[adamsb6]

Yes I'm sure "Data Vampires" is an unbiased evaluation of empirical evidence.

Datacenters are not appreciably different than other industrial operations in the scale of their water usage and I'm more curious about how this meme spread than about how evaporative cooling works.

[SilverElfin]

If you don’t trust it, look up videos on YouTube of people whose water has changed color, or who have terrible noise pollution 24/7 now, or whose rural landscape got completely destroyed and paved over. There is real negative impact on people’s lives, ones who will never gain from tech companies getting rich.

[paulddraper]

Again, is there anything distinctive about data centers, or this industrial facilities in general?

[nightski]

Why would that matter? They aren't building massive multi billion dollar industrial facilities, they are building data centers. Or are you saying the impacts are justified if it is considered an industrial facility?

[SilverElfin]

I am not sure why the question is relevant to my comment. If it weren’t distinctive, what does that change about it being harmful and unfair?

[oliwarner]

Datacenters isn't the focus here, FAANG datacenters are. Vacuuming up data at an ever increasing rate to monetize and train.

Vampires might be a loaded term, but it might also apply as a conclusion of an unbiased study.

[paulryanrogers]

Why Louisiana? It's pretty hot most of the year. Why not northern states or even Canada?

And burning fossil fuels is pretty shady considering how cheap solar has gotten.

[smokeydoe]

Because Louisiana is very rich with natural gas on cheap land, has low regulation, and governor after governor that is down for being a testing ground for new wacky republican policies.

[seanmcdirmid]

They also placed it near Grand Gulf, and there is a lot of water in that area.

[Manuel_D]

People still want their software to work at night. And last I checked, Louisiana had access to lots of water.

[hshdhdhj4444]

Wait, are you making a “with solar electricity will go away at night” argument?

[Manuel_D]

Because it does? You either have to have a dispatchable energy source to turn on at night and on cloudy days (usually fossil fuels), or storage for 12+ hours. Actually more than 12 hours in case there's extended periods of cloud cover.

[ath3nd]

Zuck has aligned himself quickly (like the spineless ass kisser he is) , ideologically and in action, to the Republican party. Of course Meta is gonna use fossil fuels and not woke solar.

While they are at it, I am pretty sure they will enable a couple of extra genocides like they did in Myanmar with the extra capacities from that data center.