I just know they have better options for cooling than water, and that fresh water supplies need to be prioritized for other uses as the resource becomes more and more limited.
That scrutiny should be applied to all industries. We can compare agriculture and data centers, but you can’t water plants with coolant.
That's usually the point where it becomes a "let's just not build this" situation for me.
There are environmental impacts of both the production and disposal of glycol coolants and similar. I'd assume they would at least he disposed of "properly" at the scale of a data center, but even just understanding the externalities on the environment and water use there is a can of worms.
I mean, they’re using jet turbine engines to power some of them, destroying ecosystems to clear space for them, not to mention the chemicals that leech into the water they discharge. The environmentalists can’t win.
I just know they have better options for cooling than water, and that fresh water supplies need to be prioritized for other uses as the resource becomes more and more limited.
That scrutiny should be applied to all industries. We can compare agriculture and data centers, but you can’t water plants with coolant.