Field measurements of neighborhood-scale air temperature impacts of data centers

Post by whimsicalism » Tue, Aug 18, 2026, 9:49 PM UTC

testerteert000a wrote: post #373

whimsicalism wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not believe for one instance that people are coming from a legitimate concern around planet-burning and reaching their conclusions about AI vs. reasoning backwards from wanting reasons to be anti-AI. Very few people I've met seems willing to make one iota of earnest personal sacrifice for avoiding actual in-real-life planet-burning industries. Actively pisses me off hearing climate rationale for opposing somethi…

You must not live in a planet-burned spot yet. But, direct experience shouldn't be the only way to build empathy for viewpoints that aren't yours.

Post by sieabahlpark » Tue, Aug 18, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

sjoedev wrote: post #65

dwoldrich wrote: post #35

I cannot figure out if this data center panic is legit or trumped up. There are legitimate nation-state and political entities that would love to create pressure for degrowth in this area. And, pollution and natural resources are a concern, yes, fine, sure. NIMBY happens, I get it ... *BUT*, we've been building huge data centers for decades and they are minuscule compared to the size of the earth. My skeptic meter ma…

We’re building data centers in the U.S. at an unprecedented and increasing rate [1]. Is it so hard to imagine that something which was fine at one scale may begin to cause issues at some massively higher scale? If I drink one glass of wine per day, it’s probably fine. If I drink three bottles per day, I’m gonna start having problems. [1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/monthly-spending-data-cen...

Post by sophacles » Tue, Aug 18, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

rpdillon wrote: post #299

Ydarbleoj wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are engaging in the "but you participate in society" fallacy. One can critique systems they are still interacting with, to suggest otherwise is just so incredibly lazy.

Not at all. The post being responded to completely failed to acknowledge any value brought by data centers to the general populous. That's disingenuous. To force the point: run me through the scenario where we turn off all the data centers. Consider how much more water we will have, how much less expensive electricity will be, and what other problems might arise.

Post by mywittyname » Tue, Aug 18, 2026, 9:53 PM UTC

mediaman wrote: post #123

stryan wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of it's a panic, but I'm leaning towards many of the concerns being true or at least partially true due to the sheer scale of the construction. The figures I've been seeing are something like half of all current private construction projects are data center related these days and it's the biggest single sector of construction in terms of money spent. It's also a lot easier to protest data centers then AI compani…

What I don't understand is why communities want to block the data centers. Just make them pay! Your electricity price shouldn't go up because of them. So just make a rate card for data centers that ensures the burden doesn't fall on residents. That's what Oregon started doing, and residents' electricity prices actually started falling, because the fixed costs of energy production were being spread across more kilowat…

Post by chasd00 » Tue, Aug 18, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

bb88 wrote: post #367

jjice wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do think the quality has gone down over my seven-ish years on HN, but that could be me just remembering "the good ol' days". Still so much better than Reddit though. It's not close. Reddit has a much lower quality set of posts and comments on average across technical subreddits.

I remember the Ivermectin/Hydroxychloroquine fights where people were gaslighting others for some unknown reason. People sharing dubious studies, with questionable results. Meanwhile many of those people had a secondary agenda to keep the FDA from releasing the covid vaccine. America's Frontline Doctors (the group) promoted drugs over vaccines, etc. Granted there was a lot of fear in the air back then. But this site…