4 ms·

500,000 gallons of water per day is approximately 1 golf course. There are 400 golf courses in Georgia. But "we just don't have the water!" screech bad-faith re

500,000 gallons of water per day is approximately 1 golf course. There are 400 golf courses in Georgia. But "we just don't have the water!" screech bad-faith reactionaries. If the press insists on covering this, it should be in terms of competing economic interests bidding on water, not rapacious ecovillains.

unethical_ban 1y ago
If it's impacting water availability to residents, it's a problem, full stop.
- jeffbee 1y ago
  If you actually read the original article, the well of the complaining person was destroyed by vibrations from construction, not from overdraft if the aquifer.
  - unethical_ban 1y ago
    That's only one of several relevant complaints.
anonymousab 1y ago
I would wager that the average person against the resource usage of AI datacenters are also against the resource usage for golf courses. The difference being that those opposing view LLMs as an inherently negative technology, and thus it is a waste of resources for something that is actively detrimental to society. Whereas golf courses are just golf, so the negative aspect is merely the resource usage.
- Rooster61 1y ago
  > Whereas golf courses are just golf, so the negative aspect is merely the resource usage. Eh. I agree to your post in principle, but golf courses do have sociopolitical effects based on land values surrounding them. Original point stands though. That effect pales in comparison to the vitriol some have against LLMs.
wwweston 1y ago
Golf courses are semi-regular targets of concern for both people concerned about water availability and housing. So while I’m not sure what your purpose for looping them in is, their existence hardly absolves other water-demanding industry much less establishes anything remotely like a sound basis for establishing bad faith. We could use more media discourse on the current political realities of water use and potential improved economic structure though.
- jeffbee 1y ago
  The problem with "media discourse" is exactly that. The whole newspaper industry is permanently big mad about the success of the internet and can't be trusted to report on this fairly.
redeux 1y ago
I wasn’t aware of gold course water consumption and I’m willing to bet most people aren’t, so instead of thinking they’re acting in bad faith it’s probably better to understand that they’re just naive.
- dmbche 1y ago
  Or - possibly - they would be unhappy with golf courses also, if they were made aware?
eggn00dles 1y ago
this whatsboutism comment reminds me of ralph wiggum ‘im helping’ the venn diagram of people supporting golf courses but objecting to data centers has a much smaller overlap than you think
- jeffbee 1y ago
  It's not whataboutism. The point is it's a tradeoff. Would the whiners shut up if Facebook bought and shut down the local golf course? Probably not. Google remediated a flood-irrigated alfalfa farm (really!) near Las Vegas (I am not making this up) to zero out the water demands of their Henderson datacenter. This did not prevent the national press from making hay (did you see what I did there?)
raldi 1y ago
Data center water usage should be reported in units of McDonaldses.

unethical_ban 1y ago

If it's impacting water availability to residents, it's a problem, full stop.

jeffbee 1y ago
If you actually read the original article, the well of the complaining person was destroyed by vibrations from construction, not from overdraft if the aquifer.
- unethical_ban 1y ago
  That's only one of several relevant complaints.

anonymousab 1y ago

I would wager that the average person against the resource usage of AI datacenters are also against the resource usage for golf courses. The difference being that those opposing view LLMs as an inherently negative technology, and thus it is a waste of resources for something that is actively detrimental to society. Whereas golf courses are just golf, so the negative aspect is merely the resource usage.

Rooster61 1y ago
> Whereas golf courses are just golf, so the negative aspect is merely the resource usage. Eh. I agree to your post in principle, but golf courses do have sociopolitical effects based on land values surrounding them. Original point stands though. That effect pales in comparison to the vitriol some have against LLMs.

wwweston 1y ago

Golf courses are semi-regular targets of concern for both people concerned about water availability and housing. So while I’m not sure what your purpose for looping them in is, their existence hardly absolves other water-demanding industry much less establishes anything remotely like a sound basis for establishing bad faith. We could use more media discourse on the current political realities of water use and potential improved economic structure though.

jeffbee 1y ago
The problem with "media discourse" is exactly that. The whole newspaper industry is permanently big mad about the success of the internet and can't be trusted to report on this fairly.

redeux 1y ago

I wasn’t aware of gold course water consumption and I’m willing to bet most people aren’t, so instead of thinking they’re acting in bad faith it’s probably better to understand that they’re just naive.

dmbche 1y ago
Or - possibly - they would be unhappy with golf courses also, if they were made aware?

eggn00dles 1y ago

this whatsboutism comment reminds me of ralph wiggum ‘im helping’ the venn diagram of people supporting golf courses but objecting to data centers has a much smaller overlap than you think

jeffbee 1y ago
It's not whataboutism. The point is it's a tradeoff. Would the whiners shut up if Facebook bought and shut down the local golf course? Probably not. Google remediated a flood-irrigated alfalfa farm (really!) near Las Vegas (I am not making this up) to zero out the water demands of their Henderson datacenter. This did not prevent the national press from making hay (did you see what I did there?)

raldi 1y ago

Data center water usage should be reported in units of McDonaldses.