During the drought, the British government prepared recommendations for citizens. One of them is bizarre
Why connect an e-mail box with water at all? The mechanism is theoretically simple. When we store data in the cloud, they physically lie on hard disks in the servers, in data centers. Many of these objects cool down with the help of evaporation, so they use water. Hence The suggestion that the less data, the less cooling and less water consumption.
The problem is that in practice this relationship is trace and it is difficult to show that mass deletion of files in any measurable way affects water consumption in individual data centers. Even Industry media and experts assessed the government's clue as misleading and not very sensible – Noticing that maintaining already saved data generates negligible additional heat, and the energy (and water) cost can be higher at the time of active processing or transferring data than at rest.
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Less data is not necessarily less water
The scale of data centers problem is large, but not in the inbox. Data centers can be “thirsty” and academic estimates or public organizations say that even a relatively small 1 MW object can use about 26 million liters of water per year (partly directly for cooling, partly indirectly – in electricity production).
In the largest hyperskal facilities Daily consumption is calculated in millions of liters. However, whether e-mail deletion reduces this consumption depends on specific cooling technologies, local infrastructure and … places where our data is actually stored-often abroad.
Much greater impact on water consumption has what is processed in data centers: calculations, inference of AI models, video streaming or intensive search and playing large portions of data. The latest environmental analysis of Mistral AI has shown that generating answers with a length of about 400 tokens is associated with an average with a consumption of about 45 ml of water (indirectly and directly). These are individual values, but with millions of queries a day they add up to a real scale. In other words, limiting energy and water-absorbing applications (e.g. intensive use of generative AI) probably gives a greater effect than mass deletion of archival messages from the mailbox.
At the same time, the industry accelerates the implementation of solutions that reduce or eliminate water in cooling – from closed liquid systems, through precise cooling of chip, to declarations of resignation from evaporation in regions with high water stress. A large supplier of collocation, Equinix, has already announced that he avoids highly water -absorbing technologies In the areas of the deficit, and Microsoft boasts of draft data centers with zero water consumption for cooling.
From the perspective of public policies, the enforcement of technological standards and the wise location of objects (and the use of non -unit water) than the appeal for cleaning user disks.
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“Digital hygiene” was criticized
The government entry of NDG has compiled “digital hygiene” next to sensible home recommendations. However, he quickly caused a counterrection, from cool analyzes to mockery. It was indicated that The potential profit is immeasurable, and the advice on removing e-mails can even undermine confidence in the rest of the campaignbecause it distracts attention from real levers – repair of leaks, investments in infrastructure or limitations of the most water -absorbing computational applications. Criticism appeared both in technological titles and in the mainstream media.
Will similar tips appear in other countries? It's possible – and it is already happening. As AI is pushing in the economy, and the construction of new data centers campuses accelerates, Water begins not only in places of traditional drought.
The public debate is transferred from energy and CO2 also to water, and regulators in some regions consider reporting and reduction of consumption. So there are both campaigns around the so -called digital minimalism, as well as real, hard adjustment tools. This is the latter – along with technological innovations and transparency of consumption data – they have a chance to bring a tangible effect.
If you want to help in the aquatic crisis here and now, decisions directly regarding water in the house and the surrounding area will have a greater effect: shortening of the shower, removing leaks, the use of rainwater, and understandable from official guidelines. However, the cleaner's cleaning is worth treating at most as a symbolic gesture – sensible on the occasion of digital orders, but not as the main strategy of water saving.
Real pressure should go towards companies and authorities to limit water -absorbing cooling techniques in deficit regions, introduce closed circuits or increase the use of gray waters and improve the efficiency of calculations. Especially in the rapidly growing AI segment.
The slogan “Remove old e-mails to save water” sounds good in the header, but in practice it is trace. The scale of the water trace of data centers is real, but it is primarily driven by intensive calculations and technological choices of operators, and not whether the average user has 5 or 50 thousand in the box. the news.
Author: Grzegorz Kubera, Business Insider Polska journalist
