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. throwaway2037 · 1790805024 · focus · HN ↗

             > Data centers tend to concentrate their water usage within urban areas
         

         Ahh, what? The world's greatest concentration of data centers is in the suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., USA. Almost none of that would be classified as urban. I offer a counterpoint: The vast majority of data centers are suburban, rather than rural or urban.

             > Their water consumption scales up around tenfold if you consider the indirect usage from generating the electricity.
         

         This is bullshit. I already disproved this myth here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49119054">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=49119054

         In short, &quot;More than 90% of this is returned to source.&quot;

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