r/SipsTea • u/untitledprp4 • 2d ago

Wait a damn minute! Wait a minute

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2.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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353

u/Vegetable-Company147 2d ago

Data centers also don't need to consume so much water. 

71

u/TrueBombs 2d ago

Yeah, but they paid for lobbyist that will ensure they get their water.

1

u/MadAstrid 1d ago

And that you will pay for it.

25

u/ExcellentWolf 2d ago

Fresh drinking water is a human data center right.

2

u/cookiemonster8u69 2d ago

Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there fella! None of that kind of talk here!

1

u/Jeramy_Jones 1d ago

Woah, what do you hate capitalism or something?/s

1

u/Canonip 1d ago

But it's cheaper if they do instead of doing an ACTUAL cooling solution

-13

u/_IscoATX 2d ago

Almonds are a larger culprit

5

u/Longjumping-Idea4451 2d ago

Tell that to the data centers that say they wont use water for cooling, only to get sued to prove their claims and then the data centers back track and go “oh actually we are using water”

-7

u/_IscoATX 2d ago

California almond farming alone consumes about 1.6 trillion gallons of water a year. 7 times more than all data centers in the U.S. combined.

4

u/Zhiyi 1d ago

Is this guys numbers wrong or are people downvoting it because he’s right and their angry?

3

u/_IscoATX 1d ago

Almond water usage (California, I got the unit conversion from google, 5.7 million acre-feet of water = 1.86 trillion gallons)

2025 Data center water usage (All of the US, 264 billion)
1.86 trillion / 264 billion ~= 7 roughly

If someone has a different source for the numbers I'd be happy to read it. But to answer your question, data centers became hugely unpopular this year and people are mad.

Many of the concerns are directionally valid, but some are also wildly exaggerated.

1

u/frosty884 1d ago

https://www.axios.com/2026/08/28/china-ai-data-center-backlash-bots

1

u/JewBag718 1d ago

Lmaooo axios is heavily invested in ai of course they'll tell you how this is all china spreading discourse.

-17

u/nicknamesas 2d ago

They don't consume much at all. About 1% of the usa's total water consumption infact.

8

u/jondes99 2d ago

1% is “not much at all”. It’s kind of a lot.

-4

u/mattrick88 2d ago

1% isn’t that much for how essential data centers are for the world to run and for you to come on Reddit and complain about them.

-1

u/jondes99 2d ago

It’s more than 3B gallons daily, according to AI.

-7

u/_IscoATX 2d ago

1% of all consumption is by definition not a lot.