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Nobody actually cares about water use. It's a totem for other activism efforts. Data-centre protests aren't about water, they're about wealth inequality and Alt

Nobody actually cares about water use. It's a totem for other activism efforts. Data-centre protests aren't about water, they're about wealth inequality and Altman, Musk and Zuckerberg being hated men.

Rzor 3mo ago
>Data-centre protests aren't about water I suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ.
- JumpCrisscross 3mo ago
  > suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ I suspect they’re more concerned about “rising electricity cost[s] and air-noise pollution.”
- protocolture 3mo ago
  >>Data-centre protests aren't about water >I suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ. Pulling myself together here to be as polite as possible but could you perhaps read the quoted text and your own post again and try and square that circle? Otherwise, are you perhaps in the running for some kind of internet non sequitur award I am unaware of? I would vote for your comment if you simply make me aware of how to do so.
  - smcin 3mo ago
    Residential users' water bills aren't (currently) affected by datacenter-related demand, unlike their power bills which are. The resource contention for water is between datacenters and agribusiness (or other industrial users), not residential users. Instead of being sarcastic to GP's post, we could try to find a succinct explanation of how water rights are owned/sold/taxed in the US. This seems to be a patchwork quilt by state, county, seniority and related legislation. But anyway, datacenter usage of water isn't impacting residential users' water bills.
    - protocolture 3mo ago
      Doesnt that mean that the statement "Datacenter protests arent about water" is correct?
culi 3mo ago
They're about the environment. They're about corruption and local city councils being bought out. They're about white collar crime and all the skirting of regulation these developers are getting away with. They're about the affordability crisis. They're about one more tool that promises a massive concentration of wealth. They're about tools of war that have already resulted in the bombing of an elementary school. They're a backlash to silicon valley ideology. And imo, most of all, they're about class. I can't remember the last time the poor of all the political spectrum have been so united against something and the rich on both sides have been this apathetic to supportive.
- rayiner 3mo ago
  [flagged]
  - culi 3mo ago
    I didn't even mention water waste in my comment yet you out of touch techies managed to return to your industry talking point AND hate on poor people in one go of it. And yes, despite your industry talking points, water waste is absolutely a major concern. Unlike residential use, where 80% of the water is reclaimed, open loop data centers (which are over 90% of data centers) allow almost all the water to evaporate. Similarly, about 30-40% of water used in agriculture filter back down to the water table. Agriculture use is also dispersed over large areas whereas data centers draw from a single pipe. Closed loop systems also have their own environmental concerns and need to "bleed the lines" every month or so to get rid of the toxic sludge that builds up. They also use dramatically more electricity which requires a lot of water to generate. The point being, if you live somewhere where a new data center is getting built, you WILL see a massive spike in your electricity bill. What do you get in return? Sam Altman buying another politician? Another elementary school bombed? I agree that agricultural waste is out of hand but at least people get a tangible benefit out of it. You keep trying to ignore all the points and change it to a topic you think you can win but you're still misinformed on that issue. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-centers-water-data/ https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-cent...

Rzor 3mo ago

>Data-centre protests aren't about water I suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ.

JumpCrisscross 3mo ago
> suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ I suspect they’re more concerned about “rising electricity cost[s] and air-noise pollution.”
protocolture 3mo ago
>>Data-centre protests aren't about water >I suspect the people facing rising electricity cost and air-noise pollution beg to differ. Pulling myself together here to be as polite as possible but could you perhaps read the quoted text and your own post again and try and square that circle? Otherwise, are you perhaps in the running for some kind of internet non sequitur award I am unaware of? I would vote for your comment if you simply make me aware of how to do so.
- smcin 3mo ago
  Residential users' water bills aren't (currently) affected by datacenter-related demand, unlike their power bills which are. The resource contention for water is between datacenters and agribusiness (or other industrial users), not residential users. Instead of being sarcastic to GP's post, we could try to find a succinct explanation of how water rights are owned/sold/taxed in the US. This seems to be a patchwork quilt by state, county, seniority and related legislation. But anyway, datacenter usage of water isn't impacting residential users' water bills.
  - protocolture 3mo ago
    Doesnt that mean that the statement "Datacenter protests arent about water" is correct?

culi 3mo ago

They're about the environment. They're about corruption and local city councils being bought out. They're about white collar crime and all the skirting of regulation these developers are getting away with. They're about the affordability crisis. They're about one more tool that promises a massive concentration of wealth. They're about tools of war that have already resulted in the bombing of an elementary school. They're a backlash to silicon valley ideology. And imo, most of all, they're about class. I can't remember the last time the poor of all the political spectrum have been so united against something and the rich on both sides have been this apathetic to supportive.

rayiner 3mo ago
[flagged]
- culi 3mo ago
  I didn't even mention water waste in my comment yet you out of touch techies managed to return to your industry talking point AND hate on poor people in one go of it. And yes, despite your industry talking points, water waste is absolutely a major concern. Unlike residential use, where 80% of the water is reclaimed, open loop data centers (which are over 90% of data centers) allow almost all the water to evaporate. Similarly, about 30-40% of water used in agriculture filter back down to the water table. Agriculture use is also dispersed over large areas whereas data centers draw from a single pipe. Closed loop systems also have their own environmental concerns and need to "bleed the lines" every month or so to get rid of the toxic sludge that builds up. They also use dramatically more electricity which requires a lot of water to generate. The point being, if you live somewhere where a new data center is getting built, you WILL see a massive spike in your electricity bill. What do you get in return? Sam Altman buying another politician? Another elementary school bombed? I agree that agricultural waste is out of hand but at least people get a tangible benefit out of it. You keep trying to ignore all the points and change it to a topic you think you can win but you're still misinformed on that issue. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-centers-water-data/ https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-impacts-data-cent...