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Will data centers cut
water use in drought?
Re: “La Nina forecast not so cut and dry” (Page A1, Oct. 10).
On Page 1 of the Mercury News was an article about La Niña, stating that we do not know if it will have very little effect on our water supply or if it will cause a drought. On Page 6 was an opinion column about the number of data centers in the area and the water that they use (“AI data centers must disclose how much water they require“).
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This made me ponder: If we have a drought, and we again have a period of mandatory water use reduction, will the data centers also be required to reduce their water usage? Or will those companies, mainly owned and run by very rich people, be exempt, forcing the rest of us to reduce more?
Max Steinke
San Jose
Legislature must fix
CEQA amendments
The California Environmental Quality Act, our state’s foundational environmental law, was broadly amended during aggressive budget negotiations — without public comment and on a rushed timeline.
Amendments now in law include a broad and perilous exemption for “advanced manufacturing,” a loosely defined category of projects that can encompass mining, semiconductor manufacturing and plastics incineration. This and other amendments that affect California’s ecosystems and democratic processes are potentially harmful to public health and the environment, and must be fixed.
Marin County’s Assemblymember, Damon Connolly, has authored a cleanup bill, AB 1083, which includes virtually all of the needed repairs to CEQA. This bill will protect California’s climate, families, vulnerable communities, ecosystems and democratic processes.
A big thanks goes to Connolly, and to the California representatives who are co-authoring the bill.
Mary Buxton
Monte Sereno
U.S. actions needed
to ensure Gaza peace
We pray that the Gaza tragedy is slowing and might heal. If so, it must have these American actions:
Expedite aid that we and our European allies have committed to provide to Gaza. The aid must contain medical, food and emergency living supplies as well as rebuilding materials and equipment for reconstruction of the appalling damage.
A permanent peace is desperately needed for both the Palestinian and Israeli survivors. A critical precondition is a two-state solution acceptable to both. This means the long assault by Israeli settlers on Palestinian lands and peoples must stop. If this requires a U.S. block on both financial and military aid to Israel, so be it.
Gregg McKee
Carmel
We must moderate
AI technology
Re: “A guide to what AI companies are trying to build” (Page C9, Oct. 13).
The amount of money that is being invested in AI is obscene. What are the consequences for the losers of this investment in a high-stakes gamble?
Many workers, environments, relationships and creative ideas will lose. Tech moguls are competing to be the best, richest and most powerful winner. Too much power for the few corrupts the interests of a healthy and thriving society. Almost everything that has been invented by the smartest among us has some negative consequences for society and the environment.
I must admit that having large amounts of information at your disposal is helpful and a huge convenience for those of us who don’t have a lot of time available for researching. But moderation of tech is the key to keeping us and our environment healthy and free from negative consequences.
Patricia Marquez Rutt
Redwood City
Joint venture could
bring nation together
Hitler’s regime adopted the phrase “Third Reich” to position itself as the successor to two previous German empires. Hitler’s Nazi regime — framed as a glorious rebirth of German greatness (their MAGA) — was destined to last 1,000 years. Oops … missed it by 988 years.
Hitler was fantasizing a lost glory. MAGA similarly invokes a mythic past — the 1950s or pre-civil rights era — when America was “strong,” “unified” and “respected” … if you were White and male.
While MAGA is not equivalent to Nazism, both movements use nostalgic myth-making and fear to galvanize support, at the expense of democratic norms.
Let’s create a Joint Venture America environment: reframe greatness as collaboration, not control; greatness as public-private partnerships to solve problems, not racial and military dominance; greatness where communities share a future that honors diversity, innovation and civic trust, not an exclusive past; greatness that builds bridges, not pitting “us” vs “them.”
John Swan
Los Altos Hills
