ERIC CRAMPTON: For a bit of perspective
- Administrator
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans know the dangers of having a sense of proportion. Appreciating our own insignificance relative to the infinity of creation is fatal.
But would it really kill us to have a better sense of proportion about other things?
It is currently fashionable to worry about datacentres’ water use and pester people about the water-cost of their AI queries.
Datagrid’s new datacentre in Southland has permission to take up to 220 million litres of groundwater per year. It does not expect to use nearly that much. Southland has a cool climate, and rooftop rainwater collection could suffice. But on a hot day, if the rooftop tanks are empty, it could need up to 7 litres per second. That rate, for every second of the year, would mean ‘up to 220 million litres per year’.
But suppose it really did take the full 220 million litres. Would that be a big number? Let’s get some perspective.
The Wanaka Golf Club recently had consent to take up to 126 million litres of water per year. The Hastings Golf Club could take almost 15 million litres per week.
So the datacentre’s maximum water take is higher than some golf courses and much lower than others.
Splash Planet waterpark in Hastings has had consent for up to 125 million litres, and a single 40-hectare vineyard at Bridge Pa has had consent to take up to about 128 million litres: so roughly two waterparks or two vineyards to the datacentre.
Wowsers could have a new reason to bother people: do you know how many litres of irrigation it took to produce the bottle you’re drinking?
Drinking is bad but eating is worse. The datacentre’s maximum water use is still much lower than that of a meatworks. It’s also about a quarter of the average Canterbury irrigation consent. Irrigation consents in Canterbury would be enough for more than 20,000 datacentres.
Going vegetarian will not wash you clean. The water consent for the Heinz-Watties plant in Hawke’s Bay has been big enough for about 40 datacentres. And a single apple orchard in Hawke's Bay has had consent to take more than 2 datacentres’ worth.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide, the Total Perspective Vortex, which lets you see your own insignificance, was fatal.
A little perspective on water use would only risk some scolds’ sense of self-satisfaction.
I think that risk is worth it.
Eric Crampton is Chief Economist at the New Zealand Initiative
With respect for Mr. Crampton and other economists, i do not have much confidence in their predictions and suggestions. I rather suspect that Warren Buffett understood them fairly well. Of course there are exceptions. Warren Buffett generally ignores economic forecasts, famously stating that economists offer little value to investors and that "any company that has an economist has one employee too many". He argues that economists are poor at market timing and that, despite their high IQs, they rarely produce super-wealthy investors. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Key Quotes and Views on Economists:
On Hiring Economists: "We think any company that has an economist has one employee too many".
On Their Investing Ability: "Can you name me one super-wealthy economist that's ever made money out of securities?…
thanks for the perspective; I remember the fierce fight in the Hawke Bay over a proposed dam at Ruataniwha to catch winter water and have it available for summer; what a preposterous idea.
Yes --- 220 million litres of water sounds a lot but it is just the annual rainfall on a 20 Hectare Southland paddock.
The total amount of water on Earth has remained relatively constant for billions of years, but the amount of available fresh water on land is decreasing rapidly. While the planet itself is not losing all its water, human activity and climate change are causing a significant, "unprecedented" decline in freshwater stored in lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Here is a breakdown of the current water situation:
Total Water (Constant): The total volume of water in, on, and above the Earth has not changed significantly in billions of years. Water is constantly recycled through the atmosphere, oceans, and land.
Freshwater (Decreasing): Satellite data from NASA's GRACE-FO missions shows that terrestrial water storage—including soil moisture, snow, and ice—has been dropping since 2002.
Thanks, Eric for putting matters into perspective. Of course, the nutters who want to stop everything that produces wealth or recreation for NZ and its people, will now probably turn their attention to having golf, water pleasure parks, vineyards etc banned for the good of the planet. Such are nutters.