English translation of linked article:

>STARTMAG » Energy and Environment » How much water the data centers of Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft consume

How much water the data centers of Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft consume: While data centers have been audited about their electricity usage, little is known about their water usage. But that could change soon. All the details. 19 August 2023 07:53 > >We tend to think of the Internet as an immaterial object, but websites exist in the real world in the form of rows of servers that never shut down, filling data centers that need to be cooled down to prevent technical failures. Operators such as Amazon, Google , Meta and Microsoft use a variety of systems to do this: the most energy efficient ones – such as cooling towers – typically evaporate water to cool the air circulating in buildings. > >DATA CENTERS AND DROUGHT > >With drought spreading across the globe, battles are emerging between data center operators and adjacent communities over local water supplies in places like Chile, Uruguay and parts of the US Southwest. In the north of Holland, public outrage erupted last year when a local news agency reported that a Microsoft data center complex was consuming more than 4 times the amount of water the company had previously disclosed. > >Some of northern Europe's colder and wetter hubs, such as Ireland and the Netherlands, have stalled development of new centers due to concerns over energy use, leading companies to look further afield. Operators of hyperscale data centers – those with more than 5,000 servers – are migrating to places where water is abundant, such as Norway, but also to drought-prone places, such as Italy and Spain, where energy is more affordable (and where extreme heat is becoming the norm). > >HOW MUCH WATER DO DATA CENTERS CONSUME? > >While data centers have undergone scrutiny about their electricity usage, little is known about their water usage, even from the tech companies themselves. A survey conducted last year by the consultancy Uptime Institute found that just 39% of data centers also tracked their water usage, a 12% drop from 2021. Tech companies have in the past refused to disclose information on the energy and water consumption of individual centres, arguing that those data are a trade secret. > >Over the past two years, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have begun publishing their total water usage across their operations, but they don't break down the number by business unit, or use standardized metrics. Bluefield Research has estimated that data centers use over a billion gallons of water per day, including water used for power generation. > >WHAT THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL DO > >Governments are starting to ask for more information. From March 2024, the European Commission will require operators to disclose wide-ranging data on their energy and water consumption to the public. In the UK, utility Thames Water is studying how much water data centers use in London and, depending on the results, may adjust its pricing model for water-intensive activities. > >“Identifying which water-intensive customers the data centers are hasn't been easy,” said John Hernon, who is leading the investigation. Operators often use shell companies to apply for planning permits, and from the outside a data center can look like any department store or factory. > >CALCULATION POWER AND WATER CONSUMPTION > >Arman Shehabi, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, best known for a landmark paper on energy use in data centers, thinks data centers could be contributing to water shortages as droughts get longer and deeper. intense. Part of the problem, he explained, is that data center operators "usually ask last at the table," straining the system by demanding access to scarce water, after agricultural interests and local communities they have already worked out a plan. “Everyone will experience it,” he added. > >Companies say data centers are becoming more energy efficient, but the increase in overall demand for computing power is outpacing those gains. The rush to build large language models used in generative AI has created an increased demand for more powerful processors. The specialized chips required for artificial intelligence, known as accelerators, emit so much more heat than generic chips that "data center operators are having to completely rethink their cooling systems," commented Colm Shorten, data sustainability expert center at real estate investment firm JLL. > >Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California Riverside, conducted research estimating that training GPT-3 in Microsoft's US data centers directly consumed 700,000 liters of water in about a month, not including the indirect use of water associated with electricity generation. The team also calculated that each short conversation of 20 to 50 questions and answers with ChatGPT consumes approximately 500 milliliters of water. > >WHAT THE COMPANIES WILL DO > >“Microsoft is investing in research to make large systems more sustainable and efficient, both in training and in application,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Climate change is a real and urgent challenge, with an increasingly serious impact on our businesses, our communities and the ecosystems that support them”. OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment. > >Shorten said that over time data centers will need to fundamentally change the way they dissipate heat. “The gold standard is a process called immersive cooling, where servers are immersed in a special fluid that transfers heat from the chips,” she explained. For now, operators are likely to opt for a hybrid model, where a high-performance section of the data center will be liquid-cooled, while the rest will continue to use air conditioning." > >Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft have all made water stewardship commitments, promising to use more unpotable and recycled water and replenish more water than they consume operationally by 2030. That's the equivalent of carbon offsetting planting trees, something that looks good on paper, but may not directly benefit communities affected by data centers, because water can only be replenished in places where it's easy to do so.

See also: Google's Water Use Is Soaring. AI Is Only Going To Make It Worse.

So how much water do these data centers use? The short answer is that not even the owners know, but estimates put it in the area of billions of gallons per day. Meanwhile Google is planning to open a data center in Uruguay, a country currently undergoing an historic drought.

Archived version

Like many others I have been keeping a close eye on the graphs at climatereanalyzer.org for awhile, and let me tell you they are TERRIFYING right now.

The 'anaesthetics' mentioned in the title refers to things like the ENSO, carbon captured by the ocean, and ice and aerosol albedo, whose roles the last few years have helped mask the true effects of global warming. That's changing this year.

From the article:

>The last El Niño event was in 2015 to 2016, which also happened to be the warmest year on record for global average surface temperatures on land and sea. But Dr Cai said the Earth this year was “eight years of background warming” worse off than in 2016.

>The bright, smooth surface of the ice reflects a lot of sunlight back into space, meaning its heat is not absorbed into the ocean. Antarctic sea ice extent this year has fallen to record lows and is struggling to recover substantially during the winter months like normal.

>Aerosols act like a “shade” to incoming sunlight, reflecting it back into space. “We’ve been reducing emissions, which is good for air quality, but it means now the carbon dioxide signal can punch through,” Professor Collins said.

>Dr Bracco said this year’s record was indicative of a level of background global warming that could not be undone for hundreds of years, and urgent action was needed to stop it getting worse.

Source: https://digital.mdl.nws.noaa.gov/?zoom=4&lat=37&lon=-96.5&layers=F000BTTTFTT®ion=0&element=8&mxmz=false&barbs=false&subl=TFFFFF&units=english&wunits=nautical&coords=latlon&tunits=localt

If you live in any of these areas, stay safe and healthy and remember to look out for your friends and neighbours who might be vulnerable.

edit: thanks for the correction Deme. edit2: the temperatures were in Fahrenheit, I guess I switched to Celcius and took the screenshot before the change had loaded. The website seems to reeeeeally struggle with switching units, so I'm going to leave it in (properly marked) Fahrenheit. I don't know, I thought the National Weather Service was going straight to the source, but their website is really shit.

I have "elon musk shirtless" on my search history now, hope you're happy.

New Zealand has provided a new system of "biodiversity credits" in an effort to help support the native ecosystem.

In theory, the project will fund conservation projects and programs to save threatened species, by selling these credits to inidividuals, business owners and landowners.

Associate Minister for the Environment James Shaw says the following: >“Sixty three percent of our native ecosystems are now threatened, and a third of our native species are threatened or at risk of extinction. It’s time we find new ways to incentivise conservation, protect our precious wildlife, and provide clearer guidance on how to identify, manage and protect biodiversity.” “Landowners, land managers, farmers, and Maōri should be looking at their wild spaces as a taonga, but also as a valuable source of supplementary income. This can then be used to support on-the-ground conservation, like reforestation, wetland restoration, or planting native vegetation."

>In a further win for nature, clearer direction on how to identify, manage and protect areas of significant biodiversity will be phased in over several years, from 4 August.

All we can do is die trying.

All over the world, insect populations are declining. The impacts of climate change, combined with chemical pesticide use, habitat destruction, and lack of food source diversity are only some of the issues that insect species are struggling to adapt to. There was the infamous study from Germany in 2017 which found that insect populations had apparently declined by 75% in 30 years, and the article in this post estimates that bee and hoverfly species in the UK have dropped by 25% compared to the 1980s. But data is scarce even in wealthy countries, and historical data in developing nations is all but nonexistent. That means we just don't know exactly how much insect populations are struggling, but what we do know looks pretty bad.

Demonstrators chained themselves to a pink boat outside Ffos y Fran, the largest opencast coal mine in the UK. The four people arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass were 43, 45, 68 and 75. This surprised me, although I find it encouraging that it is not only young people recognising and trying to do something about our situation.

From the article: >The mine has been hugely controversial in recent years with residents complaining over noise, pollution and disruption to their lives. Since then, campaigners claim mining has continued unlawfully at the mine. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, which operates the site, recently made a last-ditch appeal against the decision to stop operations there.

>...The Public Order Act (2023) came into effect in May. Under the Act, locking-on is now an offence which can result in 51 weeks in prison.

>The group claims the mine is continuing to operate despite planning permission running out in September. Recently barristers for climate action claimed that continued coal extraction at Ffos y Fran was illegal.

>Superintendent Michelle Conquer said: “Since Wednesday afternoon, police officers have been deployed to the Ffos y Fran site in Merthyr Tydfil to facilitate peaceful protest. >“In doing so we note the views of the protest group that the mine is operating unlawfully."

Wael Sawan, CEO of Shell, says renewable energy replacements are not happening fast enough, and increased demand could raise prices again. Climate experts disagree with his concerns.

From the article: >Head of the UN António Guterres recently said investment in new oil and gas production was "economic and moral madness". >Mr Sawan told the BBC: "I respectfully disagree." He added: "What would be dangerous and irresponsible is cutting oil and gas production so that the cost of living, as we saw last year, starts to shoot up again."

>Many countries do not have the infrastructure to move to more sustainable forms of energy.

>The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, has said that "if governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal from now".

>The UK currently imports more than half of its oil and gas - and that proportion is expected to rise without renewed investment in the North Sea. Shell recently decided to sell its stake in a major new undeveloped oil field at Cambo.

At ClimateReanalyzer.org you can see the world overheating in real time using this graphwhich follows the world's average air temperature at 2m of height. Stay tuned for more records broken. It's only the beginning of July.