Sometimes, we are SOOO stoopid!

"If you have friends or relatives who live in Las Vegas, Pheonix or Tucson, don't be afraid to ask them some tough questions. Why? If they don't see the brick wall ahead when they are driving 100mph, maybe you should tell them. Tell them not to believe all the BS about data centers, tell them to learn the facts."

Much has been said and printed as of late about the unprecedented proliferation of data centers. All to stay ahead of the Chinese in the race for AI supremacy. The good news is these data centers are going up fast, and with little scrutiny. The bad news is many are going up where there is a dearth of power and/or water. Rather than approach this problem with eyes wide open, we have decided to race forward with eyes wide shut. And the most egregious example of this lack of planning, has been to make Pheonix, AZ the next super hub for water thirsty and energy hungry data centers.

Wait - since we are in a foot race against China, they must have the save issues. And they do. But rather than tripping along the path to major problems, they have come up with a clever idea. They want to submerge data centers off their coast. Why? Unlimited water for cooling. Energy to run the data centers would still be an issue, but at least they could cross water for cooling off the problem list.

In fact, it is not just Pheonix which has a water problem. The entire desert southwest has a huge problem which is not getting any better. What are we doing about that severe shortage of water for this growing area of the country? Not much, not much at all. What should we have done years ago? Desalination plants for a starter. With the Colorado River going dry, and the aquafers also running out of water, there really is no plan "B" right now. If Lake Meade recedes to a level called "dead pool", property values in many of the larger cities in the desert southwest will be worth pennies on the dollar. And the hundreds of billions of dollars to build all those data centers there? Gone with the wind.

Here is the bottom line - data centers are not new. We have been building them and using them for years. But now with the advent of AI, and the application of AI chips to just about everything, everywhere - we can't build data centers big enough nor fast enough. But without proper planning on how to inject a huge data center into a community without causing brown outs, black outs, or sky-high energy costs, data center(s) will become very unpopular very quickly.

If you have friends or relatives who live in Las Vegas, Pheonix or Tucson, don't be afraid to ask them some tough questions. Why? If they don't see the brick wall ahead when they are driving 100mph, maybe you should tell them. Tell them not to believe all the BS about data centers, tell them to learn the facts. And the first fact to learn, is sustainability. Why? Without sustainability, we have nothing. And as the old west settlers learned over 100 years ago, water is life. Without water, there is no life.