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Not as scary as the fact that Alphabet pressures local governments to let them drain aquifers to cool the machines¹, and powers them using vast swaths of bulldo

Not as scary as the fact that Alphabet pressures local governments to let them drain aquifers to cool the machines¹, and powers them using vast swaths of bulldozed former habitats of endangered desert tortoises and focused beams of light that literally burn alive thousands of birds, including threatened predators². 1: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/google-s-controversial-groundwater-withdrawal-sparks-question-of-who-owns/article_bed9179c-1baa-11e7-983e-03d6b33a01e7.html https://www.postandcourier.com/news/google-s-controversial-g... 2: https://www.sbsun.com/2014/08/18/emerging-solar-plants-in-mojave-desert-scorch-birds-in-mid-air/ https://www.sbsun.com/2014/08/18/emerging-solar-plants-in-mo... "Once built, U.S. government biologists found the plant's superheated mirrors were killing birds. In April, biologists working for the state estimated that 3,500 birds died at Ivanpah in the span of a year, many of them burned alive while flying through a part of the solar installment where air temperatures can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit." — https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-tech-solar-projects-fail-to-deliver-1434138485 https://www.wsj.com/articles/high-tech-solar-projects-fail-t... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility#Birds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Solar_Power_Facility#B...

robotnikman 6y ago
Thats just one of their datacenters?! Thats huge!
- boogies 6y ago
  The aquifer draining article linked is about one in South Carolina, the Ivanpah plant is in California's Mojave Desert, and IIUC is the largest bird incinerator in the world, burning a bird out of the sky every other minute. From the Sun article: Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant’s concentrated sun rays — “streamers,” for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair. Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one “streamer” every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator’s application to build a still-bigger version. They do seem to have reduced some of the more dramatic deaths by unfocusing the beams when the plant is idle and clearing even more land around it to keep birds away, although there were still thousands of deaths every year afterwards.
  - konfusinomicon 6y ago
    This strangely seems like the outcome of a successful dwarf fortress
    - menybuvico 6y ago
      Plot twist: The beams are pressurized lava.
  - cpeterso 6y ago
    Seems like Bright Energy could do more to prevent bird deaths, such as nets or active scarecrows or audio deterrents.
dodobirdlord 6y ago
Google wanting to draw 1.5 million gallons/day when the article says that across the state 330 million gallons/day are already drawn, mostly for agriculture, doesn’t seem like “scary pressuring of local government”.
- boogies 6y ago
  IUUC the 1.5 million is all from a single rapidly disappearing aquifer, while the 333 million is, as you said, the total of all groundwater usage across the entire state. The use also seems totally unnecessary, as to use an example from the article, the NSA's Fort Meade data center uses wastewater.

robotnikman 6y ago

Thats just one of their datacenters?! Thats huge!

boogies 6y ago
The aquifer draining article linked is about one in South Carolina, the Ivanpah plant is in California's Mojave Desert, and IIUC is the largest bird incinerator in the world, burning a bird out of the sky every other minute. From the Sun article: Workers at a state-of-the-art solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant’s concentrated sun rays — “streamers,” for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair. Federal wildlife investigators who visited the BrightSource Energy plant last year and watched as birds burned and fell, reporting an average of one “streamer” every two minutes, are urging California officials to halt the operator’s application to build a still-bigger version. They do seem to have reduced some of the more dramatic deaths by unfocusing the beams when the plant is idle and clearing even more land around it to keep birds away, although there were still thousands of deaths every year afterwards.
- konfusinomicon 6y ago
  This strangely seems like the outcome of a successful dwarf fortress
  - menybuvico 6y ago
    Plot twist: The beams are pressurized lava.
- cpeterso 6y ago
  Seems like Bright Energy could do more to prevent bird deaths, such as nets or active scarecrows or audio deterrents.

dodobirdlord 6y ago

Google wanting to draw 1.5 million gallons/day when the article says that across the state 330 million gallons/day are already drawn, mostly for agriculture, doesn’t seem like “scary pressuring of local government”.

boogies 6y ago
IUUC the 1.5 million is all from a single rapidly disappearing aquifer, while the 333 million is, as you said, the total of all groundwater usage across the entire state. The use also seems totally unnecessary, as to use an example from the article, the NSA's Fort Meade data center uses wastewater.