almonds, golf courses, & data centers
just add water

if you had to choose
only one
to keep watering
which would it be
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
the cooling loop
if CEOs
are to be taken
at their word
there’s nothing to worry about
…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…
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
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?
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



almonds, always!
nutty nutrition over
nutty ambition...
🫥
Very informative, as always! And love your favorite snack!! :) xoxo