Thread

1. aliasxneo · 1791145670 · focus · HN ↗

   I lived in a smaller rural town near a Google datacenter. During my career there I had routinely come across some outlandish accusations made about our water/power usage from the locals. But for obvious reasons I could never dispute them. I remember we hired a local who'd grown up in the town and he was "really surprised" when he started to see what we were doing to remain efficient.

   The current data center craze just feels like the same thing but on a bigger scale.

   1. michaelt · 1791147121 · focus · HN ↗

      > I had routinely come across some outlandish accusations made about our water/power usage from the locals. But for obvious reasons I could never dispute them.

      It'd be pretty easy for the company to dispel those outlandish accusations - the PR department could just report the true numbers.

      1. vmg12 · 1791147927 · focus · HN ↗

         Sam Altman has stated the water usage in multiple interviews (it's low) and people don't believe him.

         1. dspillett · 1791149825 · focus · HN ↗

            Largely because of how many times it could have been stated prior, given it had been a talking point for some time, and the lack of actual evidence (him saying something is not often taken at face value…).

            Of course, they'd like the water thing to stay an issue as it distracts from others. The water problem has been concentrated on because even some of the most adherent climate change deniers recognise that water access is a significant problem in many areas, so it is an issue that can be usefully raised and won't get tied up in the human-caused-climate-change argument. Unfortunately concentrating on that could be distracting from other matters.

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