Why AI Data Centers Have a Water Problem: Stanford's Newsha Ajami
Apple Podcasts · 2026-06-19
Every time you ask ChatGPT a question, a data center somewhere uses water to cool its servers. Most people have no idea, and neither do the utilities supplying that water. Newsha Ajami, a hydrologist and founding director of Stanford's Governance for Risk, Resilience, Recovery Program (GR3), has spent years tracing water through the hidden seams of the economy, from the electricity charging your phone to the chips powering the AI boom.
Apple Podcasts. 2026-06-19. Why AI Data Centers Have a Water Problem: Stanford's Newsha Ajami. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-ai-data-centers-have-a-water-problem-stanfords/id1692644096?i=1000773446710 (AI & Environment Resource Hub; record pod-0221; collection snapshot 2026-09-15).
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform how water is managed. Yet, these emerging opportunities raise critical considerations around issues such as data governance, energy use, and the environmental footprint of digital infrastructure. To explore these challenges and opportunities, IWRA is launching a new webinar series: "The Promises and Challenges of AI, Data Centres & Freshwater Futures". Bringing together experts from around the world, the series examines the intersection of emerging technologies and water sustainability.
youtube.com
Shared topics: Governance and society; Energy and electricity; Water; Weather, hazards, and adaptation; Built environment and infrastructure
This course will help you understand AI's climate implications and identify practical next steps within your organization. The course begins with demystifying the connection between AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), data centers, and energy and water demand. Then you will learn about AI's environmental footprint, the related environmental and community impacts, you will evaluate real-world applications of AI across climate adaptation, energy transition, and nature conservation, and understand the business and policy landscape shaping corporate decisions.
Coursera
Shared topics: Governance and society; Water; Oceans and coasts; Built environment and infrastructure
We believe that innovation and technological advancement are key to building 21st-century economies in the region. We partner with diverse organizations to fostering economic growth, social progress, and environmental sustainability.
Institute of the Americas
Shared topics: Governance and society; Energy and electricity; Weather, hazards, and adaptation; Built environment and infrastructure
We are happy to share this strategic report–AI and Climate Change: The Global South Facing the New Geopolitics of Innovation–written by Lori Regattieri and jointly launched by CIPÓ and the Green Screen Coalition. The report articulates key connections between energy infrastructures, climate justice and purported AI solutions for the “energy transition”. Their work argues for multilateral, pluriversal, and multisectoral approaches to digital infrastructure and industrial policy. The report names the violence of the “logic of expansion” and the fallacies of transition, which “simultaneously drives energy regimes and artificial intelligence systems”. Lori’s critique on the entanglement of many different social and political issues in Brazil is critical in a time where the technology industry lays the groundwork to be the saviors of COP30 in Belem, Brazil. With COP less than two months away, the report provides a powerful framing for those curious about the industrial dynamics in the region, and the ontological logic underpinning them.
