It probably comes as no surprise some tech giants are falling short when it comes to sustainability, with harmful mining practices, giant carbon footprints, and massive energy usage plaguing green goals.
Now, new research from the Financial Times has also identified water consumption practices amongst tech giants has reached untenable levels in some locations.
Water is primarily used in these centres to cool high-performing hardware, using air mechanisms to dissipate heat, causing up to nine liters of water to evaporate per kWh of energy used.
A precious resource
The report notes roughly two thirds of the world’s population experiences severe water shortages at least one month per year, with that figure only set to rise. This is equivalent to 2.7 billion people per year experiencing water stress, with 2.2 million children dying from water-related disease.
That doesn’t stop tech companies though, with their Virginia ‘data centre alley’ warehouses using at least 7 billion litres of water in 2023 alone.
In fact, Microsoft admitted that 42% of the water it consumes globally came from ‘areas with water stress’ in 2023, with Google similarly claiming 15% of its freshwater withdrawals came from ‘high water scarcity’ areas.
The AI factor
The environmental impact of Artificial Intelligence is yet to be fully evaluated, but the industry is stuck between huge greenhouse gas emissions and dangerous levels of water consumption. Whilst water cooling has been found to reduce emissions, it comes at the cost of one of our most valuable resources.
Servers that run AI algorithms generate more heat than classic computing systems, requiring 6 times more kilowatts per rack - with a 5-50 prompt conversation with ChatGPT using approximately 500ml of water alone.
Amazon recently said it has "committed to being a good water steward”, insisting data centres will be ‘water positive’ by 2030, but environmental campaigners warn that AI will cause demand for computing infrastructure to ‘explode’.
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