And what are you basing that understanding on?

https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-co...

According to EESI (a bipartisan-founded non-profit), a large data center:

> can consume up to 5 million gallons per day, equivalent to the water use of a town populated by 10,000 to 50,000 people.

Also noting that AI datacenters can use more.

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preg_match a day ago | parent | next [-]

This sounds like a lot, but it’s actually not very much. I mean, one singular almond requires 1,000 gallons of water. Beef requires shit ton, too.

Go vegan for a few weeks and you’ve just negated all your AI water use for the rest of your lifetime.

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HedonicEscal8r a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is that supposed be a lot? That article states that all US data centers combined consume 450 million gallons a day, equivalent to 90 towns, which does not sound like very much.

	▲	gorjusborg a day ago \| parent [-]
		I'm not the one here making assertions, I'm asking questions of the person making claims. I'll leave it to others to judge what is 'a lot' or 'reasonable'. I don't think 'anyone who thinks X is Y' is a good basis for discussion, which is the real point.

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6031769 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Consume it how, exactly? Are the staff drinking it all? Because the the kit sure as hell isn't. :-/

	▲	gorjusborg a day ago \| parent [-]
		From the article: > Approximately 80% of the water (typically freshwater) withdrawn by data centers evaporates, with the remaining water discharged to municipal wastewater facilities.