> Data centers don’t need any water. Is this using "need" to only mean "there is no possible alternative in any design"? Your statement -implies- datacenters

> Data centers don’t need any water. Is this using "need" to only mean "there is no possible alternative in any design"? Your statement -implies- datacenters don't use water for cooling or, if they do, it isn't enough to cause any problem. How do you square this with the fact that lots of datacenters DO use water for cooling? Yes, if water was prohibitively expensive businesses would find alternatives - that's what prohibitively expensive means so I'm not adding anything more than a tautology here. Similarly does your claim that at worst this is a mispricing of water mean that they DO use water and it drives the cost up? Isn't that the point here, that businesses driving up the cost of water is bad for the people that also need (your definition of "need" above) water?