The term was given air time in 2026 by environmental activist Erin Brockovich, who is advocating for communities facing huge AI data center construction.
Electricity Needs Water - Water Needs Electricity
These resources depend on each other. When electricity production is increased to support data centers, more water may be required to cool the power plants. However, pumping and filtering water to cool the servers requires more electricity. The solution is to reduce water and electricity consumption together rather than saving one at the expense of the other. See
AI data center and
NIMBY.