Today’s Post: Positives & Negatives
PRO
SDI. No this is not Reagan’s Space Defense Initiative, it’s the latest in water conservation in agriculture. Subsurface Drip Irrigation allows less water to be applied to a row crop, without evaporative losses. A field is leveled, and drip lines are installed at a depth of 6-24” below grade every other row. Water can be applied to accommodate natural precipitation and crop demands. The result is dramatic savings in water application rates and crop yields.
While initially a bit more expensive than irrigation guns, the technology is on a financial par with center pivot and fixed sprinkler irrigation system but without evaporative losses and with reduced labor costs. Evaporative losses from surface sprinkler irrigation can exceed 30% and with flood irrigation, the rate of deep percolation and evaporation can reach 50%. SDI slashes that to nearly zero.
CON
SWU. No that’s not a real term, it’s what I made up for “stupid water use.” While techies like Elon and not so techies like our President are clamoring over the benefits of AI and Bitcoin, here’s a not so fun-fact: A single Bitcoin transaction can use a swimming pool’s worth of water. That’s 6.2 million times more water used than a credit card swipe.
Bitcoin mining requires vast quantities of energy and with that I mean super-computers that must be cooled with water and coal-fired power plants that, again, must use vast quantities of water (for those who think nuclear energy is clean energy, think again, besides the waste, the cooling water requirements for nuclear plants is staggering). The average data center uses 300,000 gallons a day, enough to supply 100,000 homes. ChatGP and Google AI’s water footprint have increased dramatically as their usage increases.
Education is always the key as most people do not consider the environmental and resource impact of siting data centers (over a hundred data centers are locate in and around Phoenix and over two dozen in the Las Vegas area). More never associate energy and water consumption with Bitcoin. So how do you feel about the lure of Bitcoin?