AI Data Centers’ Water Consumption Breaks 264 Billion Gallons in 2025 as Devastating Drought Hits Nearly 63% of U.S.
https://www.barchart.com/story/news/2339834/ai-data-centers-water-consumption-breaks-264-billion-gallons-in-2025-as-devastating-drought-hits-nearly-63-of-u-s
226 points · 25 comments · view on lemmy.world
25 Comments
unitedwithme@lemmy.today · 30 pts · 73d
If there's any reason to protest AI, this is it. Another reason I'm against GitHub and their injecting AI into everything. Microsoft is shoving it everywhere to gain adoption. Pretty much every company is doing the same.
Even at my wife's job, their new VP says they are required to use it, "to improve output" or else. How shitty of a world we live in!
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · 7 pts · 73d
if there's any reason to protest AI, it's because it routinely outputs false results, which can wreak havoc if used in practice
reksas@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 72d
that will fly over majoritys heads. having to suffer lack of clean water is something even dumbest will understand is bad thing for them
Epp@lemmus.org · 3 pts · 73d
That's the same reason I protest humans.
Mondez@lemdro.id · 5 pts · 73d
Humans generally make mistakes in predictable patterns and can learn from them to improve their output.
Waterpumpee@lemmus.org · 28 pts · 73d
Similar story with Tesla's Berlin factory. Musk even said look look everywhere is water hurr durr. Politicians folded like teen girl fans meeting their kpop idol. Fast forward factory operates and household's waterconsumption in the far area is rationed. Turns out you cant take just all the water you see without damaging the ecology.
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · -9 pts · 73d
why don't they just build a pipeline from the nearest bigger river
teft@piefed.social · 20 pts · 73d
Ask the Colorado river how that works out. So much is piped out that the river no longer makes it to the ocean. It just peters out into a dry river bed dozens of miles from the shore nowadays.
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · 1 pts · 72d
oh just like the aral sea
systemglitch@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 73d
This is how civilization in America crumbles. Enjoy eating eachother in the coming years.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 73d
Only stock I'm investing in right now is A1 sauce.
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 73d
Maybe this is the real reason water is so rare in Tank Girl.
devolution@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 73d
maybe conservatives starving to death might be what actually brings movement. Couldn’t ask for a better set of people to die.
systemglitch@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 73d
It'll be all Americans fool.
devolution@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 73d
I know. All the more reason.
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · -9 pts · 73d
oh, great, more advocacy for violence and bloodshed. just what we needed to bring up arms manufacturers stock price and get the economy going again. thank you for providing jobs.
Epp@lemmus.org · 10 pts · 73d
Oh, great, more advocacy for pacifism and capitulation. Just what we need to bring up future prospects and get people's hopes up again. Thank you for providing morale.
kromem@lemmy.world · -4 pts · 73d
Since it's useful to see large numbers normalized, this is a little less than how much water all US households used in ten days in 2025 (28 billion/day per comment below) and a little under three days of the total water used for US crop irrigation (100 billion per day).
Edit: updated household numbers per comment below
Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 73d
Each American uses an average of 82 gallons of water a day at home (USGS, Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2015).
estimated population was 341,784,857 on July 1, 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
That's 28 billion gallons per day from US households. Your 300 billion number would mean each person in the US is somehow using almost 1,000 gallons of water per day.
kromem@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 73d
Thanks! Updated the numbers for the direct household use.
Also, technically when you account for indirect water use, individuals use closer to around 4,500 gallons per day (Chini, et al. Direct and indirect urban water footprints of the United States (2016)).
gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org · -7 pts · 73d
thank you for putting things into proportion
Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 73d
The numbers in their comment are all wrong.
Mondez@lemdro.id · 4 pts · 73d
Must've been an LLM generated factoid.
Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 72d
Looks like it
Mondez@lemdro.id · 1 pts · 72d
At least we know all that water is going to good use.
Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 73d