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Improper redaction reveals Google Data Center water and electricity usage

397 points · 517 comments · sensanaty

  1. aliasxneo · · 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. thayne · · focus · HN ↗
      My biggest problem with the data centers getting built around me are that they are building new natural gas power plants to power them, that will be greenhouse gases and decrease local air quality. I would be a lot more ok with it if they were using wind or solar. And maybe built it somewhere that didn't have a water shortage.
      1. cogman10 · · focus · HN ↗
        One being built near me is being built on public lands that are being sold off for datacenters. That's an additional pretty big negative (especially since the specific land was set apart as a wildlife habitat.)

        I do really dislike that AFAIK almost all of these are being powered via burning fossil fuels. Any way you slice it, it's going to mean that locals end up paying higher energy bills.

        1. SoftTalker · · focus · HN ↗
          I guess we can assume that the executives at the big AI companies don't believe in man made climate change.
          1. crote · · focus · HN ↗
            Climate change is a lot less important when you are rich enough that it doesn't impact you personally, and when you don't care about what the world looks like after you die.

            Sure, millions of people are going to die due to climate change, and that's going to impact the company's profitability, but by then your stock options will have already vested - so that's a problem for someone else!

            1. hackernud3s · · focus · HN ↗
              They could be doing more to combat climate change, but that's also true for everyone in this thread.

              Personally I will forgive them the Datacenter carbon if they are willing to stop flying private jets.

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