Our emails and tweets need water too…
Large servers are needed to handle the emails, tweets, credit card transactions – vast quantities of data every day. That all requires energy. Data centres account for about 2% of global electricity use at the moment. They also need a lot of water. Servers get hot, and therefore cooling them involves hundreds of thousands of litres water a day for a medium-sized data centre. Ignoring the impacts of data centres on water resources could lead to the partial displacement of impacts from the climate to water. Such a dynamic can take place when shifting from non-renewable to renewable energy sources
Using more energy increases the use of water. This in turn increases energy use further. According to the Global Energy Transformation report, a roadmap to 2050[1], global energy use is set to rise by 35%–40% and electricity by 70% by 2035.
[1] https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Publication/2018/Apr/IRENA_Report_GET_2018.pdf)