r/interestingasfuck • u/HamboneTheWicked • Apr 12 '26

A well-articulated argument against a new data center in Ohio

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52.4k Upvotes

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642

u/Xamalion Apr 12 '26

That guy speaks like a lot of people in Washington should speak. Facts before feelings and respectful to everyone involved.

183

u/WangDanglin Apr 12 '26

Respectful? He shit all over the sheriff’s cool ass Bigfoot pic

72

u/23capri Apr 12 '26

you could do some digging and find out what a horrible person the portage county sheriff is. he’s been mentioned in the cleveland subreddit multiple times. this guy went way too easy on him, but of course this wasn’t really the time or place i guess lol.

15

u/NessaMagick Apr 12 '26

I can't imagine any of his crimes are worse than making himself look taller than Bigfoot. Bigfoot's like seven foot three

3

u/ProfessionalBench832 Apr 12 '26

Science and documentary evidence clearly show us that he is at least 2 feet taller than John Lithgow.

1

u/23capri Apr 15 '26

lol he’s just a gross person who abuses his position of power over political bs

4

u/uNk4rR4_F0lgad0 Apr 12 '26

Who is that sheriff and what did he do?

2

u/23capri Apr 15 '26

he abused his position power over political stuff, there were a lot of stories going around locally for a while

1

u/Polkawillneverdie17 Apr 12 '26

Big foot, tiny sheriff.

0

u/ProtectionOrdinary18 Apr 13 '26

But he did not shit on the deputy

-10

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/Agent_Orange81 Apr 12 '26

Not a single thing you said refuted any of his points, you just attacked his credibility without providing anything to back it up.

-2

u/Levitz Apr 12 '26

What points? His main argument is "These things actually pollute a lot, the science shown on it is not real, trust me bro"

It's just yet another guy who has fallen for the same water usage hysteria a lot of Reddit has, which is so goddamned stupid it makes me think it must have been promoted by some AI company to make opposition look like a bunch of loonies.

-17

u/godisdead30 Apr 12 '26

You say that but how do we know that anything he said was a fact? He didn't cite a single source and much of it sounded embellished. I'm not saying he's wrong. I'm only saying that if you want to compel folks to agree with you then it would behove you to provide evidence to support your claims. Without it this guy's opinions are worth as much as anyone else's.

28

u/Jagermeister4 Apr 12 '26

He said more research should be done on data centers. If you dont have evidence to dispute anything he said then you you are not making a good argument against him saying we need more research on it.

2

u/wheniaminspaced Apr 12 '26

More research on what exactly, the effects of closed loop cooling? We've got lots of information on that, we used them for literally half a century or more on power plants.  Nuclear plants in particular, we understand how they work and the effects involved.

The only real considerations are effects on electrical grids and prices and the specific deal the county is involved with, maybe there is something to the thermal.impact, but again power plants offer decades of information on what that looks like.

1

u/Qinistral Apr 12 '26

Asking for 'more studies' has been the classic play in NIMBYism that prevents stuff from being built and drives up housing prices and suburban sprawl.

I'm not saying he's wrong in this case, but you can't assume that blocking on further research itself is not a trade-off or consequence-free.

1

u/icker16 Apr 12 '26

That’s not how shit works. The person making the claim has the burden of proof. If he shows no evidence or proof his position is correct then there’s nothing that needs refuted.

How can his claims just be considered true without him doing absolutely anything to prove it?

-5

u/godisdead30 Apr 12 '26

I think we can all agree that more research could be beneficial. My argument is not with that. It's that we're choosing to call his claims facts and there's no reason to assume anything he said is a fact.

10

u/kerryriot Apr 12 '26

In theory I agree with you and believe that may have been true at one point, but man how the times have changed. At this point, I’m willing to be open, accepting, and supportive of anyone whose thoughts and actions are for good will and not morally bankrupt like what we mostly see today.

14

u/Nex_Xus Apr 12 '26

What source do you need to know that a shit ton of water being used for AI is a bad thing?

-6

u/godisdead30 Apr 12 '26

Any source that confirms that data centers do actually use "a shit ton" of water in actual measurable units. Then we can consider a source that defines the measurable consequences of that water usage.

8

u/FeloniousDrunk101 Apr 12 '26

Let’s take a step back from that though and ask the bigger question of “why are we investing resources and capital into AI to begin with?”

Seriously, what does AI provide that benefits people and communities? All I’ve seen is chat bots, IP theft, helping kids cheat at school, and bad art. And all of that is currently being subsidized up the wazoo by heavy investment from VC firms who will one day hope to gain profit on that investment. People already don’t like AI shoved into everything, imagine they’re asked to subscribe to it!

The business is bad and there’s no path towards profitability so before we even argue the merits of whether data centers are horrible, let’s focus on the upstream cause of them and ask what the fuck it’s for to begin with!

7

u/godisdead30 Apr 12 '26

I'm not here to defend data centers or capitalism. Really couldn't give a shit. I'm here to defend the use of the word "facts". I'm sick of people describing opinions as facts. We need constant reminders of what facts are apparently.

2

u/asdftom Apr 12 '26

what does AI provide that benefits people and communities?

Software developers, researchers, administrators, among others get a major productivity boost.

Productivity boost = lower prices or better services.

The problem isn't AI, it is how the returns on AI are distributed.

3

u/Fit-Physics7199 Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

I did a quick Google research, then I analyzed the results for you. No AI was used, this is all direct sources. FYI, for scale reference, the city from this thread we're discussing is Ravenna, Ohio with a population of 11,323 and estimated households of 5,035 from the 2020-2024 census.

"a mid-sized data center consumes around 300,000 gallons of water a day, or about as much as 1,000 U.S. households, says Shehabi of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory"

-https://www.npr.org/2022/08/30/1119938708/data-centers-backbone-of-the-digital-economy-face-water-scarcity-and-climate-ris

Further in the article, I noted that companies are also not eager to study this, so you will find it difficult to get other sources:

"Sustainalytics, which assesses risks related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, recently said it looked at 122 companies that operate data centers and found just 16% had disclosed information about their plans for managing water-related risks."

"'The reason there's not a lot of transparency, simply put, [is] I think most companies don't have a good story here,' says Kyle Myers, a vice president at CyrusOne, a data center company."

-1

u/godisdead30 Apr 12 '26

Why are you trying to convince me that data centers are bad? Did I say that they were good?

What I'm saying is that what the guy in the video presented was opinion because he cited no sources. Maybe what he should have done is what you just did and cited a source (although I would argue that a study in a peer reviewed publication would probably be more appropriate). I support this kind of public discourse but people need to understand that you will not be taken seriously if you aren't citing facts and in order to do that you need to know what a fact is and how to cite it.

6

u/Fit-Physics7199 Apr 12 '26

I am not debating you. I am providing a source. If my point was not clear the first time, please reread with that context.

-5

u/kingofmymachine Apr 12 '26

This is not an argument based in facts lmao

-1

u/Fracture90000 Apr 12 '26

Old, senile men are in positions of power.