Spot birds not golf
- ID
- 5459
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 17 Jul 2026, 10:58 AM
- Fetched
- 17 Jul 2026, 11:17 AM
- Provider
- Simon Willison
- Category
- developer-ai
- Original URL
- https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/17/spot-birds-not-golf/
- Source URL
- https://simonwillison.net/atom/everything/
Summary
- Score
- 6.5
- Created
- 17 Jul 2026, 11:17 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
Simon Willison offers a tongue-in-cheek proposal for hyperscalers facing scrutiny over data center water consumption: buy up golf courses and convert them to public parks. He notes Google used 10.9 billion gallons of water in 2025, while 120 Coachella Valley golf courses each use roughly 750,000 gallons per day, meaning purchasing 40 courses could offset Google's daily water footprint.
Why it matters
As AI-driven data center demand surges, water and energy consumption is becoming a real constraint and reputational risk for hyperscalers. For builders in Malaysia and Southeast Asia—where data center expansion is accelerating—this highlights the growing importance of sustainable infrastructure considerations in cloud and AI deployment decisions.
Discussion angle
How should builders factor in the environmental cost of AI compute when choosing cloud providers, and will sustainability become a competitive differentiator for hyperscalers operating in Southeast Asia?