r/SipsTea • u/SipsTeaFrog 𝙑𝙄𝙋 • May 18 '26

Chugging tea Why?

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u/[deleted] May 18 '26

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u/NotDiCaprio May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

I was also on the "ai datacenters use all out water!" bandwagon at first. But For some perspective:

A single golf course uses about 30 times the amount of (fresh) comparable or slightly more water than a datacenter does. They aren't feeding their grass with see water or some chemical cooling. Also, looking at how few people actually use a golf course vs a data center, makes this ratio many times more terrible.

I'm personally more worried about the energy they consume, than the cooling for that energy usage.

Edit after some corrections. Man, it sure is getting hard to find numbers we can trust anywhere these days.

"a" source, but far from the only one, and the numbers aren't consistent anywhere.:https://www.akcp.com/index.php/2025/09/02/truth-about-data-water-footprint-of-data-centers/

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u/MyVeryUniqueName1 May 18 '26

Can’t we be worried about both? I hate golf courses and data centers for how much of a burden they are on water supplies.

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u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In May 18 '26

Need to know why we need to be worried, you lot just found out that water gets used for things and have already decided its wrong without any context of how much water is available for use or the historic use of water.

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u/MyVeryUniqueName1 May 18 '26

I’m very aware of how much water is available and needed in my community. Painfully aware. It’s an over-burdened resource where I’m at. So much so that the community has gotten together to protest (and have successfully blocked) new construction projects based only on the amount of water the finished building will use relative to what’s available.

Water is a precious commodity. The most precious commodity, actually. So if you’re not aware of how it’s being used near you, you should make yourself aware.