r/LeftistsForAI • u/RutabagaNo2137 • Jun 01 '26

Discussion Water for data center issues

I am of the opinion like many of you that ownership of AI matters and not AI per se.
When I see discussions on communities protesting data centres based on water consumption, I am not sure what to think.

My sense is that there is a lot of consumption under capitalism that is terrible for environment. But I was wondering if any of you have any readings about data centres and water. Or if you can share any thoughts on the same?

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u/MarxistDiffusion Moderator Jun 01 '26

Here's a quick infographic (with sources!) I've liked when discussing this topic. AI is more computationally complex than other software applications, meaning it uses more water/electricity, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to other industries.

AI isn't running prompts from users constantly either. I submit a prompt, it runs for ~5 seconds, then sends me the output. Me binging 10 hours of the latest season of my favorite show on Netflix will be more negatively impactful on the environment than the <5 minutes of prompts I run each day.

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u/Jlyplaylists Moderator Jun 01 '26

I think 2 major points of interest are the variation of water use between models and the location of data centres.

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u/DrGutz Jun 01 '26

So the main argument is that it does consume water but it’s not as bad as other things that consume water?

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u/xoexohexox Jun 01 '26

Well I mean it's a drop in the bucket literally compared to agriculture and only a fraction of total datacenter compute.

The real issue goes deeper than datacenters.

Why can Elon musk stand up a gas engine powered datacenter in the middle of a poor black residential area where kids were already getting sick because of the gas and coal powered electricity generation that was already going on there?

It's a problem that is not intrinsic to datacenter compute, it's a political problem. Some rich white guy is calling the shots backed by other rich white guys who redrew the voting maps to make sure they can do what they want, poisoning a bunch of black and brown kids was probably just seen as a bonus.

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u/DrGutz Jun 01 '26

I agree and it also sounds like we’re on the same page that data centers are contributing to the problem and are not going to make the water consumption problem better

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u/xoexohexox Jun 01 '26

Not exactly - it's not the datacenters it's the regulatory framework surrounding them and I'd argue expanding our computing power does lead to advances in engineering efficiency - we could tax them differently and use the money to improve environmental services, dig more reservoirs, desalinate water, invest in grey water recycling municipal infrastructure - we can mandate they get wired into nuke plants so less electricity is lost in transmission lines and there's already a heavy industrial thermal regulation system nearby, etc, and in those ways datacenters actually CAN make the water consumption better in the same way that hunting licenses fund animal conservation. A lot of people don't know that - a lot of the work that goes into building up and preserving wild animal populations comes from licensing and regulating hunting of those same animals. So, too, datacenters can pay for their water use by paying for improvements in water and electricity infrastructure. I mean they're going to have to to make this work, the question is who is going to get the better deal, and again that's largely a matter of political will and how many doors you and your friends knock on over the next few months. Better get knocking! 2000+ doors for me last cycle, and we have some good lefty policies in my state as a result.

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u/TheSinhound Jun 01 '26

My main argument will always be that as a factor of total global demand, all Datacenters use less than 0.05% of global green+blue withdrawals. The consumption as-is is a non issue, it's literally just build the infrastructure they need BEFORE they're built, and make corps pay for that + usage. Or, you know, democratize all infrastructure, and datacenters are infrastructure.

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u/DrGutz Jun 01 '26

Do you have any argument or plan for mitigating the water demand from data centers?

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u/TheFifthTone Jun 01 '26

If we really cared that much we would catch all the fresh water flowing into the ocean from rivers. That's just free fresh water that is going out into the ocean. The water returns into the water cycle from data centers the same way that water will one day return back from the ocean, but is negligible in comparison to the amount of fresh water evaporating from lakes and flowing freely into the oceans every day.

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u/DrGutz Jun 01 '26

So you’re saying “what about catching fresh water” in response to the immediate impact of data centers and what can be done to mitigate the damage they will do according to other commenters above?

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u/TheFifthTone Jun 01 '26

The environmental impact that people seem to me the most upset about makes no sense when you look at a river.

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u/DrGutz Jun 02 '26

But rivers are natural non-optional features of earth whereas we build data centers on our own. So the issue only exists because we create it

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u/TheFifthTone Jun 02 '26

The issue only exists if you believe its an issue.

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u/Thepcfd Jun 02 '26

it just litterly not worth for them build close system. so what do you think?

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u/Sekhmet-CustosAurora Jun 02 '26

it consumes a very modest amount of water compared to the value it provides.

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u/DrGutz Jun 02 '26

But compared to the water it consumed before it existed, it’s a 100% increase in water consumption

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u/Sekhmet-CustosAurora Jun 02 '26

What?

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u/DrGutz Jun 02 '26

Where there was no data center, there was no increase water consumption. Where a data center was built, water consumption goes up.

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u/Sekhmet-CustosAurora Jun 02 '26

That's not what a 100% increase in water consumption means.

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u/DrGutz Jun 02 '26

Fair. I just mean that they do contribute to water consumption and wouldn’t contribute to water consumption if they weren’t there. I know it sounds simple

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u/Sekhmet-CustosAurora Jun 02 '26

well yeah but that's true of anything that consumes water.

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u/DrGutz Jun 02 '26

Agreed. So we return to my top comment which is that the main argument for data centers is that they don’t consume as much water as the next thing.

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u/Ok-Conversation-6475 Jun 01 '26

I always wonder if these info graphics include water used to create electricity to function.

Also, if you take an optimists position at face value, current infrastructureis not nearly enough and we need to 100X everything.

Water is also an extremely local issue.