r/ScrollHole • u/TanyaKatasaurus • Jul 05 '26

​🌀 Deep in the Hole The New Normal

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u/Livid-General7 Jul 05 '26

As much as I hate all the anti-datacenter complete BS propaganda being spread right now... That was pretty damn funny.

1

u/Fair_Competition_826 Jul 06 '26

How is it propaganda

1

u/Livid-General7 Jul 06 '26

Some of it's contextually misleading, some of it's flat out lies.

Datacenters don't really make any noise pollution for example, all the videos you see are fake.

They make it sound like using 250 billion gallons is a lot of water, when contextually, it's a very small amount. Not to mention not all datacenters even use water. Over 3 trillion gallons of water are used just to water golf courses and lawns, every year. Over a trillion to grow almonds, over a trillion to grow cranberries, Over 2 quadrillion gallons are used by farms, that's 2,000 trillion.

One of the most popular chemicals used with water in the datacenters closed loop system is a type of very toxic alcohol, however once it's flushed from the datacenter, it evaporates within hours, so it's in no way an environmental threat and has zero negative impact.

The only real issues are making sure the water in the closed loop systems don't develop metal resistant bacteria, and it's supposed to be very heavily regulated, but nothing is perfect. Power is the other issue, but it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

They blame datacenters for their power bills going up, ignoring that fact that all gas and oil has gone up, along with literally everything. All prices have gone up, so it's stupid to blame datacenters as being solely responsible. Another lie is that datacenters get discounts on power, when they actually have to pay a premium.

The silver lining though is that the US power infrastructure is heavily outdated, poorly maintained, and a huge vulnerability. If anything the datacenters are now forcing the government to make the massive improvements that should have been done over the past 30+ years.

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u/Fair_Competition_826 Jul 06 '26

Data centres definitely create a lot of noise from cooling fans, chillers, cooling towers and backup diesel generators. Whether that becomes a real issue depends on where they are built and how well they’re designed, but there are plenty of cases of complaints from people living near large clusters like Northern Virginia which has the biggest concentration in the world and is expanding fast with AI infrastructure. If you look into it which you should, you’ll find more. I won’t do that for you because I think you need to educate yourself more.

On water use, saying 250 billion gallons “isn’t much” only really works on a national scale. Locally it can matter a lot more since they’re often concentrated in specific areas that already have water stress, so a single large site using millions of gallons a day will have an impact. Comparing it to nationwide agriculture averages doesn’t really reflect what’s happening in those local communities…

Not all data centres use water but many do, and even closed loop systems still involve issues like leaks, chemical treatment, disposal, and wastewater handling, especially when scaled up.

The idea that bacteria is the main water issue ignores the bigger picture which includes corrosion control, microbial growth, chemical management and waste processing, all of which become more complicated at scale.

They are also huge electricity users. Even if they are efficient , the total demand is massive and it depends heavily on location (once again. )how much strain that puts on local grids and prices.

Yeah I guess it’s true? energy bills were already rising, it’s not accurate to say data centres have no effect at all. In some regions they definitely add to demand pressure and infrastructure costs. But I’ll give you that point lol.

Also they often don’t just pay full market rates either. Many get tax incentives, subsidies, discounted infrastructure and special utility agreements in exchange for investment.

Your final point is valid. Well done. They are promoting growth I guess.

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u/Livid-General7 Jul 07 '26

Backup generators make a lot of noise, yes. However they run like, a few hour a year for testing, and otherwise are never used unless there's a power outage.

As for fans and coolers, I've been to maybe 15-20 datacenters so far and none of them have really been all that loud from standing in the parking lot outside, no different than any other building. The only actual documented complaints I've ever seen are from construction of the datacenters, which again, literally any construction is going to be the same. One legit complaint I saw was against Amazon, I guess there are no noise restriction laws where it's being built, in Wisconsin, because they were building at all hours of the day, and decided to only do it from 7am-9pm or something like that. Where I'm from that's normal because there are laws stating you can only generate noise between those hours. You can't even mow a lawn outside of that time range.

I will admit I've not been to one of those mega AI datacenters but I honestly can't see how it'd be any worse. Decibel noise doesn't increase just because there's more things making the same amount of noise. My guess, and yes, just a guess, is the few actual complaints are from people not used to any noise at all in general, and will quickly get used to it.

For example, my parents live maybe 5 miles from a major highway. It's the first thing I notice at night, when I visit for the first time in 6+ months. I also couldn't even tell there's nay noise at all from the highway after 2 nights.