The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that the enormous Google data centre in Papillion, Neb., consumed 1.5 billion litres of water in 2024 to cool its power-mad AI activity. The Globe's Eric Reguly writes that environmental assessments of the centres tend to focus on their electricity use and carbon footprint. Less well known about the dark side of AI is their vast water and land use. The world's fastest-growing industry is also turning into one of the biggest threats to natural resources. Cities and towns that were once begging for the right to clear forests to build data centres the size of airports are now having second thoughts. Early this month, the city council of Seattle, home to Amazon and Microsoft, passed a one-year moratorium on their construction. The unanimous decision came after an outcry about their water consumption and pressure on prices and the electricity grid. The national grid operator in Ireland, where data centres consumed more than 20 per cent of the country's total electricity output in 2023, has suspended new approvals in and near Dublin until 2028. While some jurisdictions are reining in the data centre frenzy, many are not, if only because the centres produce tax revenue.