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As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with cooling water pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also use water indirectly, through the water required to produce the electricity to power the facility. The amount of water used to produce electricity increases dramatically when the source is fossil fuels compared with solar or wind. A 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that in 2023, U.S. data centers consumed 17 billion gallons (64 billion liters) of water directly through cooling, and projects that by 2028, those figures could doubleor even quadruple. The same report estimated that in 2023, U.S. data centers consumed an additional 211 billion gallons (800 billion liters) of water indirectly through the electricity that powers them. But that is just an estimate in a fast-changing industry. We are researchers in water law and policy based on the shores of Lake Michigan. Technology companies are eyeing the Great Lakes region to host data centers, including one proposed for Port Washington, Wisconsin, which could be one of the largest in the country. The Great Lakes region offers a relatively cool climate and an abundance of water, making the region an attractive location for hot and thirsty data centers. The Great Lakes are an important, binational resource that more than 40 million people depend on for their drinking water and supports a US$6 trillion regional economy. Data centers compete with these existing uses and may deplete local groundwater aquifers. Our analysis of public records, government documents and sustainability reports compiled by top data center companies has found that technology companies dont always reveal how much water their data centers use. In a forthcoming Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal article, we walk through our methods and findings using these resources to uncover the water demands of data centers. In general, corporate sustainability reports offered the most access and detailincluding that in 2024, one data center in Iowa consumed 1 billion (3.8 billion liters) gallons of waterenough to supply all of Iowas residential water for five days. How do data centers use water? The servers and routers in data centers work hard and generate a lot of heat. To cool them down, data centers use large amounts of waterin some cases over 25% of local community water supplies. In 2023, Google reported consuming over 6 billion gallons of water (nearly 23 billion liters) to cool all its data centers. In some data centers, the water is used up in the cooling process. In an evaporative cooling system, pumps push cold water through pipes in the data center. The cold water absorbs the heat produced by the data center servers, turning into steam that is vented out of the facility. This system requires a constant supply of cold water. In closed-loop cooling systems, the cooling process is similar, but rather than venting steam to the air, air-cooled chillers cool down the hot water. The cooled water is then recirculated to cool the facility again. This does not require constant addition of large volumes of water, but it uses a lot more energy to run the chillers. The actual numbers showing those differences, which likely vary by the facility, are not publicly available. One key way to evaluate water use is the amount of water that is considered consumed, meaning it is withdrawn from the local water supply and used upfor instance, evaporated as steamand not returned to its source. For information, we first looked to government data, such as that kept by municipal water systems, but the process of getting all the necessary data can be onerous and time-consuming, with some denying data access due to confidentiality concerns. So we turned to other sources to uncover data center water use. Sustainability reports provide insight Many companies, especially those that prioritize sustainability, release publicly available reports about their environmental and sustainability practices, including water use. We focused on six top tech companies with data centers: Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Digital Realty and Equinix. Our findings revealed significant variability in both how much water the companies data centers used, and how much specific information the companies reports actually provided. Sustainability reports offer a valuable glimpse into data center water use. But because the reports are voluntary, different companies report different statistics in ways that make them hard to combine or compare. Importantly, these disclosures do not consistently include the indirect water consumption from their electricity use, which the Lawrence Berkeley Lab estimated was 12 times greater than the direct use for cooling in 2023. Our estimates highlighting specific water consumption reports are all related to cooling. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/A3wvg/1 Amazon releases annual sustainability reports, but those documents do not disclose how much water the company uses. Microsoft provides data on its water demands for its overall operations, but does not break down water use for its data centers. Meta does that breakdown, but only in a company-wide aggregate figure. Google provides individual figures for each data center. In general, the five companies we analyzed that do disclose water usage show a general trend of increasing direct water use each year. Researchers attriute this trend to data centers. A closer look at Google and Meta To take a deeper look, we focused on Google and Meta, as they provide some of the most detailed reports of data center water use. Data centers make up significant proportions of both companies water use. In 2023, Meta consumed 813 million gallons of water globally (3.1 billion liters)95% of which, 776 million gallons (2.9 billion liters), was used by data centers. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/EOHnU/1 For Google, the picture is similar, but with higher numbers. In 2023, Google operations worldwide consumed 6.4 billion gallons of water (24.2 billion liters), with 95%, 6.1 billion gallons (23.1 billion liters), used by data centers. Google reports that in 2024, the companys data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, consumed 1 billion gallons of water (3.8 billion liters), the most of any of its data centers. The Google data center using the least that year was in Pflugerville, Texas, which consumed 10,000 gallons (38,000 liters)about as much as one Texas home would use in two months. That data center is air-cooled, not water-cooled, and consumes significantly less water than the 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million liters) at an air-cooled Google data center in Storey County, Nevada. Because Googles disclosures do not pair water consumption data with the size of centers, technology used or indirect water consumption from power, these are simply partial views, with the big picture obscured. Given societys growing interest in AI, the data center industry will likely continue its rapid expansion. But without a consistent and transparent way to track water consumption over time, the public and government officials will be making decisions about locations, regulations and sustainability without complete information on how these massive companies hot and thirsty buildings will affect their communities and their environments. Peyton McCauley is a water policy specialist and Sea Grant UW Water Science-Policy Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Melissa Scanlan is a professor and director of the Center for Water Policy, School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
You can now look up skibidi, tradwife, and delulu in the Cambridge Dictionary. Among the 6,000 or so words added to the dictionary over the past year, these internet neologisms have now asserted their place in the English language, whether you like it or not. Most of these words are born from online culture and are popular among Gen Alphaitself a new addition, referring to people born in the 2010s. If you havent spent a lot of time on TikTok, heres a translation of some of the most chronically online language. Skibidi, confusingly, can have a number of different meanings, such as cool or bad, or can be used with no real meaning as a joke, according to the dictionary. The term was coined by the creator of Skibidi Toilet, a viral animated video series on YouTube (now being adapted into a Hollywood film) and has since taken on a life of its own. Curious how to use it in a sentence? The dictionary suggests What the skibidi are you doing? and That wasnt very skibidi rizz of you as some options. A play on the word delusional, delulu is defined as believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to. Popular on TikTok, with more than 150 million posts, the term has even found its way to the Parliament of Australia; Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used the phrase delulu with no solulu in a speech earlier this year, a surer sign than any that the internet lexicon has creeped into the mainstream. Much has been written about the tradwife phenomemon in recent years, so much so that the portmanteau for traditional wife has now been added to the dictionary. A tradwife is defined as a married woman, especially one who posts on social media, who stays at home doing cooking, cleaning, etc. and has children that she takes care of. The term was first popularized by influencers Hannah Neeleman of Ballerina Farm and Nara Smith, and has since gained steam with the MAGA sect, who espouse the benefits of a conservative way of life. The Cambridge Dictionary defines broligarchy, a mix of bro and oligarchy, as a small group of men, especially men owning or involved in a technology business, who are extremely rich and powerful, and who have or want political influence. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg were collectively described as broligarchs in much of the press coverage of their attendance at President Trumps inauguration in January 2025. “Internet culture is changing the English language, and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” lexical program manager Colin McIntosh told the BBC. Last year, the Cambridge Dictionarys word of the year was the viral online term manifest: to use methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want. Oxford University Press went with brain rot: the supposed deterioration of a persons mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. The Cambridge Dictionary uses a database of more than 2 billion words of written and spoken English to keep track of new language as it appears, as well as how often and in what contexts its used. “It’s not every day you get to see words like skibidi and delulu make their way into the Cambridge Dictionary,” McIntosh said. “We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power. While Im yet to hear skibidi used in a sentence by any of my peers, maybe I am just delulu.
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E-Commerce
Theres a new viral chocolate bar on the block. Angel Hair chocolate, created by Belgian brand Tucho, launched in December 2024 and ticks all the boxes for going viral online. Its white chocolate shell is dyed a pastel pink and delivers the all-important snap when broken apart, revealing pistachio cream and pişmaniye, a Turkish candy floss also known as angel hair. Depending on who you ask, its either a fun novelty or a sensory nightmare. @cee.stanley Its giving fairly oddparents vibes #tiktokshop #chocolate #viral #desert #sweettooth original sound – Cee.Stanley Angel Hair is riding the coattails of Fix Dessert Chocolatiers Cant Get Knafeh of It, better known simply as the Dubai chocolate bar. That confectionalso filled with pistachio cream, along with tahini and shredded phyllo doughlaunched in 2021 but didnt truly go viral until 2023, when food reviewer Maria Vehera posted a video unwrapping and tasting it, racking up more than 135 million views and sparking the Dubai chocolate craze. @mariavehera257 @fixdessertchocolatier WOW, JUST WOW!!! Cant explain how good these are! When a chocolate, a dessert and a piece of art meet this is what you get! “Can’t Get Knafeh of it,” “Mind Your Own Busicoff,” and “Crazy Over Caramel.” Order on Instagram Chatfood or Deliveroo and let me know whats your FIX? Instagram : fixdessertchocolatier #asmr #foodsounds #dubai #dubaidessert – Mariavehera Pistachio mania quickly spread. Stores limited sales due to pressure on the global pistachio supply chain compounded by major manufacturers jumping on the hype and introducing their own pistachio-based treats. To date, weve seen Dubai-chocolate-inspired cookies at Crumbl, shakes at Shake Shack, chocolate bars at Trader Joes, donuts at Krispy Kreme, and lattes at Dunkinand the pistachio hype is still going strong. While Dubai chocolate bars might just now be arriving at your local convenience store, the internet is already on to its next craze. Angel hair is soooo much better [than] the Dubai chocolate, one Reddit reviewer commented in r/snacking. Gas station by my house is selling them for $20 a piece, another wrote. Tasted it and honestly I love it. Despite copycat versions of the viral chocolate bar already cropping up, the availability of Angel Hair chocolate in the U.S. remains mostly online. The bar is listed on Walmarts website via third-party sellers, but you wont find it in stores. Of course, novelty confectionery is nothing new, but the winning formula seems to be both edible and Instagrammable, with a sprinkle of ASMR. Its easy to see why a bar thats pink, hairy, and pistachio-filled is proving popular with the little treat culture we currently exist in, with more than half of Gen Z confessing to purchasing a small treat for themselves at least once a week, according to a new survey from Bank of Americas Better Money Habits team. Even as grocery prices are rising and wages stagnating, the habit of indulging in small luxuries is hard to break. For many, a $20 pistachio-filled pink chocolate bar is still worth the splurgeeven if it is just to film their reaction.
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E-Commerce
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