AI's Water Footprint: Protests Rise as Data Center Demands Grow

Residents in states like Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona are protesting data center expansion, citing water use, energy consumption, and pollution. Data centers rely partly on evaporative cooling—similar to human sweating—because processors can reach internal temperatures up to 176°F. However, the true scale of AI's water consumption is murky: public claims range from 500 ml per chatbot query to dismissals of any problem, and tech companies' own reports are incomplete and inconsistent.