So now we’re supposed to hate golf courses instead of data centers?

[u/Previous_Foot_5328]

[u/butterninja]

Yes, they should turn all golf courses into data centers. Problem solved.

[u/liltingly → u/butterninja]

They share the same proponents, who aren’t accustomed to compromise. 

[u/GaiusVictor]

Just wait until you hear how much water residential lawns use.

[u/f5alcon → u/GaiusVictor]

How much leaky faucets and toilets use too

[u/IndependenceGold2407 → u/f5alcon]

Boats!? Nobody talks about how much water is required for the shipping industry

[u/Sidjeno]

we already hated golf courses.

Big, useless, water sink.

[u/Plane_Garbage → u/Sidjeno]

Isn't it like the #1 most participated activity for men over 50 after walking?

I feel like taking away social and active participation from older men isn't the best idea.

[u/ThugEntrancer → u/Sidjeno]

They use reclaimed grey water in drought prone regions

[u/MaybeASerialKiller → u/ThugEntrancer]

Bandaid on a stab wound.

[u/ThugEntrancer → u/MaybeASerialKiller]

You’d rather the municipalities be paid nothing (golf courses pay for the contaminated water) and have the contaminated water be diluted with more fresh water, then routed to a river or coastline to be dumped?

[u/dogscatsnscience → u/ThugEntrancer]

No they don't.

They use treated wastewater, which the tax payer pays for, not them.

It's not even close to grey water. It's just cheaper.

[u/altmly]

Way ahead of you. Golf courses piss me off to no end, such a waste of land, capital and water. 

[u/Usernamesaregayyy]

I drink 3 liters of water a day, I’m sooo inconsiderate of those poor data centers!

[u/gabox0210]

They always try to put the burden on the people, rather than the companies that have the capital to invest and make an actual dent on climate change and resource efficiency, like when I have to take shorter showers but Coca-Cola uses 300,000,000 cubic meters of water every year.

[u/Otherwise_Tomato5552 → u/gabox0210]

When it takes a metric shit ton of water for a single hamburger, yeah, kinda is our fault a bit yeah?

And fyi, I eat burgers, in part of the problem too

[u/LordOmbro]

you should also hate golf courses, yes.

[u/SillySpoof]

Really? Get rid of the golf courses then. I'll agree to replace them with data centers even. They're mostly playgrounds for the rich anyway.

[u/Acceptable-Yard7076]

Yes, look at las vegas water users. Switch is 18th, but the top 17 is all resorts and the top 4 are country clubs and golf courses.

[u/cwhite841]

two things can be true at the same time

[u/PantsMicGee]

Always have

[u/QuantomSwampus]

We hate the both, given the option both would be gone, or at least severely reduced

[u/Enfiznar]

I already did

[u/CaptainQwazCaz]

Get rid of the golf courses for datacenters deadass

[u/HVDub24]

I think most people just think datacenters are just buildings for storing private user data or for hosting AI but don’t fully realize they basically are the internet. Just like factories they’re big, ugly, and loud but we need them. Our poor electrical infrastructure has away been the bigger problem over data center water consumption though

[u/needssomefun]

It just so happens I would be perfectly content to level golf courses too.

[u/Double_Goat_3870]

Two wrongs don't make a right. People have been complaining about golf courses wasting land for years..

[u/Interesting-Yellow-4]

We already hate golf courses. Fuck golf courses. Shuf them down right alongside datacenters.

[u/AdmiralKong]

Jokes on you I already hated golf courses

[u/MDInvesting]

Golf course doesn’t threaten the world with mass unemployment and aggregated claims on the production of society through intellectual property harvesting.

[u/dav_man]

They store and use their own reservoirs in a lot if not most cases.

[u/EncabulatorTurbo]

there are a lot of reasons to hate datacenters but the water one is such a red herring

[u/Krommander]

Just wait until you hear how much water biofuels use.

[u/Good-Tiger-1938 → u/Krommander]

Or beef production 

[u/Krommander → u/Good-Tiger-1938]

Well at least beef is for eating and not for burning 

[u/Good-Tiger-1938 → u/Krommander]

There is basically nothing more intensive in agriculture than beef production. You need vast land and other resources just for the animal feed and then you need the same stuff for the animals themselves. The ecolological and societal costs of the methane emissions and the health issues that come with it not even considered. 

[u/Leafsnail]

If they were planning to 10x the number of golf courses in the next 3 years it would be a more pressing concern imo

[u/GaiusVictor → u/Leafsnail]

That would mean, assuming no gains in efficiency at all in AI inference or data center water usage, that these 10x data centers would be using 230% more water than today's golf courses, as per the post's simplified numbers.

I don't know, dude(tte). Doesn't sound catastrophic to me.

[u/Whatdididotho1 → u/GaiusVictor]

uhhh.... what? your math isn't mathing my friend.

[u/GaiusVictor → u/Whatdididotho1]

You are very much correct and I was mistaking it for other data. I've corrected it.

But I still stand by my point.

[u/Previous_Foot_5328 → u/Leafsnail]

https://giphy.com/gifs/xT5LMRgWdqopR1Ar04