The issue with the almonds is that there are a bunch of dumbasses growing them in an area that, left to itself, would be a desert. They shouldn’t be doing that, either.
My point was that even if the water use of data centers is less than that of almonds, it does not justify the existence of the data centers because the water use of the almonds is also grossly inflated. You don’t waste 999 million dollars just because someone else is wasting a billion.
Powering data centers with renewable energy sources, like solar or wind, requires significantly less water consumption than obtaining energy from fossil fuel power plants. With approximately 56% of the electricity used to power data centers nationwide coming from fossil fuels, deploying more clean energy to power these facilities can significantly reduce water consumption. Coal plants are the most water-intensive facilities, requiring approximately 19,185 gallons of water per megawatt-hour (MWh) of power generation. Natural gas power plants consume approximately 2,800 gallons per MWh. In 2022, 40% of all total U.S. annual water withdrawals, or about 48.5 trillion gallons, were made by coal and gas power plants. Of those 48.5 trillion gallons, 962 billion gallons of water were consumed and were no longer available for direct downstream use.
Citation needed.
The issue with the almonds is that there are a bunch of dumbasses growing them in an area that, left to itself, would be a desert. They shouldn’t be doing that, either.
Irrelevant whataboutism. Nothing about the almonds justifies or is at all related the datacenter build-outs.
My point was that even if the water use of data centers is less than that of almonds, it does not justify the existence of the data centers because the water use of the almonds is also grossly inflated. You don’t waste 999 million dollars just because someone else is wasting a billion.
there are a few. i feel like this one gives the most info succintly
https://rare.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/AI-and-Water-Use-Updated.pdf
In general, it’s unwise to cite carpetbaggers who don’t account for the full systemic impacts of their data centers.
See, for example: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/data-centers-and-water-consumption