almonds, golf courses, & data centers

just add water

just add water — June 2026 — © dh

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if you had to choose
only one
to keep watering

which would it be

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first some facts

farming almonds
in the States
consumes 1.5 trillion
gallons
of water
per year

—

maintaining greens
and fairways
for sport
consumes 500 billion

give or take

—

US data centers
consume
in aggregate

about 150 billion
gallons
per year

and rising

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the cooling loop

if CEOs
are to be taken
at their word

there’s nothing to worry about

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…changes with the cooling system… and water… the cooling loop is filled once in the data center… the daily water usage over the course of an entire year… is roughly equivalent to what a single restaurant would use.

Satya Nadella, (1967 – ), Indian-American businessman, CEO of Microsoft…

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so why the friction?

why the NIMBYism

why the outrage

why the generalized, anti-AI sentiment

—

reason 1

• local resources
  land / water / electricity
  are being monopolized
  and turned
  into compute

reason 2

• noise pollution
  air pollution
  water pollution
  and nighttime
  light pollution

reason 3

• our move fast
  break lives
  just a cost
  of doing business
  bunker building
  crypto hoarding
  tech overlords
  
  can be quite prick-ish

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a thought experiment

leaf blowers

imagine
the strain
on your brain

from noisy
gas guzzling
fume spewing
Zen shattering
leaf blowers

buzzing
at all hours
of the day

—

now imagine
having Elon
drop a Terafab

a 100 million
square foot
factory

at the end
of your block
behind the creek
next to the butterfly
garden

—

would you be cool with that?

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the perfect snack

if i had to choose
only one
to keep watering

i’d choose the almonds

full of fiber
protein
healthy fats
the perfect snack
on the go

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w/ darren harley