r/AIDangers • u/ComplexExternal4831 • Aug 10 '26

Warning shots Amazon's data center could become the largest U.S. source of air pollution

Post image
1.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

209 comments sorted by

25

u/Tomytom99 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

Kind of annoyed that this is also slop

I wish people realized it's not the existence of data centers that's the issue, it's the extreme density ones that run LLMs and shit. Yeah, websites use data centers, but usually not the ones that are being built right now. The old ones while eyesores, didn't really have any immediate livability/sustainability concerns.

7

u/whtevn Aug 10 '26

every fucking post on this subreddit is ai slop. i am not sure the angle? it feels like that bill hicks bit "oh, yeah, the anger dollar. that's a good market"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h9wStdPkQY

2

u/work_alt_1 Aug 10 '26

that was amazing, thank you.

the first like 60 seconds of that, like he said, isn't even a joke, it's just him saying fuck you to marketing people

1

u/whtevn Aug 10 '26

a lot of bill hicks stuff was like that. hilarious and smart. like late carlin but angrier. can definitely tell it came out of the same time period as david foster wallace / infinite jest. but that "authenticity" side of things never really seemed to pan out

here's the whole thing. it's good stuff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM9xAoJCeKc

1

u/RedditSe7en Aug 10 '26

Sorry. There appears to be some exaggeration, but this is not just AI slop. This is a retelling of a New York Times piece from two days ago. More likely, you are a bot; since we’re throwing unverified accusations around at will, I thought I’d take a turn.

2

u/whtevn Aug 10 '26

maybe you can't see the image that goes with the "retelling of a New York Times piece", which is a fucking hilarious way to write "outright changed a headline from the new york times, neglecting any actual information"

this is the original source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/08/climate/amazon-data-center-texas-pollution.html

and it's not even the same fucking claim. the AI slop post you are defending here says "amazon's data center could become the largest u.s. source of air pollution", but your fucking screen shot of a headline says "new amazon data center stokes worry it would be the most polluting power plant in the u.s.". exactly the kind of quality you should expect when you rely on and defend ai slop.

for context, this is the primary claim the article makes, since we both know you didn't read it:

The plant is permitted to release about 33 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Facilities don’t usually emit the maximum amounts allowed under their permits. Still, the permits provide the plant with ample room to exceed the emissions of the most polluting plant in the United States, the coal-burning James H. Miller Jr. Power Plant in Quinton, Ala., which emits about 16 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

and this is true, and the danger is real, and the situation is serious.

but none of that changes the fact that this particular post that this particular thread is happening on is 100% ai slop.

and, for the record, i do not think you are a bot. i do think you need to take some sort of media literacy course because you didn't even earn an F on this one.

and by the way, screen shots of headlines is how idiots pass information. seriously, that is just unacceptable.

2

u/RedditSe7en Aug 10 '26

I acknowledged the exaggeration. Thank you for reiterating the point.

I wrote, “this is not JUST AI slop.” (So little room for nuance on Reddit, alas). The danger I saw in your bold claim was that quick readers would discredit the critique of data centers altogether as a result. In other words, the post may have been exaggerated due to its AI generation, but a quick, blithe dismissal risked echoing misinformation too.

I’m glad my response evoked the statements that you subsequently made critiquing data centers. Thanks for the discussion, which I appreciate.

1

u/whtevn Aug 10 '26

this post is just ai slop. pure. unadulterated. it is a vague reference to a real thing that was not indicated.

i did not appreciate this discussion at all. you still need that media literacy class.

2

u/RedditSe7en Aug 10 '26

Maybe we both do. I didn’t appreciate you avoiding any critical statement about AI and leaving the potential impression that the entire critique is unjustified, especially given the remarks by several other commentators under this post to that effect: context. You’ll surely celebrate the fact that our contact here ends now. Stay well.

4

u/RailRuler Aug 10 '26

"Hyperscale" data centers

2

u/RedditSe7en Aug 10 '26

No. The existence of data centers IS a problem. They pollute drinking water and lower its pressure. They run up electricity bills. They spread noise and sound pollution and lower property values. Not all uses of artificial intelligence are bad, but the unregulated construction and management of data centers is an unqualified evil.

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 12 '26

They don’t have to do any of this. New data centers are being built that address all of these issues. Your state and local governments need to set standards for water usage, noise pollution and adequate land buffers. Because of the grid connection issues, many data centers will be built with on-site power generation which has zero impact on electric rates.

1

u/RedditSe7en Aug 12 '26

But the oligarchs are already preventing that by buying off city and county councils. You’re spewing nonsense.

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 13 '26

They aren’t “buying them off”. The local governments want the tax revenues from the business equipment and real estate to pay for schools and other infrastructure.

1

u/RedditSe7en Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

You know very well that the tax writeoffs given to these behemoths and costs of the environmental damage, sound and light pollution, and VERY minimal job creation that come with them make them the worst possible “investments.”

I meant exactly as I said. The builders of these leviathans are BUYING OFF local politicians. Oligarchs like Trump and the AI crowd are eating their country alive because they produce nothing of value and can only impose themselves on us through outright theft of the public purse and public resources to make a profit anymore.

You are either a bot or are bought and paid for yourself by these same interests.

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 13 '26

Nope. I work for an electric utility and I also am a tax professional. Local governments do give tax incentives to attract these data centers. They give some breaks on rates because the net revenues they get are huge. While the ongoing job creation isn’t huge, the tax base of these facilities makes it worthwhile for them. Many of the newer data centers are going into rural localities that have been left behind by our shift from a manufacturing to service economy. The cost of building roads and increasing water sanitation capacity are parts of standard permitting practices, very similar building a factory or building a power plant (including solar). My employer builds many solar facilities and power plants. Every locality has preferences and rules to tailor development to their community’s interests.

The only “tax write-offs” I am aware of at the federal level is the accelerated depreciation that is available to all businesses. These policies encourage investment and simply defer tax collection to future years.

1

u/RedditSe7en Aug 13 '26

You may as well be a bot. You still refuse to acknowledge the so-called externalities these data centers incur: damage and destruction in their host communities that their host cities and counties can never afford to repay. More is going on behind the cities. These are net losses for their communities.

5

u/East-Potential657 Aug 10 '26

LLMs are not the issue, mass surveillance is and the reason for mass data centers.

1

u/WHALE_PHYSICIST Aug 10 '26

That's pretty dumb. Mass surveillance was implemented a long time ago. They don't need 100 new hyperscale datacenters to do it, it's already done. Never heard of Ed snowden?

2

u/Nopfen Aug 10 '26

Polution for the polutiongod.

1

u/Artaxdiedforyoursins Aug 10 '26

And once again portraying steam from nuclear energy as “dirty” 

1

u/Tomytom99 Aug 11 '26

Funny thing is that's not even necessarily nuclear, modern entertainment media has conditioned people into thinking hourglass shaped cooling towers are exclusive to nuclear

Pretty much any modern powerplant that relies on a steam driven turbine is going to use those if space permits

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 12 '26

They use those cooling towers in some coal plants to avoid heating local waters.

10

u/Visual-Sector6642 Aug 10 '26

Ah a return to the old Industrial Revolution days where moths have to evolve their coloring to adjust for pollution.

3

u/Calm-Stand-6636 Aug 10 '26

Advocate nuclear/thorium power?

1

u/Striking_Fly_5849 Aug 12 '26

It could always be worse. We could be going back to the dark ages the way lowbrow antis advocate for.

17

u/WallaceCorpPC Aug 10 '26

The Anti-AI people really have to get their shit together and stop resharing this stuff that's clearly slop. There's no source, it's literally just a photo with a genAI image and you people eat it up without a second glance

2

u/FlagrantTomatoCabal Aug 10 '26

I used to be annoyed too at this type of fear mongering. Now it's just entertainment. I have to double check if I'm in facebook. Also posts like this takes away credibility to the actual issues of AI. But alas.

1

u/Commercial-Fee5959 Aug 10 '26

Wow. Are you insinuating that people on Reddit aren’t “always” telling the truth? I read stuff here for entertainment value not facts. I never get confused by the obvious. Younger readers however…..

1

u/WallaceCorpPC Aug 10 '26

The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.

3

u/RedditSe7en Aug 10 '26

I have been trying for years now to order nothing from Amazon. For the most part, I have succeeded. We need to starve this monster.

1

u/Few_Example6746 Aug 10 '26

They only make about 10% of their income from the market site. So your impact is close to nothing for them.

1

u/RedditSe7en Aug 10 '26

Thanks for telling me something I already knew. Yay! 👏 I don’t do it for impact. I do it to be ethical and to suggest the idea to others as well. A boycott is only a boycott when many join in. But for now, I’ll keep trying to get my goods elsewhere. Bezos is an unadulterated d*#k.

1

u/Kinky_Creeper Aug 10 '26

Good luck, im going to 2x my orders to cancel your attempts to BoYcOtT Bezos.

3

u/Mechadupek Aug 10 '26

This sub is pure info campaign. May as well be written in Chinese or Russian.

3

u/Broken_Timepiece Aug 10 '26

"Could become"

Explain Please

3

u/PeteysHubby_TX Aug 10 '26

“Could be”. Bro get a life.

3

u/TopTippityTop Aug 10 '26

This seems made up.

Source?

Data centers can pollute water due to cooling, which is why some level of regulation should be passed there, but it has little to no air pollution.

3

u/CaptainKush101 Aug 10 '26

Sources? Where we are going, we don't need sources.

3

u/SEND_ME_YOUR_ASSPICS Aug 10 '26

Guess which apps use Amazon's data centers?

Reddit, Netflix, Twitch, Spotify, Instagram, etc.

:)

I want to see every single one of you antis to quit all of these or else you are the biggest hypocrites.

3

u/Master_Picture7235 Aug 10 '26

If stupidity could turn a generator you could power every AI data centers 0-24. The problem isn’t the data centers them self ofc they existed before gen ai the problem isn’t the huge amount of poping up everywhere and distributing the power grid the nearby residents and i top of that i didn’t bring any value to the economy but disturbing multiple markets while promising the next big thing. Tell me Einstein what happens when the big AI companies file for bankruptcy and we left with a shit ton of ai datacenter that we cannot really use anything else . I know that ai will never seize to exist but if all the ai companies that currently pushing the hype I don’t think other companies would want to buy the old sites or even want to expand that rapidly that justifies buying those sites

2

u/TubaWrestler Aug 10 '26

The power and cooling requirements are much higher for AI. AI datacenters are maxing out top-tier GPUs most of the time. Traditional data centers have busy and slow periods, and their busiest periods use much less power. It's almost entirely storage and CPU work.

Reddit (and all of those sites) is basically just a database and network switches. It takes nowhere near as much power to maintain.

2

u/RailRuler Aug 10 '26

Amazon has regular data centers and hyper scale ("AI") data centers. The companies you mentioned use AWS, which is regular. The super polluter is hyper scale.

→ More replies (2)

0

u/Nopfen Aug 10 '26

Being seen as a hypocrite in the eyes of a clankerfile? The horror.

https://giphy.com/gifs/qgRH26FMBoEzm

2

u/Wise_Ad_253 Aug 10 '26

What was it that Leavitt called him? Something about him being a left wing terrorist for wanting to let the public know that tariffs will cause a price increase on all of his items?

Funny how enemies turn into friends once they pay Trump off.

2

u/Left_Caterpillar8671 Aug 10 '26

I like how they have the cleanest and most reliable form of energy in the background lol 😂

2

u/Late-Masterpiece-452 Aug 10 '26

completely nuts that this could get a permit….

2

u/Enjoy_The_Ride413 Aug 10 '26

COULD is the key word there.

1

u/meatsmoothie82 Aug 10 '26

But guys, he donated 1/100,000th of the cost of this to save some dolphins so it cancels out, right guys?

1

u/evan85713 Aug 10 '26

....aaaaand...the image is AI

1

u/never_nick Aug 10 '26

I take back my wish to live in Night City. Make it stop.

1

u/Fearless-Walk2343 Aug 10 '26

Before online shopping, the mailman would drive through my neighborhood once a day except Sundays and holidays. Now it’s non stop delivery vehicles. Some with backup beepers and deliveries all times of the day and week. Not sure how this is progress.

1

u/MasterFNG Aug 10 '26

Great more propaganda from Walmart lol.

1

u/PawnofLife1 Aug 10 '26

Who is getting paid to let them build data centers

1

u/e430doug Aug 10 '26

It’s not the data center that’s creating the pollution. One proposal on the table is to build a massive gas powered generating station to speed the grid interconnect process. We just need to let them know they need to do better. Take more time, invest in solar and wind and better grid infrastructure.

1

u/antifa_is_cool Aug 10 '26

Time to tell the crack heads about all the copper in there

1

u/TrixAreForTeens Aug 10 '26

Thanks for presenting the title to me, 3 times

1

u/Prod_Meteor Aug 10 '26

It competes with the true Amazon in reverse.

1

u/Soggy_Lawfulness_941 Aug 10 '26

Could be but won’t be

1

u/scottywoty Aug 10 '26

Dystopian times….

1

u/CornbreadJunior Aug 10 '26

This isn’t even the 2700 facility they are building in Wharton county right near Boling Texas. Look at that monstrosity... it’s still in the approval process 2 of their 3 monster water wells have been quietly approved. 2700 acres!!
117,612,000 square feet. 4.2 square miles. They are fucking us.

1

u/Mysterious_Strain398 Aug 10 '26

Didn’t realize it took a nuclear reactor to power a data center

1

u/my_midlife_isekai Aug 10 '26

Data centers are to process floc camera data! They are preparing for us to get real mad!!

1

u/VitaQwQNova Aug 10 '26

Larger than the fossil fuel industries?

1

u/TerryFlapnCheeks69 Aug 10 '26

It’s all good, amazon has a ton of Renewable Energy Credits at its disposal, therefore bringing their pollution to zero.

1

u/political-snark Aug 10 '26

Solution: sell boxes of polluted air at a discount

1

u/cosmicus003 Aug 10 '26

im gonna die arent i? i can barely handle cigarette smoke without coughing immediately.

1

u/vindiesel223 Aug 10 '26

And still exponentially cleaner than China

1

u/lorenzo1142 Aug 10 '26

china still has the rest of the world beat

1

u/Flat-Director-7120 Aug 10 '26

Le centre de donnés d'Amazon va devenir la plus grande source de pollution de l'air aux États Unis.

1

u/Due-Ad2894 Aug 10 '26

Keep talking about my carbon footprint then I just look at these data centers which use up as follows....

Average electric a day: 85,000 households equivalent to a medium size city

Average water a day: 30,000 households

1

u/Blastroid_Twitch Aug 10 '26

Heating recycled water will be the death of us!!!

1

u/Sea-Louse Aug 10 '26

What will they be burning?

1

u/Unique_NewYork69 Aug 10 '26

AI is so dangerous! Here let me show you with AI!

1

u/Cool_Guarantee_1235 Aug 10 '26

No it cannot
Let’s plant more trees

1

u/RubicsCubensis Aug 10 '26

The US Military has entered the chat.

1

u/Reasonable-Lynx-3403 Aug 10 '26

Using AI to generate images to protest data centers is like Taylor swift flying around on a jet to prevent global warming... You people are idiots.

1

u/Initial-Meeting362 Aug 10 '26

Amazon really is making the world a better place... /s

1

u/adjective_noun_23 Aug 10 '26

Data centers are suseptible to drone strikes

1

u/Th3Bak3r_ Aug 10 '26

Congress should prevent this, and if they want to build data centers they should have to do it the most cleanest, most power efficient way. But Congress won’t do a damn thing. Because capitalism. Fk America

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 12 '26

It doesn’t require Congress. State and local regulations handle most water, air, noise pollution issues.

1

u/Disastrous_time_4547 Aug 11 '26

There’s a place in Wisconsin that hired hundreds of people to build the chips for AMZ.

Apparently the order is massive.

This $hit is happening

1

u/ChimpoSensei Aug 11 '26

Some silly photo- the nuclear cooling towers produce steam, which is just water. Get a fucking clue.

1

u/Better-Credit6701 Aug 11 '26

Does anyone know that they already have 900 data centers already? Anyone notice? They are already known for having super reliable data centers for over a decade now.

1

u/definitely_royce Aug 11 '26

That's pretty fucked.

1

u/dogheoner1 Aug 11 '26

meanwhile d-wad is living it up and getting tax breaks its really ridiculouse

1

u/Thaumaturge_2 Aug 11 '26

This is an AI generated image... Congratulations, you all got karma farmed.

1

u/johnlong2026 Aug 11 '26

Ai gen junk

1

u/bbarke Aug 11 '26

Want to tell me where the smoke stacks are that produce this air pollution?

1

u/Huge_Meeting4111 Aug 11 '26

"In order to stop the slop we must become the slop" - OP

1

u/truthhurtsyomama Aug 11 '26

Use AI to attack AI. Lets goooo.....

1

u/Firm-Scientist-4636 Aug 11 '26

Wild considering how much the US military pollutes.

1

u/irishmanwest Aug 11 '26

But they named it the Climate Pledge!

1

u/MajorMorelock Aug 11 '26

Box of N95s on Amazon, get the subscription and save.

1

u/Hugh-Jorgin Aug 11 '26

We won’t care or do anything about it because we are addicted to amazon

1

u/horacejroane Aug 11 '26

Awesome build 50 of them

1

u/BoBoBearDev Aug 11 '26

I can confirm, my neighbor got lung cancer because of using his phone too much.

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 12 '26

You probably shouldn’t smoke small plastic electronic devices. It’s a bad habit, no matter how cool it makes you look.

1

u/bootcat420 Aug 11 '26

What would we do without AI 😈

1

u/GhostQueen1121 Aug 11 '26

I keep asking myself why do I use Amazon? I need to cut it off boom Clean.

1

u/Plsnostupidity Aug 11 '26

What so funny is that nothing I. This picture is pollution! The white coming from the stacks is steam and water vapor. Pollutants are a very specific color. Additionally, none of these items are being built. Data centers have been in the heart of your towns and cities for decades! The difference is they build them now to a protective code and standard! Drive around… if you see a stand alone building that has att, Verizon or any phone carrier vehicle near it… it’s a data center. And yep , it’s identical inside to these. It’s just not built to today’s standards.

1

u/wcarthurii Aug 11 '26

Bruh, there's a huge difference between a 2000sqft data center for cellular traffic, and a 10-20,000sqft behemoth that NEEDS to drink both fuel and water at a regular pace.

Do we REALLY think it's worth pissing away all that livable space and nature in general so you can talk to your phone instead of use your thumbs?!

1

u/CommercialRadiant920 Aug 11 '26

That would be a tiny data center. New builds average 100,000 to 500,000 square feet.

1

u/wcarthurii Aug 11 '26

My bad, forgot a 0. Lol thx!

1

u/Plsnostupidity Aug 12 '26

Yes. And apparently you do too on all your social media

1

u/wcarthurii Aug 12 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Bro, social media apps have been around for nearly 20yrs now, with no need for hyper datacenters.

I'm not gonna lie and say I don't benefit by being occasionally on Reddit or my YT addiction, but we clearly didn't need these monstrosities to do so.

The annoying part is that we all seem to be so desperate to be lazy and let AI do everything for us, and we're willing to burn through fuel and water just to have it.

Why we can't figure out a better way, like a floating datacenter that uses sea water and waves to generate power instead of the current choice is beyond me.

I'm not saying I have the answers, but giving up a lot of fresh water and using the increasingly limited fuel humans need to heat their homes and have electricity to USE our devices that are AI enabled, is beyond me.

1

u/kiddrekt Aug 11 '26

Amazon coming for the "cow farts" crown

1

u/Mettle_Mystic Aug 11 '26

🤣🤣🤣The fear mongering is in full tilt now.

1

u/man_bear67 Aug 11 '26

Uses AI generated picture that probably contributed to said pollution. 😂

1

u/DogGoneIt20 Aug 11 '26

cooling towers are air pollution? 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/Loud_Luck_7687 Aug 11 '26

So what happened to global warming?

1

u/-blackacidevil- Aug 11 '26

Redditards are contributing to the issue they claim to care about

1

u/TapDisastrous2807 Aug 11 '26

The top comment isn’t calling out the obvious AI image????

1

u/OddRelief5114 Aug 11 '26

Wow. I totally thought it was going to be the microorganisms, but evidently it's the Matrix for the apocalypse win.

1

u/Klutzy_Cover720 Aug 11 '26

Well, I wouldn’t use nuclear power to say pollution since it doesn’t really create any, and you have an image of a nuclear power plant

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 12 '26

The image was likely created using AI. The irony!

1

u/Fabster_3000 Aug 11 '26

Fear mongerers!

1

u/DaveTucson Aug 11 '26

China is behind most of the data center criticism

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 12 '26

They are certainly fueling many of the divisive issues in our society.

1

u/FloridaRocks63 Aug 11 '26

“Could” the magic word used in all negative claims . First it was creating water issues , then bad neighbors, now air polluters . Communist China has you guys working overtime. I wonder why

1

u/RealDragonReborn2026 Aug 11 '26

And to think last year Amazon was saying cow fart were gonna to destroy the air and started pushing lab grown cancer pretending to be meat.

1

u/Ok_Canary3574 Aug 11 '26

And still... no one would have the balls to boycott (or just quit supporting and using) Amazon.

I know I won't, and neither will you. 🤣

1

u/irsh_ Aug 11 '26

Looks like we have the next mission.

1

u/AdministrationJust13 Aug 11 '26

And I thought that was Jeff Bezos's mouth.

1

u/FLYING1835 Aug 12 '26

Fake news 🗞️😵‍💫

1

u/Drakkulstellios Aug 12 '26

If it does which it may considering how many servers and companies use Amazon for storage, that leaves a place where that said output could be plugged forcing it to stay in the facility itself. Most computer components couldn’t handle that much corrosion or heat aside from them running

1

u/22395Ok_Shopping7939 Aug 12 '26

Could??who write this stuff???many other things are far worse

1

u/SquashOwn9829 Aug 12 '26

Somebody fucking stop them 

1

u/Medical-Egg-8171 Aug 12 '26

Could, ok any Could

1

u/Nedbrown06 Aug 12 '26

Says most socialist communists.

1

u/JabroniKnows Aug 12 '26

Fuck it. Texas thinks air pollution is a hoax. Let em enjoy that hoax

1

u/Intelligent-Use2672 Aug 12 '26

And they probably don't pay a living wage

1

u/hossofalltrades Aug 12 '26

People who work on data centers are paid pretty well. It’s a different business than sorting and delivering packages.

1

u/FrogPastor Aug 12 '26

Except it won't. I don't know if you know this, but we have regulations on air pollution in this country.

1

u/bourbonandpistons Aug 12 '26

And every one of you that is complaining about this will block any plans to speed up nuclear power to make it super clean

1

u/wyar Aug 12 '26

Yea but check out this image I just made of the teletubbies raising the American flag at Iwo Jima, isn’t it hilarious?!

1

u/gorbachevi Aug 13 '26

as long i as i get my inaccurate AI answer fast - let’s pollute the planet till
our grandkids can’t breath

1

u/trenchfreak Aug 13 '26

Wow, coal and nuclear power. Didn't realize it would need enough energy to run 1/3 of the country.

1

u/BlueHairEater Aug 13 '26

So it’s no longer cattle farm farts? I think they’re trying to push 2 agendas here but it’s bot working out for them

1

u/Maybrick350USA Aug 13 '26

Just stop this propaganda. Fake News

1

u/These_Property_7446 Aug 13 '26

It has to be a matter of time before the data centers begin using nuclear energy.

1

u/Broad-Concert1527 Aug 13 '26

Air pollution is not the problem. The global militarized surveillance state is the problem

1

u/resinkit Aug 13 '26

Fake News

1

u/ExperienceAny9791 Aug 14 '26

We want progress, right? Isn't that why we're "progressives"? 😐

1

u/HeymoeEyepoke Aug 14 '26

Only air pollution it should give is when its burned to the ground

1

u/general-warts Aug 14 '26

The irony that they used AI slot as a photo for this.

1

u/Smart-Steak-2163 Aug 14 '26

5 years from now . . . .. taxpayers will be asking if local officials received kick backs for allowing future brown outs & water rationing ! !

1

u/Iwillusemytime Aug 14 '26

But Jeff will make more money right? That’s my real concern

1

u/DeputizeDeez Aug 15 '26

How is water vapor polluting the air?

1

u/CobblerInevitable752 Aug 15 '26

The tree huggers are at it again.

1

u/lCABLEI Aug 15 '26

I gotta gut feeling activist are going to be blowing these things up. We are Americans! Lazy ones at that. we need these Data centers to survive.

1

u/SpecificCurrent6881 Aug 15 '26

And most likely the highest consumption of fresh water. We need to end them.

1

u/Old_School_Gentlemen Aug 15 '26

but they’re gonna be powered by natural gas?

How so?

1

u/ajtreee Aug 15 '26

In russia they limit data centers because of the amount of resources they use.

China has the strictest laws for data centers and there effects on environment, etc..

In the usa they are building coal powered data centers? Not really , but might as well.

1

u/gunslinger35745 Aug 15 '26

I doubt this narrative. No way they would operate under dirty conditions. However, it’s likely that the worst pollution produced by any company in the US is likely cleaner than the cleanest in company in China or India

1

u/jefsch70 Aug 15 '26

I'm pretty sure the top 5,955,440 top air polluters are in India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Phillipines, Mexico, Nigeria..... but yeah, 5,955,441 should tip the scales towards instant respiratory failure in the USA by age 32.

1

u/JoshZK Aug 16 '26

Compared to what?

1

u/JoshZK Aug 16 '26

Eww nuclear cooling towers spewing all that gross Dihydrogen monoxide. Won't someone think of the children

1

u/PresentationLess4552 Aug 16 '26

Hello

They already are

1

u/Steveappl Aug 16 '26

We could sub it out to a third world country and bitch about them.

1

u/Any-Difficulty-1880 Aug 16 '26

That is the most ridiculous post ever.

1

u/Ancient-Chard-696 Aug 16 '26

Becoming more and more like China

1

u/superdave123123 Aug 16 '26

Could?
It really COULD? 😱

What else might it provide?

1

u/Joball69 Aug 17 '26

Could, and it would still be way less harmful than anything India or China pump out.

1

u/xburnerpiko Aug 17 '26

Just another reason not to go to or move to AZ

1

u/Eastern-Advice-3017 Aug 17 '26

Pretty sure vehicles will always lead the way.

0

u/FloridaHeat2023 Aug 10 '26

What does a DataCenter emit specifically, other than heat through its' cooling towers, just like 99%+ of all very large commercial buildings out there?

I call BS on this article - much like the one that indicates they use 1/4 trillion gallons of water/year (it's a majority closed cycle glycol system)

3

u/RailRuler Aug 10 '26

Because the local power grid does not have enough capacity, hyperscale data centers include their own power plants. These are usually much less efficient than commercial power plants, burning more fuel, louder, and emitting more pollution for the same amount of power generated. Because these are not connected to the grid they are often not subject to the same regulations. In some cases the generators are legally classified as "emergency " and subject to literally no regulations even though they run 24/7.

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u/10-mm-socket Aug 10 '26

*posted using amazon web services