Thread

1. stingraycharles · 1790769649 · focus · HN ↗

   Playing the devil’s advocate: don’t “freedom of information” laws mostly apply to government agencies? If so, why would a private company provide this information?

   I personally believe at the very least the water usage is heavily overblown compared to the agriculture industry. Elecricity is a different issue, and governments should consider reporting requirements or something like that.

   Being angry with datacenter providers is not the solution. And they also need to be built somewhere, and that place is probably best where electricity is abundant and/or cheap.

   1. n4r9 · 1790771200 · focus · HN ↗

      > the water usage is heavily overblown compared to the agriculture industry

      Data centers tend to concentrate their water usage within urban areas, causing a strain on local resources. The value of their output is much less tangible. Their water consumption scales up around tenfold if you consider the indirect usage from generating the electricity.

      But on the other hand; yes, it would also help enormously if people ate less meat.

      1. brnt · 1790789170 · focus · HN ↗

         The Netherlands does not have areas sufficiently far removed from urban areas for this to matter. In fact the entire country has a managed water table, the bodies which govern it are the oldest demicratic institutions in the world (over a millenium), and survived any change in ruler country and government in the meantime.

         There's no river or creek not used for drinkwater consumption or management, and they are all connected to agricultural use and transportation (canal water levels) as well. It's one big system, and farmers cheating on how much they pump up is already too big of a proboem for this to not matter.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.