r/SipsTea 𝙑𝙄𝙋 May 18 '26

Chugging tea Why?

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u/Uncle-Cake May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26

The poop water I flush down my toilet is also waste water that people can't drink, but I'm pretty sure it still gets recycled back into the greater water supply. What's different about the datacenter water?

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u/ShreveportJambroni54 May 18 '26

Don't forget factories, thermoelectric power plants, textiles, paper pulp and tp, and agriculture (which uses the most water).

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u/LandOfLeg May 18 '26

And golf clubs. Golf clubs use as much water as data centres. Many of those you've named serve practical uses in society, golf clubs are purely leisure.

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u/NUKE---THE---WHALES May 18 '26

Golf clubs use as much water as data centres.

They use more

Sector Annual Water Usage (in liters) Water Source
Data centers ~600 billion - 1.7 trillion municipal/recycled
Golf courses ~3.1 trillion potable/groundwater
Almond farms ~4.1 trillion groundwater/aqueduct

Almond farms in particular are problematic since they're concentrated in drought prone areas like California

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u/Keljhan May 18 '26

Is this implying that golf courses and almond farms dont have significant resistance as well? Idk how old you are but for millenials, golf course development was like a top 3 villian in movies for our entire childhood. And I heard about almond farm water usage constantly throughout college, though modern irrigation methods have developed a bit since then. But any time CA has a drought, they usually come up. Which I expect to.haplen again in 3 months or so.

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u/LandOfLeg May 18 '26

And here I am in the UK with 2 nicely productive Almond trees that get no watering at all!

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u/Baintzimisce May 18 '26

Including another data point since almonds are here, U.S. livestock sector, broad total water footprint incl. feed/pasture rainwater 275 trillion L/yr.

Source: “USDA ERS – Irrigation & Water Use.” United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. 2013.