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There has been tons of reported frustration with golf courses in the past. So, yes, people have, and it's pretty consistent here as well.

bloaf 1mo ago
I've not seen a single politician calling for statewide bans on golf courses. Its pretty obvious here that people decided datacenters were bad first, then went looking for justifications second.
- xboxnolifes 1mo ago
  Go look up articles from mid to late 2010s. There's where you will find frustration about golf courses, during the time where water restrictions were being put on residential lawns. Do not conflate the more recent, more successful campaign of anti-data-center sentiment with the non-existence of a past campaign against golf courses. It existed, it just petered out.
  - bloaf 1mo ago
    Look, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth. Either water consumption is a problem today, or it is not. If it is a problem, then golf courses are today a better target for people who want to solve the water problem than data centers. If water consumption is not a problem, then the data center's water consumption is not a problem.
    - bdangubic 1mo ago
      if we limit the number of data centers so that it cannot exceed number of golf courses in any zipcode in america than this is a solid argument, otherwise it is strawman
      - senordevnyc 1mo ago
        Why zip code?
    - xboxnolifes 1mo ago
      I am not doing any such thing. You are pulling whataboutisms left and right, and I'm trying to get across that the lack of a successful campaign does not prove the lack of sentiment. You need to carefully pick which political battles to take and, more importantly, when to take them. If you think the current data center installations have problems you want to be addressed, you don't also bring up golf course water usage, farmland water rights, residential lawns, factory runoff, and climate change effects on rainwater. You'd just be distracting from the conversation.
      - senordevnyc 1mo ago
        No, but someone yelling about data center water usage while clearly not giving a shit about the things that use way more water quickly make it clear that they’re either very ignorant, or this isn’t actually about water.
- tzs 1mo ago
  > I've not seen a single politician calling for statewide bans on golf courses. I've not seen a single state where anyone is trying to build a ton of new golf courses. There are around 140 being built in the whole country, and I think the most in any one state is under a dozen in Florida. There are more than an order of magnitude more data centers under construction with some states having more data centers under constructions than the whole country has golf courses under construction. I bet if you tried to build 2-300 golf courses at the same time in one state it would become an issue for state level politicians.
  - piloto_ciego 1mo ago
    I seem to recall that data centers require orders of magnitude less water than a golf course too if you want to compare apples to apples. Look, just say what you mean. If you think "AI is BAD" just say that, don't try to couch it in some disingenuous argument about water usage or climate change.
    - tzs 1mo ago
      I did say what I meant. You overlooked the context. The person I was replying to was trying to make inferences from the fact that data centers have become a statewide issue in some states but golf courses have not. My point is that because golf courses are being built at a much lower rate than data centers they remain just local issues in most places. Try to build 200 golf courses at the same time in some state and I bet you'll see that get statewide attention.
      - piloto_ciego 1mo ago
        The fact that golf courses use an order of magnitude more resources than a data center should certainly factor into the context.
  - senordevnyc 1mo ago
    No one would give a shit about two hundred golf courses being constructed in Texas. Even with the massive data center build out, existing golf courses today use more water than all projected data centers globally are expected to use in 2030. The water issue is completely farcical.

bloaf 1mo ago

I've not seen a single politician calling for statewide bans on golf courses. Its pretty obvious here that people decided datacenters were bad first, then went looking for justifications second.

xboxnolifes 1mo ago
Go look up articles from mid to late 2010s. There's where you will find frustration about golf courses, during the time where water restrictions were being put on residential lawns. Do not conflate the more recent, more successful campaign of anti-data-center sentiment with the non-existence of a past campaign against golf courses. It existed, it just petered out.
- bloaf 1mo ago
  Look, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth. Either water consumption is a problem today, or it is not. If it is a problem, then golf courses are today a better target for people who want to solve the water problem than data centers. If water consumption is not a problem, then the data center's water consumption is not a problem.
  - bdangubic 1mo ago
    if we limit the number of data centers so that it cannot exceed number of golf courses in any zipcode in america than this is a solid argument, otherwise it is strawman
    - senordevnyc 1mo ago
      Why zip code?
  - xboxnolifes 1mo ago
    I am not doing any such thing. You are pulling whataboutisms left and right, and I'm trying to get across that the lack of a successful campaign does not prove the lack of sentiment. You need to carefully pick which political battles to take and, more importantly, when to take them. If you think the current data center installations have problems you want to be addressed, you don't also bring up golf course water usage, farmland water rights, residential lawns, factory runoff, and climate change effects on rainwater. You'd just be distracting from the conversation.
    - senordevnyc 1mo ago
      No, but someone yelling about data center water usage while clearly not giving a shit about the things that use way more water quickly make it clear that they’re either very ignorant, or this isn’t actually about water.
tzs 1mo ago
> I've not seen a single politician calling for statewide bans on golf courses. I've not seen a single state where anyone is trying to build a ton of new golf courses. There are around 140 being built in the whole country, and I think the most in any one state is under a dozen in Florida. There are more than an order of magnitude more data centers under construction with some states having more data centers under constructions than the whole country has golf courses under construction. I bet if you tried to build 2-300 golf courses at the same time in one state it would become an issue for state level politicians.
- piloto_ciego 1mo ago
  I seem to recall that data centers require orders of magnitude less water than a golf course too if you want to compare apples to apples. Look, just say what you mean. If you think "AI is BAD" just say that, don't try to couch it in some disingenuous argument about water usage or climate change.
  - tzs 1mo ago
    I did say what I meant. You overlooked the context. The person I was replying to was trying to make inferences from the fact that data centers have become a statewide issue in some states but golf courses have not. My point is that because golf courses are being built at a much lower rate than data centers they remain just local issues in most places. Try to build 200 golf courses at the same time in some state and I bet you'll see that get statewide attention.
    - piloto_ciego 1mo ago
      The fact that golf courses use an order of magnitude more resources than a data center should certainly factor into the context.
- senordevnyc 1mo ago
  No one would give a shit about two hundred golf courses being constructed in Texas. Even with the massive data center build out, existing golf courses today use more water than all projected data centers globally are expected to use in 2030. The water issue is completely farcical.