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Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres' full water use secret
- bfkwlfkjf 11mo ago> Asked about the leaked document, Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan described it as “obsolete” and said it “completely misrepresents Amazon’s current water usage strategy”. > “A document’s existence doesn’t guarantee its accuracy or finality,” she said. “Meetings often reshape documents or reveal flawed findings or claims.” Here's a person trained to speak in half truths. Am I the only one to find this revolting? Please tell me I'm not alone.
- spicyusername 11mo agoYou're definitely not alone. Most people find this problematic. Unfortunately, most of those people aren't elected.
- RandomBacon 11mo ago> completely misrepresents Amazon’s current water usage Because their current water use is much higher? ("Strategy" is a meaningless word here.)
- rcxdude 11mo agoMaybe, but it is entirely possible that someone put together some numbers and got them completely wrong, in which case those statements sound pretty reasonable. They could be misleading or outright false, but we don't know that either way based on those statements.
- terribleperson 11mo agoWe can make assumptions, however. The claims made by the document referred to in the article are potentially harmful to Amazon. If they were untrue and the truth painted Amazon in a better light, they would likely be willing to counter the article with information of their own. That they instead respond with a total non-answer is a signal that either the document is accurate, or the truth is worse.
- monerozcash 11mo agoIt seems likely that the news cycle for a story like this is shorter than the time it would take to produce such numbers.
- itopaloglu83 11mo agoLet’s be a huge burden to local utilities that prices skyrocket, make everyone else pay for the infrastructure cost, and then act surprised when people vote to block us. Yes, we do need the data centers, but people have a saying too.
- yostrovs 11mo agoThis article claims that's not happening: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/10/25/data-centers-electricity-prices-rise/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/10/2...
- rcxdude 11mo agoThere is a fairly obvious conflict of interest with that article.
- Yeul 11mo agoI don't mind Amazon using the water if they pay for it just like the rest of us. Unfortunately companies tend to negotiate special deals. And for what? How many local people actually get jobs in a date centre? A few security guards, cleaners and gardeners? I've seen these things they do everything remote and if that doesn't work they fly in a team.
- rangestransform 11mo agoEven them paying for it shifts the demand curve and makes it expensive for everyone else in the short term, and local government will abuse bureaucracy to make damn sure “short term” is long
- egorfine 11mo ago> Yes, we do need the data centers, but people have a saying too. Think of the airports. Do we need them? Absolutely. Do people have a say? Yes they do. And that's the problem: they will always say sure but not in my backyard. Obviously no one wants an airport nearby, that's understandable. So in the end expanding an airport (and thus economy) becomes basically impossible. But in case of airport there is at least a clear case to make. DataCenters? Not so much. Laymen are unable to make an educated decisions here hence they will always vote no.
- ETH_start 11mo agoWhat would help is an analysis of second order benefits of having a data center, both for the locality and the nation at large. Any realistic analytical framework will acknowledge that all industry incurs some costs, but often still has a net beneficial impact on society due to the positive effect it has on income.
- BriggyDwiggs42 11mo agoHow would you suggest AI data centers positively impact income?
- ETH_start 11mo agoThey generate jobs for the local communities, income for shareholders and productivity-boosting automation for the economy at large
- moi2388 11mo ago“ Amazon as a whole consumed 105bn gallons of water in total in 2021” Why arent these just closed systems?
- egorfine 11mo agoNot 100% but mostly, yes.