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(Bloomberg Opinion) – When we worry about the growing threat of US groundwater robots, we cannot ignore the risk that the cows will consume all this first.
This week a new study by researchers at Arizona State University put the depth of our water problem in perspective. It was found that a region filled with both data centers for artificial intelligence and alfalfa farms to feed cows in the Lower Colorado River Basin – Lake Mead and Lake Powells are rapidly decreasing than surface water than reservoirs such as Lake Mead and Lake Powells, which are rapidly disappearing.
Since 2003, about 28 million acres of water has disappeared from aquifters, suggesting satellite measurements, compared to about 14 million acres from surface reservoirs. Most of this water was under Arizona, 60% of which are suffering from excessive drought after their hottest, dried stretch in recorded history. One acre -foot water is sufficient with an acre of land, or a leg of water in an American football ground. Twenty -eight million acres feet have a full capacity of about Lake Mead, which is the largest reservoir in the US, providing water for 20 million Americans.
The actual lake Mead receives a lot of attention. The white “bathtub ring” shows how far its water line is away – it is only at 32% capacity as this writing – a long displayed that a notorious dry area is getting even thirsty because the planet gets warm and the drought becomes more frequent. But quietly, under the ground, an entire lake has already disappeared. This will take Millennia to recur.
The state’s senior writer Arizona’s state professor Je Femegyti told me, “The Colorado River was a lifetime of the South -West US.” “Now it is ground water. We need to ensure that we take care to maintain that ground water for many generations in the future.”
Report comes at the time of increasing alarm about AI Boom’s water and electricity demands. Every time you ask a robot to write your morality 101 term paper or produce one of the brainrot videos that all children are watching these days, a data center takes a drink (essentially) somewhere. Water is used to cool this slope cooking server, and it is also used to generate electricity that strengthen those giant computers.
A study by the University of California for the Washington Post last year estimated that a 100-word email written by CHATGPT consumes more than 16-ounces of water bottle. According to a December 1 study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, by 2028, US data centers can swallow 74 billion gallons of water per year, which is at least 6 billion in 2014.
And they are server thirst, depending on where they are located. According to Post/UC Rivaraside study, in Arizona, the same 100-word email will consume about two bottles. Unfortunately, Arizona and other desert location are the major real estate for data centers. According to Bloomberg News, Grand Canyon is home to 26 new server farms built or planned from 2022, which involves hundreds of others in the US regions under high water stress defined by the non -profit World Resources Institute.
Friendly regulation, abundant empty land, low humidity and a relative reduction of natural disasters (until you count meat-earning heat) servers help farmers explain the attraction of Arizona. Those farmers also help farmers to explain its attraction-the use of fugitive water is seen as a tibba framen as a water-sting as compared to AI.
Arizona Farms, according to the US Geological Survey report, on average between 2010 and 2020, used an average of 4 billion gallons of water, or about 1.5 trillion gallons for 72% of the state’s total water use, approximately 1.5 trillion gallons per year. Those 74 billion gallons that can drink at US data center 2028, Arizona will not keep the farms in trade for a month. (According to that USGS report, Heck, Golf-Cures Irrigation used about 31 billion gallons in 2015 alone in Maricopa County.)
And this water is used to grow food for cows. Last year in the Journal Communications Earth and Environment, a study found about one-third of the use of all Colorado River water-about 6.24 million acres of acre-feet, or about a quarter of a quarter one-fourth lake mead-irrigated alfalfa and grass grass between 2000 and 2019. All other crops used only 3.85 million acres of acre, which was the water used by SIITs.
All that is used to feed beef and dairy cows. According to a 2023 study by Erizona researchers, about the fifth seven western states grown in seven western states are exported to China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and other countries. In other words, we are truly exporting our dwindling water supply.
Groundwater pumping makes the land above it sink. A study earlier this month in Journal Nature found that 28 most populous American cities were sinking to some extent or for another, mostly due to lack of groundwater. He has nothing on Arizona, some of which have fallen by 18 feet in decades as the water has disappeared under him. Wales are dried, and giantly in the ground, have ruined homes and infrastructure.
Despite all the disadvantages, people who support their pumping waves, farmers and politicians fight fiercely for their right to do it. Although Arizona has some sound water-management practices, including the designated water-management area, which have helped prevent bleeding in Phoenix, Taxon and other places, most of the groundwater of the state is still irregular. When Governor Katie Hobbes proposed to create a new management area in the Vilcox Basin in the south -eastern corner of the state, where the farmers protested, the land is sinking up to 3 ½ inch per year. For Hobbes credits, he created the management area anyway. Now locals are fighting the proposal to cut their groundwater usage by 50% in 50 years.
President Donald Trump has made cases worse by covering a distance of $ 4 billion in inflation reduction act funding to protect the Colorado River. Protecting the water supply of millions of Americans in the fastest growing areas in the country is more worthy of research and wealth, not less. Other possible solutions include stopping farmers to stop their land, infection in low-thirst crops or encourage urban developers to sell their water rights. And yes, Americans can always stand for very few beef to eat.
For those robots, they may have an easy time using less water. Microsoft corp. Already has plans for data centers that do not consume anyone. Contestants may probably want to follow the suit, if only a mounting backlash to calm. And if we should live with AI, perhaps we can at least get to find out how to spend less water on cows.
More than Bloomberg’s opinion:
This column reflects the individual views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Mark Gongoloff is a Bloomberg opinion editor and columns that cover climate change. He first worked for Fortune.com, Hafington Post and Wall Street Journal.
Such more such stories are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
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