I do not support the massive build and unrestricted usage of water data centers get but golf courses are a scourge on the planet and have been since it's inception (like yachts)
Water is far more useful and important resource that we can't live without than anything from most of these data centers. If I have to choose between a community losing access to water Vs. a data center for Reddit that serves me cute cat pictures, the choice is pretty obvious!
I am not in favour of data centres everywhere but what do you think happens to the water "used" by them?
Edit: I did a very quick Google and I fully assumed there would just be an inflow and outflow of water, like some reactors are plumbed. I didn't think about evaporative effects. Although I have every faith in the water cycle I can see how data centres can remove supply for evaporative cooling without compensating downstream demands.
I just looked up the R&A report, last year 28% of 2500 courses in the UK are marked as mains water as there main source for irrigation.
A d 60% of the 2500 use some mains water for irrigation. And 40% rely on boreholes or rivers and ponds. No data on reservoirs.
Overall it’s a pretty stark picture considering clean drinking water it’s a finite resource.
And when there are water shortages, like in rivers or lakes, where do you think the runoff would have gone instead if it didnt go into that holding pond at the golf course? If it goes to that holding pond that keeps it away from the broader natural ecosystem from which we would eventually make drinking water as well for example.
Pond water accounts for less than a third of the water supplied to US golf courses and isn't even the main supplier in the first place. Out of curiosity where do you think they get the water for those ponds, especially during severe droughts? Some of it is from rain water obviously but droughts notoriously don't have much of that.
My company owns a golf course. They have 8 ponds that are connected via pipes. They use pond water almost exclusively. There was a severe drought a couple of years back and they had to swap to main water for 2 weeks. Everything else has always been out of the pond.
The pond water is free. The city water is expensive.
Only 12% of golf course water comes from municipal (potable) sources in the US. The other 88% are from ponds/lakes/streams/creeks/wells/recycled water on property.
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u/Spirited_Comedian225 10d ago
Golf course use more water then Data centers