• ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    A small data center has been estimated to use upwards of 25 million liters of water per year if it relies on old-school cooling methods that allow water to evaporate.

    So pass a law banning evaporative cooling systems from all industrial and commercial applications (or single out data centers), give them 6 months to comply and start handing out fines every day past the deadline.

    • thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      cool. and watch the entire right wing go mad over “net zero wokery” and “stealth taxes choking our economy to death.” then watch reform win with a landslide and bulldoze the entire net zero agenda and see where we end up.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        The right will always complain no matter what you do, so why bother listening to them and capitulating?

        • thr0w4w4y2@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          sensibly managing the economy and balancing the need to achieve reduced emissions with the need to maintain a functional economy is not capitulating, and indeed being seen to carefully maintain that balance might be key to election victory in four years time.

  • killeronthecorner@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The country is riddled with leaky mains pipes because water companies are more concerned with allocating huge bonuses to themselves than they are with fixing infrastructure.

    Now we’re courting tech companies to build more data centres that our other shitty infrastructure (electric) isn’t even fit to support because magic money tree go brrrrrrr

    This is mandated recycling 2.0. Fill supermarkets with products 99% of which come in plastic wrappers, only successfully recover a fraction of that, and then tell the consumer they’re the ones destroying the environment.

    If they can fit my 5 recycling boxes up their rear, then they can shove this up their arse too.

    • shrugs@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Nice analogy. I used this one in the past: “you can’t fix a full disk by deleting word documents”, but I like yours more

      • ladfrombrad 🇬🇧@lemdro.id
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        2 months ago

        Always used to amaze me as a kid I had to pay 20p to inflate my bike tyre from, air.

        Boggled my mind since I had a hand pump.

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          To be fair, those automated air pumps require upkeep (e.g. compressors fail after awhile and aren’t always super cheap to replace when factoring the cost of the part and labor to fix). So that’s what your money was paying for, not the air itself. But, I agree it is a bit ridiculous.

          As a side note, I highly recommend those portable air compressors that can plug into your car’s aux port. Super convenient in the winter time when your tires’ air pressure drops.

      • msage@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        I’m not sure how is this applicable?

        If you have storage for documents, they will fill it up and you have to remove them.

  • melroy@kbin.melroy.org
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    2 months ago

    I never heard so much bs in a single article. Those files and emails are stored on cold storage, and is using zero water. I guess it’s a good thing to remove old files and empty your trash bin, both in real life as well as digital.

    But this article makes no sense at all. Just one query to an AI will use so much more energy and water in comparison with your old email in cold storage. It’s a joke.

    Ps. By removing your files now, and checking the contents, you are actually moving the files from cold storage to hot. Meaning the server will load the data into memory etc. Which will actually makes this drought worse, not better.

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
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    2 months ago

    I hope the Department that released this guidance is being absolutely pilloried in UK media. What an absolutely worthless, dishonest pile of crap.

  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’ll also wear blue clothing to have the same impact

    Well, deleting stuff causes a load of processing that wouldn’t have otherwise happened… So I guess I should have some coal barbecues?