History will look back on Apple forcing a U2 Album download as the equivalent environmental disaster as the BP oil spill.
UK government advises deleting emails to save water
11–20 of 158 posts
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#12Ok I'm not a physicist but surely long term storage of pictures and emails does not actively generate heat in a data-center? Encouraging people to log on and delete old pics and emails is only going to create more heat as servers have to spin up access to stuff. The real culprit of data-center heat usage is surely AI
The only thing I can think of is that emails accumulate that that means more storage must be added at the data centres, requiring more electricity use. This seems trivial compared to AI power demands to me.
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#13Not a single mention of the lack of reservoir capacity, with the last major reservoir built in 1992. Population has grown by 12 million / 21% since. So turn the tap off while brushing your teeth and delete your old emails, and all will be fine.
seriously wtf ... it rains all the time there :)
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#14From the website:
HOW TO SAVE WATER AT HOME
Install a rain butt to collect rainwater to use in the garden.
Fix a leaking toilet – leaky loos can waste 200-400 litres a day.
Use water from the kitchen to water your plants.
Avoid watering your lawn – brown grass will grow back healthy.
Turn off the taps when brushing teeth or shaving.
Take shorter showers.
Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems.
(I do not understand the down-votes, it is a great way to hear other people's opinion(s). Is that so bad?)
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#15Should Cola production be restricted also?
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#16just drink brawndo, the thirst mutilator
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#17> Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems. Also the UK government: > Taken together, the 50 measures will make the UK irresistible to AI firms looking to start, scale, or grow their business. It builds on recent progress in AI that saw £25 billion of new investment in data centres announced since the government took office last July. https://www.gov.uk/govern…
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Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#18> Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems. Also the UK government: > Taken together, the 50 measures will make the UK irresistible to AI firms looking to start, scale, or grow their business. It builds on recent progress in AI that saw £25 billion of new investment in data centres announced since the government took office last July. https://www.gov.uk/govern…
Nevermind water, there were (still are?) restrictions on new builds in the West London area because the grid could not cope due to the ever increasing number of data centres popping up in old trading estates.
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#19They would do better to advise people to boil only the amount of water they need for their tea for the amount of difference it makes.
Even the 'take shorter showers' advice is interesting, they could advise people to skip a few and flush the toilet only after having a 'number two'.
Recently I had the water board out to investigate a leak. Earlier in the year, before there was any hint of drought, I had been pressure washing the green mould off my late father's house, leading to a lot of water usage. And yes, I did use a lot of water then, far more than could be saved by skipping showers, using the dishwasher instead of hand washing crockery and by only boiling the water I needed for tea, nevermind deleting emails.
There will always be some that consume water at an entirely different scale to others, there needs to be a pricing mechanism for this beyond the metering they have now, where everyone gets an allowance for their basic needs and those watering gardens, washing cars or power-spraying houses pay considerably more. There will be
Re: UK government advises deleting emails to save water
#20The problem isn’t home usage, or data centers. It’s the total lack of investment since the water companies were privatised and moved to a model of money extraction for shareholders. Now we have no new capacity in years and more leaks (waste and clean) than ever, and yet it’s always the public who need to save a little more or pay increased bills.
Successive governments (both sides) have been shown to be totally spineless with water regulation, despite significant public outrage. Privatisation has been a huge failure and yet we appear to be stuck in this position.