this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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But that's true no matter where you put the data center. If you have to dump the waste heat somewhere, the high density and specific heat of water is a better heatsink than the air around us.
It's also likely to impact more living things (plankton, seaweed, fish, reefs) in the same space, given the locations likely to be considered, either due to biodensity or increased heat spread because of high water conductivity.
I think you have to look at the actual orders of magnitude difference in raising the temperature of water versus air. The Arizona story you linked is about a study that found up to +4°F (+2.2°C) temperatures in air.
The same amount of heat, spread across the same volume of water moving at the same speeds, would only raise that water by ~~1/830 as much, for a +0.0048°F (+0.0027°C)~~ 1/3300 as much, for a +0.0012°F/+0.00067°C temperature change across the same area/volume.
~~(I got to 830 by taking the specific heat of dry air of approx 1 J/g K at room temperature and regular atmospheric pressure and 1.22 kg/m^3, versus water's 4.184 J/g K and 1000 kg/m^3).~~
(Edit: I fucked my math. Water has approximately 3300 times the heat capacity as air, per unit volume, and I just looked it up directly).
The higher conductivity of water might be offset by the higher convection potential of air (because air responds to temperature changes with differences in density/pressure, which creates wind in itself), so that the heat will spread through either medium relatively quickly and therefore dissipate very quickly with distance to the source.
I just don't see a world where a data center raises the water by even 1°C, even locally.