Data centers put most valuable resource at risk

It’s increasingly becoming clear that the new currency won’t be green — it’ll be blue. The sparkling, deep blue of water, to be specific. Our area of the Midwest is blessed with an abundance of water, sitting right next to the Great Lakes and with plentiful aquifers beneath us. Many other places of the U.S. and internationally, however, are not so gifted.

Look no further than recent reports out of Iran. Iran’s president Mazoud Pezeshkian noted in a recent speech that if no rainfall is seen soon, the 10 million residents of Iran’s most populous city, Tehran, will have to ration water or in the most extreme scenario, evacuate their homes.

The Midwest is not in such an urgent water situation, but it bears monitoring. Part of the tech-bro obsession with placing data centers in our region is our abundance of the needed water for cooling data centers. This water is a precious natural resource and should not be taken for granted or used lightly. Wasting it on cooling processors that don’t meaningfully contribute to our society is simply unacceptable.

Nathan Dombeck

Janesville, Wisconsin