THX 1138 was one of George Lucas’s
early films. It takes place in an
underground dystopia, where genderless people live out their days toiling for
unseen technocrats in pharmaceutical-fueled apathy. Their work consists of manufacturing the
robots who serve as the enforcers of their slavery.
That last
part is especially relevant for Louisiana at this moment in time, as news of a
gigantic new AI data center to be built by Meta (owner of Facebook and
Instagram) in Richland Parish is being reported by various media outlets.
Of course,
the usual hoopla about jobs, revenue, etc., is being thrown around like a
barrel-full of Mardi Gras trinkets:
‘According
to a term sheet between Laidley and the Northwest Louisiana Finance Authority,
capital investment into the data center campus could be between $5 billion and
over $10 billion. The term sheet estimates the project could create between 300
and 500 jobs’ (Katie Fehrenbacher, ‘Meta planning big data center in
Louisiana’, axios.com).
But
Louisianans shouldn’t let ourselves be blinded by such surface-level
considerations. There are real concerns
with AI and the data centers that feed it:
1. AI data centers are water hogs: ‘The AI boom is fueling the demand for data
centers and, in turn, driving up water consumption. (Water is used to cool the
computing equipment inside data centers.) According to FT, in Virginia — home to the world’s largest
concentration of data centers — water usage jumped by almost two-thirds between
2019 and 2023, from 1.13 billion gallons to 1.85 billion gallons.
‘Many say
the trend, playing out worldwide, is unsustainable. Microsoft, a major data
center operator, says 42% of the water it consumed in 2023 came from “areas
with water stress.” Google, which has among the largest data center footprints,
said this year that 15% of its freshwater withdrawals came from areas with
“high water scarcity”’ (Kyle Wiggers, ‘Demand for AI is driving data center
water consumption sky high’, techcrunch.com).
This is a
major concern for Northeast Louisiana, where the Sparta aquifer has seen
dramatic depletion over the last several decades. Here are just a few of the details:
‘In 1960,
USGS, in cooperation with Louisiana Department of Transportation and
Development, began reporting water withdrawals and usage data every five years
(14), allowing analysis of trends. Declining potentiometric levels within the
Sparta due to pumping have been plotted on maps for more than 35 years. (Ref.
12 and Sec. 7.a.1. of this paper) By 1965, withdrawals had formed cones of
depression at Minden, Jonesboro-Hodge, Monroe, Bastrop, and Farmerville.(15)
Since 1980, the deepening and expanding cones of depression in Monroe, Bastrop,
and Farmerville have coalesced, forming a trough between El Dorado and Monroe
regions.(6) Figure 17 shows average water level declines from one to four feet
per year, increasing eastward.
. . .
The rest is
at https://thehayride.com/2024/11/garlington-louisianas-thx-1138-moment/.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us
sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
