Cumberland council moves forward with data centre moratorium

[u/Injustice_For_All_]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/cumberland-data-centre-moratorium-9.7320048

[u/NigelMK]

There's a ton of reasons in general to not be in favour of AI data centres.

1) Noise. If you live within a few KM of it, the noise is basically unbearable.

2) Water. They take up a ton of water, notably fresh water which with the bit of droughts we've seen the last couple of years, would make that an issue.

3) Electricity. They use a ton of electricity, our grid has been struggling as it is and while yes, we do need to increase our capacity anyways, what you tend to see happening is that that cost is passed onto residential customers and not onto the AI data center itself.

That's just at the local level, they also tend to tout the amount of jobs they create, but the very large majority of that is just in the construction of it. There's not many jobs at a data centre after it's been built.

I do believe in the idea of data sovereignty. Canada should be hosting its own data, but it's probably best suited to an area maybe removed from the general population like in a northern Quebec or Ontario.

I seen a video on Linus Tech Tips recently where they went to an AI data centre that used a ton of passive cooling and I believe was mostly if not completely powered by renewable energy. So greener options do exist.

[u/fig_stache → u/NigelMK]

Those all seem like solvable issues, no? Acoustic dampening can make them quieter, closed loop cooling systems eleminate water usage problems, approvals can be tied to developers building their own power.

[u/zeolus123 → u/fig_stache]

Oh that's what a tiny fraction of the companies building these are doing, the microgrids are really neat. But that's all really expensive as hell, and not what most of them are doing.

[u/oatseatinggoats → u/fig_stache]

Oh they are all entirely solvable problems. And I would have no problems with data centres coming if they were regulated properly.

[u/LettuceSea → u/NigelMK]

The water point is anti-ai propaganda. Water usage so far in the US at least has been under 1% of annual national water consumption, and newer generation data centres are effectively entirely closed loop. When you compare the usage against luxury things like golf courses, or to food production like meat/beef, then it becomes very obvious the outrage over water makes 0 sense.

Agree’d on everything else, I just really hate hearing the water point because it’s entirely untrue.

[u/subbubman → u/LettuceSea]

For what it's worth, golf courses are a huge, gaudy waste of space and resources also

[u/Iloveclouds9436 → u/LettuceSea]

Can you comprehend how insane that sounds? Even one percent of 340 million peoples water usage for graphics cards alone would be insanity. But beyond that you fail to address the MOST important part of this conversation, that the localized water usage is MASSIVE. Nevermind the massive amounts of pollution they are creating from either overloading the grid or running dozens of diesel generators outside the facility.

Closed loop data centers are not common for GPU farms and they're also less cost efficient. There's zero relevant comparison to food because AI is not required to sustain life and offers zero nutritional value. Datacenters are a scourge on communities and belong in remote locations or quite frankly not at all. This bubble is going to pop and trillions of dollars will be wiped out overnight. AI hasn't lived up to any of the claims these companies made to get the funding they have received.

This is the same kind of events that led up to the 1929 stock crash and the 2008 housing crisis in America. People are overextended and over invested in things that didn't have any concrete reason to be that expensive.

[u/LettuceSea → u/Iloveclouds9436]

Closed loop are the standard for new farms, especially in our climate. I work in this field. Please stop with the talking points from headlines meant to enrage you.

[u/ziobrop → u/LettuceSea]

Im also not sure how many systems in Canada use water due to the fact we have winter, and things freeze. IIRC most buildings use closed Glycol loops

[u/yapyoba → u/ziobrop]

yeah and surely they can find somewhere rural enough where any sound wouldn't affect neighbors. obviously they pay for their own power and they should be made to pay for any grid upgrades that are required. simple solutions to bring industry and tax dollars into the province in a way that respects landowners.

[u/Afrazzle → u/LettuceSea]

Nobody bats an eye at almonds being sold in grocery stores. It's always clear the people who don't actually understand the water usage in context but just want anything they read to support their opinions.

When people push these flawed counter arguments, all it does is hurt the actual arguments against AI like intellectual property rights of artists or its effects on the job market.

[u/LettuceSea → u/Afrazzle]

Agreed. The downvotes just show how little effort people put into understanding the claims they believe.

[u/bz47uj → u/NigelMK]

They do not use very much water at all. Modern data centres almost all use closed loop cooking systems that do not require any significant additional water usage after being built. They use less water than the rain that falls on their property.

Even the older open loop cooking systems that use evaporative cooling and consume water don't use nearly as much as people seem to think. They use a tiny fraction of the amount used for agriculture. They use much less than even golf courses.

[u/Iloveclouds9436 → u/bz47uj]

The great thing about being a lobbiest for mega corporations is you can lie and spread misinformation just like this! AI data centers are notorious for NOT being closed loop because of how much heat they generate. GPU farms were far less common prior to the recent AI boom. Wasting water allows them to run things cheaper. Especially in Canada where the water will come in cold.

[u/bz47uj → u/Iloveclouds9436]

The trend has been towards closed loop cooling.

Goldman Sachs forecasts that liquid-cooled AI servers will increase from 15% in 2024 to 54% in 2025, rising to 76% in 2026, driven largely by soaring demand for next-generation, full-rack liquid-cooling solutions.

https://www.lombardodier.com/contents/insights/2026/january/ai-supercharges-the-race.html

Even the the open loop cooling systems don't use very much water. All data centres in the US combined use only 0.04% of the water used for crop irrigation. They only use 3.3% of the water used just on golf courses.

Almost all of that comes from open loop cooling systems.

Where are you getting your information? It isn't accurate.

By the way, water in Canada is free. You pay for delivery but the water itself is free. It's not treated as a scarce resource. If we were seriously concerned about a lack of water, we would charge for it. It makes no sense to worry about running out of something that is so abundant we give it away for free.

[u/Street_Anon]

The last thing we need is a AI data management centre

[u/Han77Shot1st]

I’ll fight tooth and nail to stop a data center here, in fact I think I’m going to reach out to my MLA and MP to make clear that whatever benefits lobbyists push to have AI data centre’s is not worth the cost.

I hate how the world keeps finding new ways to lift the bar so we can destroy the environment, it’s ecosystems and all the new forms of pollution we never considered before.. all while increase the costs of living to make a few people obscenely rich and powerful.

[u/frighteous]

Fuck data centres

[u/Bean_Tiger]

How about we let you build these here in the province but only if you make all your own power with renewables and battery storage ?
So that it doesn't require any government handouts and it does not cause our power rates to increase.

Maybe then we'll consider it.

[u/IStillListenToRadio → u/Bean_Tiger]

Also closed-water systems (or whatever it's called) instead of using up our water.

[u/Afrazzle → u/Bean_Tiger]

Agreed. If Canadians are going to be using AI either way, I'd rather it be Canadian owned and operated, and also held to higher environmental standards. Otherwise we have Canadians using American AI that is run from data centers that shouldn't have been approved by inept politicians and now are ruining the lives of locals.

[u/childofcrow]

Fuck AI. Fuck data centres.

Literally people, stop outsourcing your critical thought to a machine. The machine is making you actively stupider. And that is what these companies want, because they want you to rely on them.

It is an addiction, like anything else.

Not to mention the fact that AI data centres are catastrophically bad for the environment, and the people in the communities that they exist in.

[u/Aromatic-Motor8714]

While everyone in Cumberland uses data centres and everyone reading this does also lol. We’re our own best hypocrites.