My understanding is that water used in data centers is recirculated, much like all water is. What's the alternative? Does the data center somehow destroy water through a chemical reaction such that is ceases to be water? Or pollutes and releases the water and makes it unusable and incapable of evaporating and being recirculated? Am I missing something?
replyFrom the source:
> The water’s going back into the water cycle anyway, so is water usage a big deal? Yes. The phrase to research here is “freshwater scarcity” — cleaning water takes time and energy, the water cycle doesn’t reliably distribute water evenly, water usage can pull water out faster than the cycle can return it, and so on.
If this is true, then it's an engineering problem. Cleaning water takes time and energy, we should improve that and the energy required is already priced. There's more demand for infrastructure and it should be built out.
The people doing this are drinking water either way.
replyThat's true, but the people could also be doing some other job with their effort too. If you factor in the water consumption of the energy used to power their laptops while answering these questions (~30W of power for 11 minutes per interaction, 1mL of water per W of power) you get another 5mL of water per interaction purely in electricity use.
replyNot saying it's a 1:1 comparison but it puts it in perspective.
I can't seem to find the laptop power usage bit in the TFA, is that just supposed to be presumed? Isn't that kind of high?
reply30W is on the low end, based off of web browsing and standard office usage. I didn't link my source so here it is: https://solartechonline.com/blog/how-much-electricity-does-l...
replyGive them Stillsuits from Dune and we have solved everything.
replyMy urologist told me off for drinking 3L of water per day, said I should be aiming for 3 pints, maybe 4 at the most.
replyThat would translate to 11mL of water per interaction. Plus the 5mL for running the laptop that I pointed out in my other comment. I think the comparison still holds up with that math.
replyYou sure they weren't just confused about imperial unit conversions?
replyYeah, definitely. Your mileage may vary I guess, maybe that 3 to 4 pints was specific to my plumbing.
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