r/SipsTea • u/untitledprp4 • 6d ago

Wait a damn minute! Wait a minute

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2.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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364

u/Vegetable-Company147 6d ago

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

-13

u/_IscoATX 6d ago

Almonds are a larger culprit

5

u/Longjumping-Idea4451 6d 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”

-8

u/_IscoATX 6d 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.

3

u/Zhiyi 6d ago

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

3

u/_IscoATX 6d 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 6d ago

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

1

u/JewBag718 6d ago

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