Hi there everyone,
Let me start this by saying that this is an honest question. I figure nobody would be better suited to answer my question than a group laser-focused on the negatives of the technology.
I see these types of memes a lot and see statistics of gallons consumed in a lot of articles I read. What I don't understand though is where the water goes that it can't be reclaimed or naturally return from a gas to a liquid.
As a kid(long ago), I was taught of the cycle of rain and the conversion between gases and liquid. It's my understanding that when a liquid is used to cool something, it also follows the same conversion process as it cools.
Could someone explain to me what's going on in this process where the 264 billion gallons of water used in the meme do not return to a liquid state?
I would appreciate any insight into the process that seems to defy this cycle that I am missing. Like I said prior, my knowledge of this process ended in middle school science class so I'm confident that I'm missing something.
Thanks for your time!
The 264 billion gallons absorb enough energy from the data center to evaporate. They turn into a gaseous form and rise into the sky where they become clouds. The clouds will eventually precipitate and turn into rain, but it might take months and months, and it probably won't happen in dry areas with low rainfall. It might even happen over the ocean, turning the clouds into undrinkable salty seawater.
Well, I mean, doesn’t water evaporate from the ocean constantly and then also become rain?
To be clear it’s still a huge problem due to redistribution issues especially in drought stricken areas, but I feel like the ocean is actually like the main source of freshwater precipitation globally, right?
I don't think the amount of evaporation from the ocean increases based on how much water is in the ocean at a proportional rate.
Not to mention the oceans cover 2/3 the surface of Earth, so any precipitation only has a 1/3 chance of being on land. And then of course as others have mentioned that doesn't mean it will rain in an accessible area or where it is most needed.