this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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The King's Art (infosec.pub)
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by Beep@lemmus.org to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
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[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago (21 children)

Just for perspective, since this anti-AI meme handwringing about water won't die.

The US Corn industry alone uses 8x more water than all of the AI datacenters on the entire planet. 40% of that production is used to make fuels which are shipped around the country to be burned, injecting carbon into the atmosphere.

The water used by datacenters is evaporated and remains part of the local hydrological cycle. Unless they are placed in an area with water shortages, like a desert, the amount of water used by a datacenter isn't significant.

Local power usage, local noise pollution, unsustainable investments made by capricious capitalists... those are all legitimate areas of criticism for AI datacenters. Water use is not.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

which are shipped around the country to be burned, injecting carbon into the atmosphere.

While I broadly agree with your comment, this line is a stretch. The carbon released is only from transportation and fertilizer production. The carbon inside the ethanol itself is actually pulled from the environment, so that part is actually carbon neutral.

The big problem with ethanol production is that it takes 5 gallons of fuel to produce 4 gallons of ethanol. It's literally just pissing away time, money, and resources just to subsidize farmers.

[–] nBodyProblem@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

It’s valuable for reducing smog and makes great fuel for performance cars

[–] bridgeenjoyer@gamepad.club 2 points 2 weeks ago

@nBodyProblem @mnemonicmonkeys at a 40% efficiency hit yes. It is great for turbos!

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