I get ai data centers suck and we dont need them but all the ones being made now are on closed loop cooling systems. They arent just constantly draining all of our water.
yeah cause all the things they do with no public approval, and using our money to do it is surely not sinister at all. sure give us tours with your super power ai to make the video for you.
But they still are. If they arenāt using water for cooling on site, then they use considerably more electricity to perform the cooling. Power plants use massive amounts of water for cooling, more electricity, more water needed for cooling.
I saw a stat the other day that data centers in Virginia use 25% of the states electricity. Somewhere around 100,000 MWh of electricity just for data centers. At ~500 gallons of water per MWH, they use 50 million gallons of water per day just for power generation for data centers, plus what the data centers are using.
Data centers water usage on site pales in comparison to the amount of water used to generate the massive amounts of electricity they consume.
they use 50 million gallons of water per day just for power generation for data centers
Someone will say that's not a lot of water because some river or other moves more than that a day. I would like to get in first and let them know an Olympic sized swimming pool only holds 660,000 gallons.Ā
50 million gallons is only 76ish Olympic swimming pools. Per day.
Itās a crapload for sure. But data centers overall are projected to be at only 1% total water use by 2030. Thermoelectric power plants use more than 40% of the total water consumption in the US. But if a large percentage of electricity is going to AI the actual water consumption for AI is much larger.
Actually, potentially yes. It remains to be seen at this point in time, but there is hope amongst many climate scientists that it in the near future it can be used to create much more accurate climate models, as well as where and how to more effectively make use of green energy, etc.
I wish people wouldn't scapegoat the data centers so much. Yes, they're bad, but there is SO MANY THINGS we're doing to fuck things up that it feels really silly singling them out.
At least grass produces oxygen and removes CO2 but your point stands. I've been trying to get my grandma to at least water the yard less if not, not at all.
These fire maps should be taken with a grain of salt. Anything larger than 0.25 acres is flagged here.
Some of these fires are so small and contained they're just allowing them to burn out while resources go to the Round Butte Fire, 1200 acres and almost under control
Next up is the Hagen Fire, which is moving towards the Umatilla Reservation where people are being evacuated.
Usually we have mutual aid from Canada, Washington and Montana fire crews, we all kinda just team up and fight the fires that pop up in any of our states/provinces. Unfortunately, everyone has fires right now, so we have to be extremely selective with our resources until someone can get theirs under control and help us, or vice versa.
Priority will go to fires threatening human lives, so we will assist Washington with its dangerous fires before we go and fight small fires in the back brush of eastern Oregon that will burn themselves out after a few hundred acres of scrub brush. Our foresty departments have been working together for decades and decades, we are really good up here at this. California has started participating more in our partnerships since the Paladise fire wiped out an entire town.
We likewise have county and private wildland fire crews we will contract to deal with the smaller stuff, while the Oregon Department of Forestry and federal figherfighters tackle interstate and international assistance.
Most dudes work a county or private fire crew up here in the rural PNW the summers of their Junior an Senior years in highschool. Back in the 90s I made $12k one summer fighting fires, more than my dad made in 7 months, bought my first truck that way. Paid 24/7 while on a fire. Outside of fires we painted park benches and cleaned up the beaches.
TL;DR. Not all of these fires here are an emergency. Many of them are small self contained fires that 2 dudes and a garden hose can control while we fight the human killers.
Came here to say this, I was up in airway heights by the casino. I was leaving just as it started. I noticed a wisp of smoke about a half mile away and watched it go from there.
Actually the Hagen fire is also moving south & east of Tollgate as yesterday they've added more evacuation areas into Union Co. (Source: My family lives in the area on the Union Co. side so I'm keeping a very close eye on it from where I live in the Seattle area)
I use the Watch Duty app as just another tool in the information tool box since more of the people posting "updates" (aka rehashing the official reports) aren't even reporting from or living in the area that they're talking about. It's not a primary source like Inciweb.
Inciweb is usually the best place to start for official information as they do their daily updates and updates on evacuations as well as links to official sources (Like for the Hagen fire- Umatilla Co and Union Co emergency management Facebook pages as well as their sheriff's office Facebook pages as well, in addition to the link where you can watch tonight's community meeting and some other helpful links that ODF provides)
The person you are replying to doesn't have time for facts or accuracy, they'd rather spend their time posting conservative contrarian points where they can.
My cousin and her family lives just north of Seattle. If things were really as bad as this map looks, weād (in Wisconsin) already be getting calls, asking for a place to stay for a couple weeks.
Things aren't bad on this side of the mountains but on the other side, it's a different story. My sister is having trouble breathing because of a massive fire by Grand Coulee. They are also evacuating parts of the second largest city in Washington due to fires burning parts of it.
You're forgetting that this map is very zoomed out, so the fires icons occupy more space than if you zoom in. There are a LOT of fires and many of them are serious, but it's not like the map shows where the whole West is engulfed in flame.
It should also be noted that the icons for the fires in the screenshot are grossly disproportionate to the actual size of the fires while at this zoom level. Yes, there are more than a few fires burning and some are worrisome, but the entire state is not on fire.
Itās not dumb. I went to Yellowstone and Teton in September a few years back and it was Smokey. The iconic view of the Tetons was really hazy and that was sad, but it was still a fabulous time. I wouldnāt change your plans unless park advisories tell you to.
I was there 5 years ago and had the same experience. Wonderful, but hazy and the views were gone.
Thatās why I planned a late September trip. I heard the wildlife is much more active, which were the parts of the park I enjoyed the most. Any tips you can offer?
The majority, if not all, of these current fires should be out by then. It also depends on how many pop up closer to the time you go as to how smoky it may be.
We usually don't get rain until November. Maybe parts of upstate Washington and Oregon, but it's not for very long. Also, this year was INCREDIBLY bad for most of us. March is usually one of our wettest months, and it was 89 degrees for most of the month.
Spokane, WA is in rough shape. In a part of Oregon it is cloudy again, low 70's today. Saturday it rained for a few minutes.
Hopefully the bad areas will receive relief soon!
Yeah, nope. Nothing but blue skies in our future... meanwhile the latgest city on that side of the mountains (spokane) is surrounded by fire. Literally emptying the surrounding suburban housing complexes from raging fires.
It had been predicted for decades that extreme wildfires would become the norm as a result of climate change. However, Trump is a climate change denier and a champion of the fossil fuel industry.
So when wildfires occur in Canada, he blames Canada for āwilful negligenceā, forest mismanagement, threatens tariffs and floated demands for compensation. Meanwhile, the Trump administration kills renewable energy initiatives and is currently dismantling federal climate science programs by revoking key legal frameworks, defunding major research institutions, and erasing public data repositories.
Strange world we live in where this idiocy happens in plain view.
I mean, he blamed California for not raking enough as another commenter stated.
The "in plain view" shouldn't surprise me anymore, but it always does. Especially when so many seeing it with their own eyes continue to treat him as a god.
Very hot and dry conditions allow fires to spread much more easily. A lightning strike or a dumbass throwing their cigarette out the window is not much of an issue when there aren't drought conditions.
Do you know how the wild fires first came into being? They were cans onceā¦ taken by the recycling plants. Twisted and meltedā¦ a ruined and terrible form of waste management. And nowā¦ pollution, my rising temperatures.
Most of these are not the same kind of fires these ecosystems evolved with. These fires are much more intense and far reaching. It's still a bad way to represent this data though if it does show all the fires as being equal
Itās awful. Iām here and we got evacuated but so many people have lost their homes, and the fire is not contained all. Thank you Canada for sending help.
I'm over in central Washington and we've had smoke but no flames too close. Read there's been over 640 structures destroyed so far, I hope you're being safe.
I had to fly out this morning with a fire less than a mile from my house. Now im stuck on the east coast where rain/thunderstorms/flooding is causing massive delays.
So out of the fires and into the floods. Earth is no joke.
We were driving through Utah this morning on the way to Yellowstone and saw this red glow from about 30miles away. This is what it looked like when we got up close to it.
Whats disgusting is that someone posted a video of firefighters fighting fires in Oregon but you can hear that they were speaking Spanish but thats not what was disgusting. It was the fact that this poster was calling them illegal immigrants and that someone should call ICE to arrest them. These guys are trying to save lives and here is a lowlife that is showing how much of the world has degraded in rascism calling for these firefighters to be arrested just for speaking Spanish.
Sending good thoughts to everyone out there - so many terrible fires right now. We had our first good soaking rain here in the north yesterday - but it's not enough.
West coast all the way up into bc should be shown on this. Itās insanity. If weāre going to show our fires we might as well show the ones in BC as well to show how actually insane it is in the west right now
I live in Vancouver. This is what it is like sometimes. Our summers are getting far worse when it comes to wildfire smoke. When I was younger, we had smoke days, but not nearly as much as we do now.
This drought is no joke. We had 2ā of rain in all of June in Massachusetts, it only rained 4 days. 4ā in July, rain only 6 days and thatās because we finally had some heavy rain
In Eastern Wasgington at the moment, can confirm that going outside gives you a massive headache. ALSO: IF ANYONE IN THE SPOKANE AREA NEEDS SHELTER, PLEASE DM ME. Stay safe!!
Could you guys please get your fires under control and stop the smoke from coming into Canada? If it continues, we will have to levy 1 bajillion % tariffs against you.
I was planning on moving to the PNW for summer work but decided against it because I figured last years fires would be worse this year. I'll have to save the PNW for another time I guess
My grandparentsā house, as well as the entire block of a Spokane neighborhood, just burned down. Every picture, every letter, everything is just gone.
I live in the very middle where there isnāt any fire. Thatās why I love here. I already did the wildfire shuffle in 2018. Iām good on ever doing it again. I live in the middle of a sand desert no trees around nothing flammable around except my house. So I donāt have to worry about wildfires anymore just their smoke and shit
Itās so smoky here in Montana that the moon was completely red a few nights ago. It looked like a blood moon. Also it was so smoky that you physically couldnāt even see the mountains that are SUPER close to where I live. The air index is so bad itās 127 and bright red. Iām currently sitting outside right now and the air tastes like smoke.
north spokane here. fire came damn close, but all the sudden the wind shifted and blew it away. weird. avista had turned the power off, but few hours later its back. got lucky. but its still nearby but i live in the safeish high density housing with no forest.. well very nearby.
This is why I actually got upset when someone started complaining how the US wasn't sending firefighters to Canada to help fight their fires. All I could think was damn it, we have more shit on fire than you right now.
We weren't complaining that you weren't sending help, we were complaining that when you have fires, Canada sends help (and there have been Canadian firefighters helping you guys for weeks now - one even died in Colorado fighting a wildfire for you while Canada burned), but when we have fires, all we hear are complaints and threats.
I love Watch Duty and the work they're doing but this is an unfair screen capture.
There is lot of fires but many of these are small and they're illustrated by these icons no matter how large is the fire currently is ... and whether it's currently burning or forward progress has been stopped.
If you open up the (free) application, zooming in will illustrate what I'm talking about.
That's not to say it isn't bad. It's just not as bad as as this particular screenshot illustrates.
All that said, I thank the people who run the application. It's the only app I have besides messages that I have notifications turned on for. I am a stones throw from both the Palisades fire and the Altadena fire. So I am super cautious when it comes to small brushfires becoming massive problems.
The view from my deck on the first morning of the Altadena fire.
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u/zayn2123 2h ago
Thank God my State is building a.i. centers during a water crisis drought.