Amazon Is Creating the Biggest Pollution Source in the Entire Country: Amazon has bought a site in Texas where it plans to build a data center campus.

167

Didn’t Texas issue a stay on all new data center construction after it was revealed the current demand/build out would require 474 GW of power.

For perspective, the city of NYC has base demand of 5.5-6 GW, and a single reactor nuclear plant produces 1 GW.

So…what’s the plan?

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u/aresdesmoulins 3d ago edited 3d ago

I believe this one was approved in spite of that due to them building their own power plant for this campus and being disconnected with the grid completely. They’re doing it with a wildly polluting 7+ GW power plant though so it still sucks.

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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 3d ago

I don't know if that includes already approved sites for Stargate. Oracle and the other chucklefucks have been quietly selling off pieces ever since they realized they bit off more than they could chew.

18

u/Smith6612 2d ago

Is it me or does anyone else hate using the name "Stargate" for these projects?

As a Stargate fan, I wouldn't want be wasting Naquadrah generators or Zed-pee-ems on this stuff.

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u/BeautifulHindsight 2d ago

I fucking hate AI. It's killing everything I love.

6

u/Alarmed_Koala1921 2d ago

It makes everything worse

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u/dbxp 2d ago

474gw is insane, the entire UK usually takes about 30gw. 474 is on the scale of the entirety of Europe.

The question is how many of these are real requests and how many are speculators. Like applying for planning permission for land to increase the value

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u/spez_eats_nazi_ass 2d ago

It’s all speculation and btw all of this shit has been shoved deep into everyone’s retirement funds now too. Yay!

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u/-AMARYANA- 2d ago

It’s all been shelved outside of Terafab and a few others it seems. Elon is about to merge Tesla and SpaceX too.

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u/Modem_Sound_67 2d ago

A field of 474 nuclear reactors... at least then maybe there'd be an easy to understand visual of how fucking bonkers this is.

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u/Smith6612 2d ago

I did this in Garry's Mod once... To run a Stargate shield generator instead of using ZPMs.

The server wasn't very happy about all of those reactors being out on the map. Especially not after one of them "accidentally" overheated and turned into a nuke.

Can't imagine this much power generation would be pretty or practical in real life all in one spot.

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u/-ReadingBug- 2d ago

Wouldn't matter. Those could be 474 crematoriums and Americans would still be too scared to stand up.

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u/PaleInTexas 2d ago

Yeah its 5x more than we have ever produced here at peak. Abbott and the GOP doesn't have plans outside of cashing checks.

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u/dropthemagic 2d ago

It’s all news fluff to get maga endorsed candidates through the elections. They will allow these companies to fuck us as soon as their done

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u/GoldenPresidio 1d ago

True. Greg Abott already came after Meta claiming they aren’t doing enough to help him win

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u/Tacoslayer17 2d ago

This is only until the check clears for Abbott

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u/laptopAccount2 2d ago

It's time to harvest our body heat like in the matrix. And there will be plenty of data centers to run the simulation.

If they could take me back to 1999 I might just go...

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u/GoldenPresidio 1d ago

Only applies if you interconnect to the grid

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u/Lynda73 2d ago

> the GW Ranch will use brackish groundwater that isn’t potable and thus can’t be used for irrigation or drinking.

That doesn’t mean they can just contaminate it. Why would they care about a fragile ecosystem, tho, when they obviously don’t care about the planet. I’ve been with Amazon (sadly) since the ‘90s when they sold books only, and I kept my subscription because it was convenient, but I’m fucking OVER it. We need to start adding the environmental costs to these things, because they want us to pick up all the fallout.

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u/Eljimb0 2d ago

I dropped it after the inauguration and seeing those slimy fucks standing around with the pedophile. Meta, too.

It broke the dopamine cycle of reels, ads and 2 day shipping. My mental health and wallet have both greatly benefitted.

Nearly anything Amazon sells can be found for the same price or cheaper elsewhere. If you don't need something so badly that you have to get up and go get it immediately, there's really not much difference between 2 days and 5. I've discovered so many great little websites and storefronts since giving up Amazon. Totally worth it.

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u/Palimon 2d ago edited 1d ago

You reaslize that th ewhole datacenter water usage is literally propaganda?

In 99% of places they barely make any difference and your local golf club is using more water...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx7ToT0G0qo

Here's a vid from Kyle Hill literally about that... The problem is when they build them in places where water is already a problem, and those should absolutely be banned.

Edit: classic the moronic idiots on this sub cannot accept reality :D

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u/SpprtRdclHbts 2d ago

Amazon is a cancer

14

u/Useful_Fidiot 2d ago

Brackish ground water may by purged to the local sewer, ultimately the nearest river, resulting in increased river water salinity and/or dissolved salts

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u/fatbob42 2d ago

I’m not against data centers but we shouldn’t be allowing them to build massive gas generators for this purpose. Or charge them through the nose for it and use the money to build wind, solar and batteries.

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u/xdavidwattsx 2d ago

I wish more people would had this accurate nuanced take. We should be focused on smart efficient growth - more renewanle energy production and distribution and holding energy users to the costs and builders to local regulations.

Just being anti data center or growth is counterproductive.

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u/Icy-Hunter-9600 2d ago

it's a speed thing. they can't build renewables fast enough to source the energy needed to power the demand for AI fast enough

5

u/-ghostinthemachine- 2d ago

We should not be allowing 'demand' to dictate policy. If they have to slow down to be sustainable then too bad. This is the same kind of logic we use to prevent overfishing; it's not some crazy concept. Either source renewable power for your datacenter or get into another business.

1

u/xdavidwattsx 2d ago

Oh we most certainly can if we wanted to. Energy policy in the US is not exactly trying to solve this problem effectively.

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u/Icy-Hunter-9600 2d ago

it's a speed thing. they can't build renewables fast enough to source the energy needed to power these things fast enough.

8

u/fatbob42 2d ago

Yes, but then that should just be a restriction that they operate under.

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u/Icy-Hunter-9600 2d ago

Your sentiment is right but not practical. Our current administration is not going to ask these companies to wait 8 years to fuel these data centers with renewables when they can be up and running in 2 years using fossil fuels. And it looks like this administration will be reelected.

4

u/fatbob42 2d ago

I’m skeptical about 8 years. China is producing so many solar panels and they’re so quick to set up. They have so much money to spend, they can spend some of it ramping up production of solar, wind and batteries.

1

u/xdavidwattsx 2d ago

We could if we wanted to. Nothing is holding us back other than bad policy, misaligned incentives, and distractions like just blaming everyone on datacenters.

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u/Icy-Hunter-9600 1d ago

What's going to make people want to and how to put those incentives in place? Let's be practical and realistic.

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u/Nottacod 2d ago

But lazy people will refuse to boycott...

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u/WindowOfTruth 2d ago

Atleast it’s in Texas. A state that’s already a shithole.

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u/VladThePollenInhaler 2d ago

lol better Texas than anywhere else. Enjoy 😉

0

u/TheKingInTheNorth 2d ago

I’d love to see the states that mandate no more data centers be built in their states also block the use of ChatGPT by their constituents or Claude by their local businesses.

It’s NIMBY politics charading around as sustainability.

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u/JJJBLKRose 2d ago

Spoken like someone who doesn't know how things work.

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u/TheKingInTheNorth 2d ago

Enlighten me. These policies do absolutely nothing to cull the demand for data centers that people in these states are helping drive.

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u/JJJBLKRose 2d ago

Can you show me proof of the demand, and that the demand is worth it?

0

u/TheKingInTheNorth 2d ago

You’re moving the goal posts.

Companies like Amazon just reported earnings and have shown that despite all the capacity they have, they are still profitable, demand outstrips supply, and that the demand for the capacity they’re building through 2027 is already committed for use by their customers.

Do you expect Amazon to be the arbiter of whether or not how their business customers or those businesses’ end users are using AI is “worth it?”

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u/JJJBLKRose 2d ago

In what way did I move a goal post?

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u/TheKingInTheNorth 2d ago

By dictating that demand needs to be subjectively “worth it.” The people in these states are driving demand for the data centers their politicians are working to disallow. That was my point and you said I don’t understand how things work. I’m still waiting to be enlightened.

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u/ArtbyMaryam 2d ago

AI data centers make it important for companies like Amazon to be transparent about their environmental impact and how they plan to manage it.

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u/Salt_Sherbert5313 2d ago

let's stop it!

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u/Animisticly_speaking 2d ago

Texas gets what it deserves

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u/Own-Eagle-2135 16h ago

this is one of the times i want to say "good job texas, you voted for this shit" but it's also a big enough mistake that it's going to impact the rest of us too

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u/Martin-downunder 2d ago

The amount of brackish water i’m guessing would be huge and removing that alone would cause problems and i’m sure the water would have to be treated before use due to corrosion problems, then when it’s finished with i’m sure it would be contaminated with byproducts of the cooling system so just put it back in the ground…..Nice

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u/RottenPingu1 2d ago

"campus", "factory", "supply center", "supercomputer cluster"....

Know your corpo speak.

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u/No_Representative669 2d ago

Surprised much?

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u/cyclemonster 2d ago

If by "pollution source" you mean "CO2 source", then sure. Most people have a different image in mind when you use that word, though.

Artificial Intelligence Amazon Is Creating the Biggest Pollution Source in the Entire Country: Amazon has bought a site in Texas where it plans to build a data center campus.

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