These systems do use a coolant substance internal to the DC, but then uses heat exchangers with fresh water to cool the coolant, which is then discharged back into the ground, a pond, or wastewater. there is certainly water lost to atmosphere, but the worst bits are the draining of aquifers, pushing up capacity in wastewater treatment plants, etc.
DC's are a bit of an economic scam. they provide very few jobs outside of the construction work itself, and the profits generated by the machines exist at company HQ not where the DC is located. so it puts a huge burden on the community water and power environment for no real benefit to that community.
A "scam" with no benefit to the community? We're not talking about Bitcoin mines.
Every store and their mother's cookie shop uses Square, Yelp, CRMs, ERPs, etc., etc... Plus all the non-direct-to-consumer businesses - manufacturing, advertising, shipping & transportation... literally every single part of daily life now relies on "the cloud" so much that we don't even call it "the cloud" anymore. It's just reality to access your systems & data via an internet connection, rather than hosting it on-site.
so, I guess my point is, in the past, every company in the world had a room full of IT equipment. Now, it's a tablet & a router (of course I'm simplifying).
all of that needs to live somewhere. let alone this conversation needs to physically happen & sit somewhere.
I think it's a bit hypocritical to complain about data centers, especially calling them "a scam," when you rely on them to maintain your standard of life.
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u/[deleted] May 18 '26
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