provide more temporary and permanent jobs than a golf course, and with likely higher mean and median wages. The golf park isn't even the best natural-adjacent use of the space. A regular park or a trail will service a significantly larger portion of the population than a private property that transfers wealth from the community to a single person or corporation.

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xboxnolifes an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There has been tons of reported frustration with golf courses in the past. So, yes, people have, and it's pretty consistent here as well.

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bloaf an hour ago | parent [-]

I've not seen a single politician calling for statewide bans on golf courses.

Its pretty obvious here that people decided datacenters were bad first, then went looking for justifications second.

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xboxnolifes 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

Go look up articles from mid to late 2010s. There's where you will find frustration about golf courses, during the time where water restrictions were being put on residential lawns. Do not conflate the more recent, more successful campaign of anti-data-center sentiment with the non-existence of a past campaign against golf courses. It existed, it just petered out.

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bloaf 14 minutes ago | parent [-]

Look, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth. Either water consumption is a problem today, or it is not. If it is a problem, then golf courses are today a better target for people who want to solve the water problem than data centers. If water consumption is not a problem, then the data center's water consumption is not a problem.

	▲	bdangubic 7 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		if we limit the number of data centers so that it cannot exceed number of golf courses in any zipcode in america than this is a solid argument, otherwise it is strawman

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agentultra an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why not both?

	▲	Onavo an hour ago \| parent [-]
		True but not campaigning against golf courses make anti data center campaigns look hypocritical. My personal criticism of data centers is mostly regulatory failure. The tech companies are choosing random ass states and stealing land from poor farmers instead of the traditional data center states like Virginia mostly because of tax breaks. The local government is just as if not more responsible for the issues with data centers. It's easy however to just point fingers at big tech instead of he underlying market failures in a lot of the states. The traditional data center states almost always have a supply of clean energy and water with a proper regulatory framework.

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thrance an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The left has long been opposed to excessively watered golf courses too. I could probably find another piece of The Economist calling them foolish for that as well, if I searched.