Case in point, Microsoft’s water use shot up from 6.4 million cubic meters in 2022 to 7.8 in 2023, in large part due to the “construction of more data centers.”

By way of comparison, the California almond industry uses 3.5 billion cubic meters of water per year. Describing datacenters as using “astronomical amounts of water” is a plain and simple lie.

Moreover, datacenters can be cooled with water that’s not suitable for most other uses. Google’s Finland datacenter is cooled with seawater, for example.

Zuckerberg has a moral defect. Evil is not a medical problem.

If it’s unified under the federal government, then an asshole president can mess with it.

If it’s distributed, with states and major cities having their own instances, then it’s more asshole-resistant.

For what it’s worth, getting in the habit of making excuses for one’s use is part of alcoholism.