[srmatto]

I think there's truth to what you're saying but I also think there's truth to what people are experiencing and perceiving.

A highly power and/or water consumptive data center being installed in a town or city is pretty much a perfect embodiment of people's frustrations. It consumes tons of power and/or water and therefore drives up utility costs for the locals or pollutes the air with diesel exhaust. And it doesn't create jobs so it's just frankly some rich cabal of capitalists getting richer while people's lives continue to feel materially worse. I can't think of a better embodiment of the sort of confluence of crumminess that seems to be underway.

[bjustin]

I've heard talk from some folks telling these people that their concerns about data center water use, power, noise etc. are overblown. Water companies disagree, saying data center water usage in fact is quite significant. Oops. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/21/not-enou...

[scarmig]

> In May, a House of Lords report said England faced a 5bn litre a day shortfall for public water supplies by 2055.

> Water UK estimated that datacentres in England use 6.6m litres of drinking water every day.

> England’s current water shortfall is 220m litres more a day than was assumed in water forecasts.

[yellowapple]

The UK is surrounded by a planet-spanning body of water. It has no excuse to be complaining about water shortages even if every square inch of it was a single giant datacenter.

[pseudalopex]

Removing salt from ocean water is costly.

[yellowapple]

The UK can surely afford it. If not, then surely they can require the datacenters themselves to foot the bill.

[econ]

https://www.tumblr.com/geneseelibby/35053843499/a-horrible-m...

[bjustin]

Amazingly, they managed to _undersell_ the ill effects that the oil industry would have on even just the US, such as the oil-driven military actions we've taken over the years.