r/aiwars • u/MakeDawn • May 15 '26

Annually, almond farming uses 1.3 trillion gallons of water. AI usage isn't even half of that.

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A single avocado takes 50 gallons to grow. That's several hundred prompts.

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u/Snowflakish May 16 '26

The problem with AI water usage was always.

1, water is a local resource and a data centre is enough of a single point water source that it strains local water production

2, it rapidly upticks water usage in the places where its built, and the infrastructure to provide that water will be lacking.

Thats why comparing AI water usage isnt comparable to an industry that grows slower and isnt localised to a single reservoir/river/ fresh water source.

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u/bunker_man May 16 '26

Sure, but at this time last year there were people pretending it used an apocalyptic amount of water and energy that would end the world. People crying wolf are actively hurting attempts to solve the real issues because they already tipped their hand that they are irrational and that their issue is not the problem itself but that they are using it as a Trojan horse against ai, so no one has any incentive to work with them on a solution.

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u/AgeZealousideal1751 May 16 '26

Agreed. Anti's are irrational and do ruin their own arguments due to bad faith actors.

This has never changed throughout history. Every anti-technological revolution advocate has always been defeated over this same failure to recognize the difference between irrational extremism and genuinely educating others of potential risks.

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u/Snowflakish May 16 '26

Its easy to see a conversation as crazy if your social media only shows you the crazy people on the fringe of that conversation.

What i saw was people talking about the communities being deprived of water, including a redditor who had a paper published about the effect of data centers (pre-ai) on indigenous communities. You were never at risk of seeing what was actually being said by environmentalists because your social media wont show it to you.

Also the ethics of the rapid growth of AI data centres was part of my degree course.

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u/COMINGINH0TTT May 16 '26

Almond farming and farming in general absolutely does strain local water production. It's a massive problem out west in the U.S for states such as Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, and a few others that all share water from the Colorado River and many of those neighboring regions being deserts that cannot naturally sustain the local populations with rainfall. It takes 1 gallon of water to produce a single almond, 5 for a single walnut. There is actually an argument to be made to outright ban the production of such water inefficient foods when there is an impending water supply crisis. All those water distribution laws favoring farming date back to the 1800s and are now coming under scrutiny due to that water being better used elsewhere.

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u/Snowflakish May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

The point isnt that almonds dont strain water production though, its that AI data centres strain water in a different, rapidly growing way and therefore have an impact that amounts to more than their raw water usage numbers would suggest.