Why the hell are they trying to build data centers in the fucking Sonoran Desert anyway.
It’s not their water, so they don’t care. When it finally runs out, they’ll just go somewhere else.
I mean, sure, that’s their plan, but you can only do that so many times before you run out of money, materials, water, or places to build. If ever there was proof that there’s no forward thinking in this tech bubble, this would be it.
True but this isn’t specific to the tech bubble. It’s a feature of capitalism. Competition forces firms to adopt shorter term horizons. If a firm has significant profit to make by focusing on the short term and it does not, its competitor would. If the profit possoble within this period is significant, having the competitor collect it runs the risk of the current firm failing, or the competitor accumulating enough for hostile takeover, among other failures. That would stop the current firm onwer from collecting profits in the future. Even if focusing on the long term is more profitable over time, firms may not survive in a competitive environment to realize long term profits. These are some of the fundamental processes that drive firms into short term horizons. With liquid asset markets there are even more immediate processes driving firms into short term planning.
Add to that planning based mainly on prices, which don’t capture a ton of reality and you get situations like a water hungry datacenter in the desert, cause the price of water does not capture its long term availability for example.
All of this has happened in the past, even a century ago. It’s happened and keeps happening in other industries too. For example the fossil fuel industry.
That’s more an artifact of modern corporate structure where a publicity traded entity must always be growing or it will be considered a failure.
They’re locusts. They don’t think about anything past the next fiscal quarter.
That is so thoughtless and shortsighted of them! If we run out of water, how will the poor Saudis grow alfalfa for their racehorses?
Low humidity. Good for longevity of electronics, and makes the evaporative cooling more efficient. So it’s a matter of the benefits of that vs. the cost of the added heat.
Land is also relatively cheap.
Farms, now data centers? Let’s add a Nestlé water or coca Cola factory.
Yeah, seems like a desert isn’t the best place to build something where cooling is a critical factor! Or building something that uses massive amounts of chemical treated water for cooling in a place that has had water scarcity concerns for generations, now.
Because they got fuck-you money.
Said in another comment, our deserts are tectonically stable and free of natural disasters. If you want redundant DCs, picking one on the desert is a good bet.
Yeah, all we got is man made tragedy of the commons disasters where the data centers deplete not only the water for humans, but the water for the data centers. Poof, no more data.
I’m more worried about humans draining our aquifers that took thousands, even millions, of years to fill. That water is no more replaceable than oil.
Good. This whole thing was stupid when the local government and utilities keep telling us little people to conserve water because, well we’re in a 113 degree desert with a complete lack of water due to climate change and they wanted to do this bullshit.
Have you tried collecting the condensation off the glass? If you use that to wash your armpits you can go an extra day before you shower so Jeff Bezos can make numbers go up in his theoretical money.
Edit: “Comical” thought. There is less than $2.5 trillion in cash circulating.
That wouldn’t cover 20 people net worth in a country of near 350,000,000.
Why are data centers so thirsty anyway? Can’t cooling systems just reuse water in a closed loop?
They absolutely can run closed loop. It does not cool as well as evaporative cooling (it takes MASSIVE heat to evaporate water) but it can work if designed right with large system capacity and big radiators. Trouble is it’s likely more expensive than pissing away the water and we know all that matters is bottom line.
This is a good showcase of how a few individuals can leverage power to fend off massive interests. For the good of the public even, in this instance.
Also a good showcase on why you should care about your local elections. Vote for people who will protect your interests, like these folks.
I guess that , unlike some famous people in “Phoenix Valley”, the people in Tucson did not forget “the white man’s greed”.
Kudos to them!
Well fine, guess I’ll have to make my obese fart videos the old fashioned way. Anyone seen my kimchi?
