> I have no idea if data centers are more likely than other kinds of construction projects to pollute groundwater and destroy neighboring homes’ wells
This article is trash. It is nice to see that Millennials have their very own David Brooks.
Some crops require a lot of water for very little nutrient returns.
Agriculture and Drilling and Mining and Datacenters use a lot of water.
But datacenters don't need to use so much water.
A recent Microsoft datacenter shows that datacenters can fill up with water initially and then not waste the steamed, sterilized, demineralized water into the atmosphere as waste to manage waste heat: "Next-generation datacenters consume zero water for cooling" (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42376406
> this design will avoid the need for more than 125 million liters of water per year per datacenter
How else can datacenters reduce their excessive and inefficient new resource consumption requirements?
> [Global map of Water Loss (in mmSLE)]
> In the far north, the detected loss is due largely to glaciers melting and subarctic lakes drying.
> But farther south — where most people live — it is largely the race to suck groundwater from aquifers that is removing the water from the continents.
> So much groundwater is now being pumped that it is filling the oceans as it drains off land, becoming one of the largest drivers of global sea level rise.
[...]
> Water From Land Has Become a Leading Driver of Sea Level Rise
> Most of the water lost from drying regions is from groundwater pumping, which ultimately shifts fresh water from aquifers into the oceans.
egberts1•6mo ago