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UK Asks People to Delete Emails In Order to Save Water During Drought
(www.404media.co)
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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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What a bullshit sensitionalized title. 404media is rapidly losing my trust. Haven't seen a website enshittify this fast.
If you are interested in this topic, please read the government's press and make up your own mind.
Huh? That press release quotes the The Environment Agency’s Director of Water and National Drought Group chair saying "Simple, everyday choices – such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails – also really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife" and includes "Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems" in its list of ways people should save water at home.
I admit I made this post without clicking through to the actual press release or seeing more than the paywall preview of the article; for a humorous post like this, i think just the headline from a paywalled article (if it's from a reputable source) is sufficient. Now that you got me to read the actual press release, I see I was correct to assume that 404media's amusing headline was in fact accurate.
How would you suggest they report this story differently? Highlighting the ridiculous part is what makes it worthy of reporting on it in their context at all.
I don't know about you, but the title gave me the impression that the government is throwing their hands in the air and are like "there's nothing we can do, maybe you can delete some emails and save data centers some water." But the press release is about all the work they have done, all the efforts they have put into alleviating the drought situation. "What you can do at home" is the last section, and deleting emails is literally the last line of the article (a little tongue in the cheek even). And yet that's what 404 highlights?!
Tell me they are not trying to generate outrage.
"We are grateful to the public for following the restrictions, where in place, to conserve water in these dry conditions. Simple, everyday choices – such as turning off a tap or deleting old emails – also really helps the collective effort to reduce demand and help preserve the health of our rivers and wildlife."
Sounds like a slip of the tongue. Or maybe written by AI and not checked.
It’s the very last line of the page and seems so out of left field it’s hilarious… QUOTE:
HOW TO SAVE WATER AT HOME Install a rain butt to collect rainwater to use in the garden.
Fix a leaking toilet – leaky loos can waste 200-400 litres a day.
Use water from the kitchen to water your plants.
Avoid watering your lawn – brown grass will grow back healthy.
Turn off the taps when brushing teeth or shaving.
Take shorter showers.
Delete old emails and pictures as data centres require vast amounts of water to cool their systems.
/END QUOTE
That’s verbatim and pretty much what 404 stated. It ignores the fact that not all data centres are water cooled (with the exception of AI/compute based centres) and data storage is a fairly low demand compared to that.
EDIT: Put the relevant section in quote because people can't distinguish between what I typed and what I copied from the previous poster's link.
Zero mention of AI