Before committing fully, we need granular detail on how much water and energy these centres use.

We can’t manage what we don’t measure. Data centres are a textbook example of a data gap impeding good policy.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics rolls data centres into a broader category.

This means we can’t access detailed statistics on how much water or energy data centres use. Nor how much they add to the national accounts.

The federal government has introduced new expectations on water use and efficiency for data centre operators. That’s something. But it’s not the same as a national picture that fits with existing official statistics. Only one data centre meets the new national water-efficiency rating.

Surprisingly, Australia’s National AI Plan has little focus on water and energy. State and federal water ministers have named data centres as an emerging threat to water security. A Senate inquiry is in progress.

Australia is a dry continent. They don’t even bring up climate change in the article. Imo we are stumbling around in the dark, or in the slop, for a technology which is taking away our privacy, our safety and even our sovereignty. Will it also rob people’s and the environment’s right to water and clean energy? We are too easily distracted by, and from, this behemoth.