What should water be used for then? They do large-scale agriculture in the same area, which uses several orders of magnitude more water while generating substantially less value.
The water should be conserved to address long term water security in the face of a decades long drought and ongoing Tier 1 shortage. Tucson exists in an Active Management Area that heavily regulates expanded water usage for agriculture beyond existing grandfathered rights.
If a datacenter is a more valuable proposition (it may be?) then should have the ability to acquire and redirect existing resources being used for agriculture.
> Food that people and livestock eat is less valuable than data centers
This is objectively false, particularly when we consider that much of that food and water are exported. It’s also irrelevant in Tucson, which doesn’t have Central Valley syndrome.
You... do understand that it isn't exported to be incinerated, it's exported in return for money, and then people and livestock in other countries eat that food. The fact that there's a transaction in the middle of the process doesn't change the value proposition, just like the absurd overvaluation of all things AI doesn't change the value proposition there either.
We need food production as a matter of survival. That doesn’t mean all food production is inherently more valuable than everything else. We let most food spoil without being eaten because it’s more efficient to do that than treat every calorie as precious.
> just like the absurd overvaluation of all things AI doesn't change the value proposition there either
Literally does.
There are good arguments against a data centre in Tucson. “We could grow food with that water” isn’t one of them.
