The Generation X Files

We’re all just along for the ride as we hurtle through space on this planet – a spinning rock that (I imagine) is currently shaking its head at us!

The ground keeps shifting, the social fabric is shredding and it feels like we’re sinking faster than the Titanic!

Am I the only one who feels like we’re trapped in a disaster movie?

A bad one.

Where they’ve blown all the budget on the computer generated special effects. The writers are having “creative differences” and the director’s lost the plot!

Now, it’s all starting to go a bit sci-fi…less Towering Inferno, more….Terminator.

It’s not just me that’s feeling overwhelmed…even our planet is struggling to keep up.

Think your life is out of balance? The Earth is, too! Humans have shifted so much water, ice, and soil around that the planet’s axis is wobbling….literally!

We’ve stripped forests and emptied aquifers, moving the Earth’s centre of gravity. And leaving us standing on a planet that’s fighting to find its balance.

Well, I say “we”….but it’s not really “us” that’s done all of that, is it? I don’t remember any referendums asking me to choose between my life or the planet’s…

We do accept it though – it’s just the extortionate high “price of progress”. It’s a great system: where billionaires get to launch themselves into orbit, while we get to keep the ecological fallout! (Finally, something that “trickles down” – just a shame it’s mostly carbon emissions and toxic e-waste!)

While we watch our world wobble, we’re rapidly building a virtual one. But, that’s adding to the problems it’s supposed to be fixing.

A physical weight that’s contributing to the literal and metaphorical imbalance of the planet.

One of the largest contributors to this are data centres – the physical manifestation of our digital lives. Consuming power and water at a rate that’s tilting the scales even faster.

These things are thirsty! A single large data centre can consume up to 5 million gallons of water daily for cooling, frequently drawing from drinking water supplies. 

But, even worse, these centres are often built in water-stressed areas.

In Mesa, Arizona – a region already grappling with severe drought – a single Google data centre campus has a permit to consume up to 5.5 million gallons of water daily. A volume roughly equivalent to the daily needs of 23,000 local residents. 

As AI grows, the data centre industry is expected to more than double its water consumption by 2030, with some estimations reaching 1.2 trillion litres annually.

And then there’s the power consumption….

Data centres consume approximately 2% to 3% of global electricity, a figure projected to rise significantly to 13% by 2030.

The problem is, a lot of it is wasted. A massive chunk of power is eaten up by supporting infrastructure – cooling and power management – rather than the actual computing.

Think of it like having a super-duper-intelligent teenager living in your house…

…90% of the time, they are in their room creating incredible artwork, solving complex maths problems and learning three languages…all at once.

But, 10% of the time, they’re coming downstairs, pulling a fully cooked lasagna out of the fridge, taking one bite and throwing the rest in the bin.

They have every light, TV and computer in the house on…while they take a three-hour shower…with the air-con on and the windows wide open…

I dunno, it all seems a bit reckless doesn’t it?

We’re sacrificing gallons of fresh water (the stuff human beings need to, you know…not die!) just to keep these server farms cool through evaporation. Often, in already water-stressed regions!

A single ChatGPT query requires nearly 10 times more electricity to process than a standard Google search. AI image generation can take 2–5 litres of water for just a few images.

And for what? To prompt AI to generate super-real images of a “cat lawyer” presenting evidence to a jury of other cats?!

We are transforming our shared planet into a giant, expensive toaster. Burning through resources for the sake of more…digital brainrot?

Now, that’s the kind of plot twist that makes me want to shout at the screen!

But, maybe it’s not too late to rewrite the ending…..

We don’t have to be passengers along for the ride as we head for disaster. We can start to steer it in a different direction.

Be the engineers of a more sustainable digital future. The same ingenuity that built these massive models can be redirected toward cooling technology that doesn’t evaporate our shared, limited resources.

We can demand transparency, push for energy-efficient data centres and use these tools for solving critical problems. Not just “creating” more AI “slop”….

Maybe, we don’t have to choose between AI and a habitable planet.

But, we must choose to stop ignoring the cost.

Citizen Jane x ✌️

p.s. What do you think? Is AI going to be the solution or add to the problem? Let’s keep talking in the comments below 👇