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While we're talking about Americans using anything but the metric system (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746745 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=497
by kragen 9d ago
While we're talking about Americans using anything but the metric system (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746745 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746745), how many golf courses' worth of water is Google's 10.9 billion "gallons" a year?
- zahlman 9d agoChatGPT tells me > As a historical U.S. benchmark, an average 18-hole facility had about 80.7 irrigated turf acres and used approximately 152.5 acre-feet/year—about 49.7 million gallons (188 million litres) annually. So about 220. But it's still, ahem, a drop in the bucket compared to the California almond industry.
- simonw 9d agoA while back I satirically suggested https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/17/spot-birds-not-golf/ https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/17/spot-birds-not-golf/ that if hyperscalers wanted to relieve the pressure over data center water use they could buy up a few dozen country clubs and turn them into public parks. (I was only half joking)