UK government asks people to delete old emails to reduce data centres' water use

https://www.thejournal.ie/uk-government-advises-people-to-delete-old-photos-and-emails-as-england-faces-water-shortfall-6788643-Aug2025/

by colinprince • 11 months ago

15 7 11 months ago

thejournal.ie

ChrisArchitect• 11 months ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44877292

yesfitz• 11 months ago

This reads like an episode of The Thick of It[0]. If it weren't real, it'd be funny.

As to the efficacy of the recommendation:

From The Verge's coverage[1]:

"The Environment Agency didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Verge about how much water it thought deleting files might save, nor how much water data centers that store files or train AI use in the UK’s drought-affected areas."

And Tom's Hardware's[2]:

"Perhaps more pertinently, the advice rings hollow because it's likely not very sensible. While it's true that data centers do consume large amounts of water through evaporative cooling (where it's used), the vast majority of this power draw comes from CPU and GPU computation, not the storage of pictures and emails. Once the data is stored, the storage devices generate very little heat and are often spun down (placed into low- or no-power states) and called upon only when needed."

0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thick_of_It

1: https://www.theverge.com/science/758275/drought-delete-files...

2: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/uk-government-ine...

kingstnap• 11 months ago

Even a decade of emails don't add up to very much storage unless you have lots of large attachments.

An average person's entire archive would likely easily fit on a small 64 microsd card. Which is like $10 bucks...

wkat4242• 11 months ago

True my email from the last 15 years fits in 9GB. And that's with attachments.

Also this is data at rest mostly that doesn't get accessed. Deleting it would save maybe a square millimetre of spinning rust somewhere but not meaningful amounts of power (that rust still has to spin)

refulgentis• 11 months ago

In all seriousness, I wonder how much data centers use HDDs still (I pray this nerdsnipes someone...)

sieste• 11 months ago

How about GCHQ make a start and delete all mails and other data they have collected about me?

UK government asks people to delete old emails to reduce data centres' water use

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