Americans across multiple states are being urged to conserve water as drought conditions intensify, reservoirs shrink, and utilities issue increasingly urgent warnings. At the same time, a different kind of consumer is quietly demanding unprecedented...
Data centers use evaporative cooling because it’s cheap. Not recovering the water is what makes it cheap.
This is where regulations need to step in. The extra cost of non-evaporarive cooling is not going to make or break the datacenter, but it might cut into the CEO’s bonus. Make them pay for it! They’ve got the money.
This is the part where you need to realize that regulations only come into play long after devastating impacts occur and can’t be denied any longer (or, more accurately, until they can be denied again. See, the state of anti-trust in the US). Capitalism only exists because it can foist externalities onto the public. And capitalism will do anything to avoid paying for the externalities that allow them to “generate” profits.
This is where regulations need to step in. The extra cost of non-evaporarive cooling is not going to make or break the datacenter, but it might cut into the CEO’s bonus. Make them pay for it! They’ve got the money.
This is the part where you need to realize that regulations only come into play long after devastating impacts occur and can’t be denied any longer (or, more accurately, until they can be denied again. See, the state of anti-trust in the US). Capitalism only exists because it can foist externalities onto the public. And capitalism will do anything to avoid paying for the externalities that allow them to “generate” profits.