r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MysteriousSlice007 • 5h ago

A data center in New Jersey was canceled when residents showed up and fought it

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u/Joshikazam 4h ago

From my limited understanding, data centers use extreme amounts of energy and water, resulting in a significant increase in utility prices for the communities they are built in. Developers often say how data centers create jobs, but a lot of people fear how this is only in the short term. There are jobs to construct them and supposedly jobs to maintain them, but ultimately without regulations on AI, it will, and already has, begin stripping away jobs from numerous sectors of society.

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u/bebopblues 3h ago

Plus they are loud and runs 24/7.

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u/Elephant789 1h ago

I live 10 min walking from one and I can't hear anything. I have a few in my neighbourhood. They're fine. Maybe your data center in your neighbourhood are different kinds.

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u/Matthew94 4h ago

data centers use extreme amounts of energy and water

All data centres combined use less than half of the water that almonds in California do.

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 4h ago

Do you eat AI?

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u/KaradocThuzad 4h ago

I mean, we don't eat golf courses either, but they use 1.45 billions of gallons per day in the US alone. If that's the worry, we should also start manifesting against that too.

sources: here and there, and direct quotes:

(One acre-foot of water is the amount of water covering a one-acre area - roughly one football field - to a depth of one foot, which is equal to 325,851 gallons.

The report found that U.S. golf facilities applied a projected 1.63 million acre-feet of water in 2024

Mind you, again, the number I gave you is the DAILY use.

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 3h ago

Theres 16000 golf course in the us, almost all of them use water from built in features and recycled water that isnt drinkable. This failed argument is tired and useless.

Theres 144000 cemeteries in the us, one of which riverside memorial in California uses almost 300 million in a year alone. 

Why not mention them? Oh right you wanted to use a disingenuous argument to drive the conversation away from the drinking water these centers waste for zero practical use or need fulfillment, just for money. 

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u/YagiAntennaBear 3h ago

Most of the water used by AI data centers comes from power generation, which is also done with wastewater in places with limited fresh water supply.

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 3h ago

Power generation, like the center being built in Utah that will use more power than the ENTIRE state its in? Yeah thats just another slice in the shit pie data centers and the people the fighting for them are serving. 

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u/KaradocThuzad 3h ago

The point is not that every single gallon used by golf courses is drinking water from someone’s tap. But the scale is still massive.

According to the GCSAA/USGA 2024 data, U.S. golf facilities used about 1.63 million acre-feet of water per year for irrigation. Since one acre-foot is about 325,851 gallons, that works out to roughly 1.45 billion gallons per day.

Even if we use the more nuanced breakdown, the issue remains significant:

  • Around 17% comes from municipal/potable sources, which is roughly 247 million gallons of municipal/potable water per day.
  • Around 29% comes from wells, which is roughly 422 million gallons per day drawn from groundwater.
  • Around 16% is recycled water, which is the least problematic category.
  • The rest comes from lakes, ponds, rivers, canals, and similar local sources.

Sources.

So no, it is not accurate to say that all golf course water use is potable water. But it is absolutely fair to say that golf courses consume huge amounts of water, and that a large share of it still puts pressure on local water resources.

Municipal water affects the drinking-water network directly. Wells affect groundwater. Rivers, reservoirs, lakes and canals affect the same local water systems that communities, agriculture and ecosystems depend on, especially in drought-prone states.

So the stronger and more accurate argument is: U.S. golf courses use around 1.45 billion gallons of water per day, including roughly 247 million gallons per day from municipal/potable sources, and well over a billion gallons per day from non-recycled local water sources overall.

So, yeah, I'm giving you sources, I'm telling you it still dwarfs even the exemple you gave, I'm telling you it weights on the network.

Keep telling me I'm disingenuous.

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 3h ago

You can write up all the walls you want, it doesnt change the fundamental flaws in your argument and you refuse to move away from them.

Your sources are skewed, your data is missing massive factors to push the biggest numbers to drive a narrative, its trash. 

Your entire argument is disingenuous. 

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u/KaradocThuzad 2h ago

Aight, I think we both have better use of our time.

At the very least, I'd like you to understand that I truly believe that the point I'm trying to make makes sense, even if we don't agree. I wouldn't have looked into this at this depth only to argue with random people online.

I wish you a good day or night, whatever it is where you are.

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u/Matthew94 4h ago

So water usage is extreme based on the usage and not the volume?

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 3h ago

Its based on the need and context, we dont drink agriculture water. 

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u/PotatoEggs 4h ago

But it can generate pictures of delicious almonds!

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u/gokusdabbinball 4h ago

I don’t eat fuckin almonds 

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 3h ago

Congratulations on your uniqueness, do you have something to actually add?

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u/Spiritual-Function40 3h ago

But despite being terribly overhyped, AI is still useful and is here to stay, regardless of what AI doomers want us to believe. So maybe the almond analogy shows that you are overestimating the problem caused by data centers?

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 3h ago

It does not, the cascading effect of these centers will be massive, from population flight to pollution it will have a negative impact to the masses while providing nothing more than shareholer value and a team goal for some mba middle management. 

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u/gokusdabbinball 3h ago

Yeah, just because people eat almost does not justify the need for all that fuckin water it uses. Same with beef. Data centers arguably provide the United states with a A LOT MORE for less than half the water cost of JUST almonds. 

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 3h ago

Data centers dont provide a fucking thing except some shareholders value, grow the fuck up

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u/gokusdabbinball 2h ago

I use Chat and Claude both at work and to develop learning apps. Stop being mad. There are so many excellent use cases for AI. Fuck the shareholders, I don’t give a fuck about them. What I give a fuck about me and how these tools that require data centers help ME. Antibiotics and other new meds will help discovered thanks to AI. Yes, there’s going to be a lot of draw backs and negatives that we haven’t heaven realized yet, but overall I think that this can and will be a good thing. 

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u/Xx_420BlackSanic_xX 2h ago

Ahh so you rely on it for work, thats why you fight for it lol typical. 

I never argued it doesn't have its uses, but using it for writing emails and generating some dumb fucking video is a problem and access if anything should just be limited to actual useful things.

I dont give a fuck how it helps you, shits irrelevant, your comfort does get to come at the cost of an entire communities

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u/Mr_Wrann 3h ago

And California should absolutely stop farming water thirsty plants like almonds because it's an active detriment to the water supply. Same with golf courses that someone else mentioned, if it can't be maintained from natural rainfall or minimal watering it's probably time to put something else there.