AI’s Unquenchable Thirst for Water
"Beyond its staggering electricity demands, AI requires water — and a lot of it. A single data center can consume over 300,000 gallons a day — equivalent to the water used in a thousand homes — to cool the computers powering your chat prompts. As climate change worsens water scarcity through rising temperatures and disruptions to precipitation patterns, AI threatens to further drain water from the areas that need it most; over two-thirds of data centers built since 2022 are in water-stressed regions. As big tech continues its plan to build as many data centers as possible, Covering Climate Now hosted a one-hour discussion where we highlighted the reasons for AI’s ever-growing thirst, explored how to cover the local concerns of communities facing water shortages, and investigated potential solutions to safeguard this increasingly scarce resource."
AI’s Unquenchable Thirst for Water
"Beyond its staggering electricity demands, AI requires water — and a lot of it. A single data center can consume over 300,000 gallons a day — equivalent to the water used in a thousand homes — to cool the computers powering your chat prompts. As climate change worsens water scarcity through rising temperatures and disruptions to precipitation patterns, AI threatens to further drain water from the areas that need it most; over two-thirds of data centers built since 2022 are in water-stressed regions. As big tech continues its plan to build as many data centers as possible, Covering Climate Now hosted a one-hour discussion where we highlighted the reasons for AI’s ever-growing thirst, explored how to cover the local concerns of communities facing water shortages, and investigated potential solutions to safeguard this increasingly scarce resource."