Thinking in Public
Agriculture and power generation use most of the water in this country. Irrigation alone runs close to 40 percent of US freshwater withdrawals, according to the US Geological Survey. Data centers are a small fraction of that total nationally, well behind agriculture and behind livestock's own water use, per the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, checked September 2026.
So when I see a town fighting a data-center groundbreaking over "the water," I think the target is wrong. This next part is my opinion: I think AI competitors outside North America push some of the loudest version of this fight, because every time we slow ourselves down, they gain ground. I could be wrong about who's pushing it. The water math still backs me up.
Don't use your voice for weak shit like that. Whoever wins the AI race sets the guidelines everyone else lives inside. Lose that race and someone else writes the rules for how everything works, for everyone. That's the stake: a democratic way of living. I already made the benefits case here; this one is about the water.