Data Centers Use Less Water Than Almond Farms—and Do More Good


Data centers with almonds above them | Adani Samat/Envato

Opposition to data centers is all the rage among populists of all stripes. On the left, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) has proposed a national moratorium on new data center construction; on the right, Tucker Carlson describes them as “dystopian” and “devouring American energy and jobs.” In recent days, X has become flooded with images of pristine American forests, plains, beaches, and lakes alongside captions warning that no data center is worth losing this. (The images are often AI-generated, and many of the accounts sharing them are foreign.)

Data center panic is fueled by concerns about electricity and water usage. Many Americans wrongly believe that data centers are driving up their electric bill, even though evidence suggests the exact opposite: Data centers may actually decrease electricity costs for their neighbors. Water use fears are even more unreasonable. Data centers don’t actually use all that much water.

For example, a chart comparing data centers’ water requirements to almond farms helps put things in perspective.

California’s almond farms consume 4.2 billion gallons of waters per day, according to Reason’s Christian Britschgi. Data centers consume just 46 million gallons per day. Those numbers will certainly rise over time, but compared to all the other things that use water—golf courses account for 1.4 billion gallons per day—it’s just a drop in the bucket.

Unfortunately, many foes of data centers do not find this comparison very compelling. Speaking for the opposition, The Federalist‘s Sean Davis points out that almonds are, you know, food. People eat almonds. They can’t eat data. Thus, almond farms are a good use of water and data centers are not.

Carlson made a similar argument during his debate with Kevin O’Leary, in which he took it as a knock against data centers that they wouldn’t provide as many jobs as the city of Manhattan despite taking up more space and using about as much power.

It’s a problem for data center advocates, I suppose, that the good being produced is not as obvious as a job or an almond. But you have to be pretty dense not to realize that the data centers make possible a huge amount of economically beneficial activity. Storing massive amounts of data is a necessary precondition for the modern economy. It will be used to power and train AI models that will improve everyone’s lives. AI is already making medical diagnoses more accurate and reducing car crash fatalities via driverless vehicles. AI can swiftly navigate legal, regulatory, and licensing issues, making it easier to start a business or buy a home. As a research tool, it can cut down on time spent learning about a complicated issue.

Reducing the time it takes to complete an annoying (or dangerous) task is a huge benefit that allows people to spend their time—the ultimate finite resource—more effectively, if only for leisure. If this doesn’t seem obviously beneficial, then consider where we would be without search engines at all. Not so long ago, people had to trek to the library and consult an encyclopedia when they wanted information. They had to obtain physical copies of relevant documents: books, newspapers, etc. Being able to summon these things instantly—electronically—has inarguably led to huge gains: There are countless jobs that simply would not exist without it (including internet commentator).

The United States’ economic future is inexorably tied to the tech sector. Gains from AI are vital to the country’s stability. In that sense, it’s not very surprising to discover that some of the arguments against AI are being made in coordination with the Chinese government. According to the Bitcoin Policy Institute, the Chinese Communist Party has indirectly encouraged a pause or slowing of AI developments in the U.S.—but not in China. That’s one reason Sen. John Fetterman (D–Pa.), a self-described “pro-capitalist Democrat,” called Sanders’ data center moratorium proposal “China first.”

In any case, you can’t eat an oil rig, a suspension bridge, or a satellite. Yet it should be obvious that these are no less useful—even factoring in land, energy, and water use—than almonds, even if the benefits are slightly less straightforward. This is plainly true for data centers as well, and anyone arguing otherwise deserves suspicious looks.

The post Data Centers Use Less Water Than Almond Farms—and Do More Good appeared first on Reason.com.

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