Intervention Journal 6&7

Landon Kieffer

Intervention Journal 6 & 7

The topic I have chosen for my research essay is What is Global Water Security and How is AI affecting it?

My Research Essay Topic

• What is Global Water Security?
• How is our Global Water Security like right now?
• What is AI´s relationship with water?
• How much water does AI need to work?
• How many AI data centres are there?
• Are there any requirements for how much water these AI data bases use and what are they?
• What can we do to solve this AI and its impact on Global Water Security?

When looking at my essay topic there are several questions to come to mind.

My RE questions

For my research essay, and questions that go with it, I have have been using two ways to get sources. I have been using Google for my popular sources. With Google I find news articles and other online articles that will prove to be useful. For an academic approach to my sources I use Google Scholar, with Google Scholar I am able to acess Academic Journals that provide expert opinions.They also include citations to where to where they get all their information.

Searching for sources

I found this article on Google Scholar. It is a academic journal. It was written by a group of authors mainly from UC Riverside. The journal talks about how AI uses alot of drinkable water in order to cool down its data centers. One quote that I will more than likely use in my essay is one that discusses just how much water is used, "the global AI demand is projected to account for 4.2 – 6.6 billion cubic meters of water withdrawal in 2027, which is more than the total annual water withdrawal of 4 – 6 Denmark or half of the United Kingdom."(Li et al., 2025) This quote will prove to be useful aswell as several from this article because of it having data behind it that shows how big of a problem AI is to our Global Water Security, aswell as it being from an academic background.

Making AI Less “Thirsty”: Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models

This article is from the BBC and I got it from a Google search. It is a popular source. The article talks about how UK's AI ambitions could lead to water shortages. This goes perfectly with my essay because I am writing about Global Water Security not just the United States. One quote I know I will be using for sure doesnt have to do with the UK but how AI uses water. "Data centres use fresh, mains water, rather than surface water, so that the pipes, pumps and heat exchangers used to cool racks of servers do not get clogged up with contaminants."(Kleinman & Wheeler, 2025) The quote is great way to show what exactly AI uses the water for. Something I will need to explain to my readers.

Concern UK's AI ambitions could lead to water shortages

Another souce I am going to be using is this academic journal. The journal was found using Google Scholar. The article talks about how and what regulations there are for these AI data centers and the water they use. A perfect quote for my essay to talk about the regulations is," AI and AI infrastructure has yet to be federally regulated, leaving this inadvertent environmental harm to be self-regulated by the tech companies."(Garcia, 2025) Again this quote and source will be good for talking about the regulations. This quote shows that there is no federal regulations on them. To conclude about this source was found on Google Scholar and should prove vital to show the regulations on AI water usage.

AI USES HOW MUCH WATER? NAVIGATING REGULATION OF AI DATA CENTERS’ WATER FOOTPRINT POST-WATERSHED LOPER BRIGHT DECISION

This article was found off of searching Google. I found it on Earth.Org, while not published in 2025 it is still recent being published in 2024. The article gives good background on what Global Water Security is. A quote I plan on using is "The global water crisis refers to the scarcity of usable and accessible water resources across the world. Currently, nearly 703 million people lack access to water – approximately 1 in 10 people on the planet – and over 2 billion do not have safe drinking water services."(Omolere, 2024) The quote gives good background on what Global Water Security is and how many people already do not have water. This quote will be important because it shows that we as humanity already have a water crisis. This will give me a good path to write about how adding AI and it´s water problems to the equation will only make things far worse.

Global Water Crisis: Why the World Urgently Needs Water-Wise Solutions

Advice I would give to future students is too use Google Scholar. I really like Google Schoolar to find my academic sources. Just type your topic in and there is plenty of academic journals for you to use. I would also say to put into your search, the year or the previous year. This is to find the newest best information. Theres plenty of sources that will talk about your topic but if its too old then alot of the information will be outdated. As years go on there are new discoveries and such so it is best to find new sources. Lastly I would say to get as many sources as possible, the more sources you have the easier it will be when it comes time to write your paper.

Advice

• Li, P., Yang, J., Islam, M. A., & S. R. (2025, January 15). Making AI Less "Thirsty": Uncovering and Addressing the Secret Water Footprint of AI Models. Arxiv.org. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.03271
• Kleinman, Z., & Wheeler, B. (2025, February 6). Concern UK's AI ambitions could lead to water shortages. BBC.com. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce85wx9jjndo
• Garcia, M. (2025, February 10). AI Uses How Much Water? Navigating Regulation Of AI Data Centers' Water Footprint Post-Watershed Loper Bright Decision. Papers.Ssrn.com. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5064473
• Omolere, M. P. (2024, March 12). Global Water Crisis: Why the World Urgently Needs Water-Wise Solutions. Retrieved March 17, 2025, from https://earth.org/global-water-crisis-why-the-world-urgently-needs-water-wise-solutions/

Sources