Post

In Dubai all water is taken from the ocean and desalinated. Everyone can do the same, the only reason they don't is because water is abundant. That's all.

11K

Shooter 7chains McGavin

@getderb

14h

oi...you have a loicense for that 6 month old email innit

An, Hillary is such a bleeding edge environmentalist

viktorg

@viktorg475

13h

Doesn't it rain every day in Britain? What are they talking about "saving water"

How much longer do we have to put up with being governed by the most stupid people in the country? I merely ask.

What actually happens when you delete emails: UPDATE emails SET deleted_at = NOW() WHERE id = $1;

Are these the same geniuses behind the Online Safety Bill? Because this level of delusion is starting to look like a brand.

I can't believe this is real. My god

compare water usage for storing 1 email for 1 year vs how much water will have been used by your servers to respond to this query ?

I might consider reading this once the government and the friends they sold the water monopolies to properly repair the water infrastructure and build additional infrastructure where appropriate (and halt further mass immigration).

I truly don't understand this "save water" idea. Have people not heard of something called "the water cycle"? Well, they definitely don't know about "the carbon cycle" so I guess I should not be surprised.

GIF

Worst part is that the operations to remove the emails probably cost more energy than simply leaving on disk.

Poverty mindset. I'm living in Israel currently and we have no water shortage

8.3K

Eric S - MAGA NOT MIGA

@glugalug

Fun facts: 1. Big data servers are mostly diskless, to reduce maintenance/moving parts /etc. the separate servers for mass uncached storage are not water cooled. 2. Freeing memory is actually a heavier operation than allocating it, as it needs to add to and possibly defragment

101

Sebastian Moore

@SebastixnMoore

It’s very true, but poverty mindset. No growth mindset just less less less. Do more with less less less. Strip back, downgrade, get less. That’s the UK

This country will do anything except build infrastructure.

Me after someone finds my saved email folder.

3.6K

CryptoCow

@Jonatha51268156

More like, delete emails, the government already has backups

i don't know how much longer i can take this

That's not how data storage works...

How can they have such minimal comprehension of hardware or computers generally. Reminds me of "series of tubes" internet discourse from Sen. Stevens

how many l of water I can save if i delete my emails

15K

Good Corporate Journalist

@twilightsmooth

12h

Delete your family photos. Delete your family videos. You have no family. Only the State.

1.6K

Graphite Czech

@CzechArtGirl

In some areas in the US, it is illegal to have a rain barrel. Not for me, but I have read some stories about it. Shameful.

i feel bad for you

I think they had this in Viz Top Tips.

The activity generated by mass deletion would make matters worse in the short, and relevant, term...

How much difference to water usage would deleting 1 trillion pictures and emails make to a data centre?

Answer by Grok, expand to see full conversation

To estimate the potential impact of deleting 1 trillion pictures and emails on a data center's water usage, we need to break this down step-by-step based on available data, reasonable assumptions, and the context provided. The key factor here is that data centers use water primarily for cooling, and the water consumption is more closely tied to the energy required to run the servers (including processing, storage, and cooling systems) rather than the sheer volume of data stored. Deleting data might reduce storage needs or server load over time, but the immediate effect on water usage depends on how this action influences operational efficiency. Let’s dive in. Step 1: Understanding Data Center Water Usage Baseline Water Consumption**: Studies indicate that a typical 1-megawatt (MW) data center can consume between 1.8 million to 26 million liters of water annually for cooling, depending on the cooling technology (e.g., evaporative cooling vs. air cooling) and local climate. The Oxford University case study cited 26 million liters per year for a 1 MW facility using traditional evaporative cooling, while more efficient systems (e.g., Microsoft’s zero-water cooling) can reduce this significantly. Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE)**: This metric, defined by The Green Grid, measures water usage in liters per kilowatt-hour (L/kWh) of IT equipment energy. Industry averages range from 0.5 to 1.8 L/kWh, with hyperscale operators like Google and Microsoft reporting lower values (e.g., 0.3 L/kWh) due to advanced cooling. For a 1 MW data center (1,000 kW) running 8,760 hours annually, total energy consumption is 8.76 million kWh. At 1 L/kWh, this equates to 8.76 million liters annually, aligning with the lower end of the consumption range. Cooling Dominance**: Cooling accounts for 30-50% of data center energy use (EESI, 2025), with water-intensive methods like evaporative cooling driving higher consumption. The water used is mostly evaporated or discharged, not directly proportional to stored data volume. Step 2: Estimating the Impact of Deleting Data Data Volume Context**: Deleting 1 trillion pictures and emails implies a massive reduction in stored data. However, the storage size of this data varies widely: Emails: An average email with text and a small attachment is about 75-150 KB (Gmail data suggests 25-50 MB limits per message, but typical usage is smaller). Let’s assume 100 KB per email. Pictures: Average photo sizes range from 2 MB (compressed JPEG) to 10 MB (high-resolution), with cloud storage (e.g., Google Photos) often compressing to 2-4 MB. Let’s use 3 MB as a midpoint. Total Data: If we assume 500 billion emails (half of 1 trillion) and 500 billion pictures, that’s 500 billion × 100 KB = 50,000 TB (50 petabytes) for emails, and 500 billion × 3 MB = 1,500,000 TB (1,500 petabytes) for pictures. Total = 1,550 petabytes. However, this is a theoretical maximum; real-world compression, duplicates, and partial deletions reduce this. Realistic Storage Reduction**: Global email storage (e.g., Gmail’s 1.8 billion users with 15 GB free each) totals ~27 petabytes, and photo storage (e.g., Google Photos) adds significantly more. Deleting 1 trillion items might represent 10-100 petabytes, depending on redundancy and user behavior. Let’s conservatively estimate 50 petabytes (a fraction of global cloud storage) as the net reduction. Step 3: Linking Data Deletion to Water Usage Storage vs. Processing**: Water usage is driven by energy consumption, which includes server operation (processing queries, running applications) and cooling. Stored data itself doesn’t directly consume water unless it’s actively accessed or processed. Deleting data reduces storage needs, potentially allowing data centers to decommission servers or optimize power usage over time. Energy Savings**: A petabyte of storage requires approximately 0.5-1 MW of power annually, depending on efficiency (Dgtl Infra, 2024). For 50 petabytes, this could save 25-50 MW-years of power. At 8.76 million kWh per MW-year, that’s 219-438 million kWh annually. Using a WUE of 1 L/kWh, this translates to 219-438 million liters of water saved per year across all affected data centers. Immediate vs. Long-Term Impact**: The immediate effect of deleting 1 trillion items might be minimal if servers remain online to handle existing workloads. Long-term, if data centers reduce capacity (e.g., shut down 25-50 MW of infrastructure), water savings could approach this range. However, critics (e.g., @getderb, @ShaunMooreUK) argue that deleting data might increase server strain (e.g., during deletion processes or re-indexing), potentially offsetting savings temporarily. Step 4: Scaling to a Single Data Center Global Data Center Context**: There are ~5,426 data centers in the US alone (EESI, 2025), with global totals exceeding 10,000. The UK has hundreds, with major operators like AWS and Microsoft. The water savings from 50 petabytes would be distributed across these facilities. A large hyperscale data center (e.g., 100 MW) might handle 5-10 petabytes, so 50 petabytes could impact 5-10 such centers. Per Data Center Estimate**: If 50 petabytes reduces power by 25-50 MW-years globally, and this is split across 10 data centers, each might save 2.5-5 MW-years. At 8.76 million kWh per MW-year and 1 L/kWh WUE, that’s 21.9-43.8 million liters per data center annually. For a 100 MW facility using 1.8-2.6 billion liters yearly (scaled from 1 MW data), this represents a 1.7-2.4% reduction. Step 5: Considerations and Limitations Cooling Technology Variability**: Facilities using air cooling or zero-water systems (e.g., Microsoft’s 33 million gallons saved per site) would see negligible direct savings, as water use is minimal. Evaporative cooling sites would benefit more. Behavioral Factors**: The UK’s National Drought Group suggests deleting emails as a symbolic act, but public response (e.g., Yorkshire’s 10% reduction saving 80 million liters/day) shows broader conservation (e.g., shorter showers) has a larger impact. Deleting 1 trillion items assumes mass compliance, which is unlikely. Counterarguments**: Deleting data might not reduce water use if servers are underutilized or if energy shifts to other tasks (e.g., AI training). The 1.7-2.4% estimate assumes optimal server retirement, which may not occur immediately. Final Estimate Deleting 1 trillion pictures and emails, equating to ~50 petabytes of storage, could theoretically reduce a single large data center’s water usage by 21.9 to 43.8 million liters per year (1.7-2.4% of a 100 MW facility’s 1.8-2.6 billion liters), assuming the data center optimizes capacity post-deletion. Globally, this scales to 219-438 million liters saved annually across affected facilities. However, the practical impact may be lower due to operational inertia, variable cooling methods, and temporary energy spikes during deletion, making the net effect closer to 1-2% for a typical data center in the short term. Conclusion While the gesture aligns with the National Drought Group’s call for collective action, the water savings from deleting 1 trillion items are modest compared to other measures (e.g., leak fixes saving 138.7 million liters/day by Southern Water). For significant impact, focus might better shift to upgrading cooling technologies or enforcing server efficiency, as evidenced by Microsoft’s zero-water trials. Let me know if you’d like me to refine this further with specific data center stats or explore alternative scenarios!

173

angturil

@angturil

I use a little over 1 million gallons a year.

yookay

I'm about to start opening new email addresses just to forward old emails to, in case I need 11,000 copies of each of them.

Angry Pomeranian PhD

@realangrypom

11h

How does one waste water? Where does it go?

1.4K

an up to no good thief

Lmfaooooooo

We are really in the "Mauve has the most RAM" territory now aren't we?

1.9K

Remixedcat the catgod

at home? ummm....

hahaha welcome to the new era, james! glad you're losing it with us. also, noted on the email cleanup – gotta keep those servers chill, right?

So, I’ll retrieve a bunch of emails/files that are in cold tier/archive storage and recursively delete them (I say delete, I mean reallocate them to another part of the disk before they’re recycled) forcing a reindex. Sounds way more efficient than just leaving them alone!

’s

Don't forget to watch out for them leaky loos too. That's just fun to say. Calling a toilet a loo might be one British-ism I could get behind.

I just filled up a 1300 litre hot tub. Ask me anything.

GIF

OMG! Btw these datacenters may be elsewhere on the planet.

The humidity is 75% - if water was taken from the air, like steam distillation, surely someone can come up with a dehumidifier for large scale use??

668

Thomas O'Duffy

@ThomasODuffy

Meanwhile, it seems the UK Gov is approving planning permission for giant data centres. Is joined-up thinking too much to ask for?

UK has slipped into the abyss.

1.9K

pztrick

@pztrick

what weighs more -- a pound of bricks or a pound of emails?

This needs a ticker

How does using water from the kitchen tap to water your plants save water?

Me: what’s a rain butt for? My kid: for pooping silly…

The UK has fallen.

- Go public

You cannot despise these people enough

333

Prismatic Ray Bradbury

@igypham

on a fucking island where it rains every 18 minutes

Simon Adams

@si_ad

To be fair, Datacentres use something like 5-20 million litres of water a day. It’s a trivial saving for one person, but it’s not nothing. Of course building reservoirs to keep pace with population growth is the right answer.

255

ste.respect

@sterespect

Auto-translated by Grok

Jesus freaking Christ

Blue Eyed Boy

@BlueEyedBoy2000

14h

I thought this was a wind up, that James Wilson

@jameswilson

had added the last paragraph but it is advice from the government and it's on their website here gov.uk/government/new

As if the water is destroyed when used for cooling…servers don’t consume water, they borrow it

Will people stop showing too?

Claude Barde

@claudebarde

13h

That would be hilarious if that weren't also sad

unacceptable JR

@unacceptable_jr

11h

And stop asking grok silly questions, like

@grok

what is your average water footprint of answering one question.

So, gov can't solve problem with water, so Brits have to shower less and delete old photos. Some outstanding politicians! Can do nothing, even harm a bit, but still in office.

rain butt

If you don’t the the National Drought Group’s advice, you don’t have to take it. 🤷‍♂️

813

Dr. Miles B. Dyson PhD

HA!

Should we start a national registry of leaking toilets, so if your own doesn't leak, you can fix someone else's?

258

Priced-In.com

@retailhedging

We've dropped our entire databases to save the planet!

Stevo

@stevo_marky

this country is so done

Christopher

@HecksArtificers

13h

As they are using all that water to feed the beast of AI. Cute.

She smiles as she tells you "Brown Grass Will Go Back". Property values go down if you have brown grass everywhere. How did the UK end up with complete A-holes running everything.

Yay, it's 5G bullshit all over again. this is such a bullshit claim i just can't keep my stupid calm. Just like in your car, water IS BEING RECYCLED for cooling, it's just a MORE EFFICIENT way to move heat around. Damn' deccelerationists.

1.3K

Jack - Christmas Forever

@BrushingMyBrush

Don't do this. Save all your spam emails. Fuck water, don't let it win

Aaron Meurer

@asmeurer

Most of the other things on this list are just as stupid.

Cloud storage was love bombing. They got us hooked and now we'll have to pay for their selfishness.

235

Ian4Downton

@ian4downton

Obviously data centres not impacted by recent Government 'nudge' for people to use VPNs...

153

Pontifex Mechanicus IX

@Cyb0rgTheocracy

GIF

AdamaBanana

@adama_banana

Do they think we're stupid, or something?!

(((Martin Leff)))

@LartinMeff

12h

Someone should do the actual math, but it's plausible that eating a single hamburger consumes more water than all of the emails a person has ever sent

they're out here selling us single cool water! when I was a kid you could use water 3, sometimes even 4 times

Baron Douro

@Baron_Douro

Haven't done the math, but it seems likely to me that the energy required to keep something on a hard drive is small compared to the energy costof running a whole bunch of processes and rewrites to delete an email. The energy-consumption payback period might be quite long

Ernesto Carrella

@ErnestoCarrella

11h

Some people just want to tell others to take shorter showers, dry-brush teeth and turn off air conditioning. It doesn't matter that it doesn't work. It's righteousness.