The Dead Good Club · Special Water Report
ThirstyWorld
A plain look at where the world’s water and electricity go — from farms and lawns to AI and the daily scroll. Every figure is sourced; tap the red tag.
A side-by-side look at typical use per action. The two columns are scaled independently — read the shape within a column; the figures are approximate and not meant as a cross-column ratio.
The surprise: an hour of autoplay video can out-consume a great many AI prompts, while a single lawn-watering dwarfs both on water. Estimates vary widely by method.
≈70%
of all freshwater withdrawn worldwide goes to agriculture — the single biggest use by far.[FAO]
1.5→3%
of global electricity runs data centres today, perhaps doubling to ~3% by 2030 as AI grows.[IEA]
≈9 bn
gallons a day water US lawns — nearly a third of all residential use.[EPA]
Water by sector
4,000km³/yr
Total freshwater withdrawn each year — about four trillion cubic metres, of which agriculture takes ~2,800.[Gitnux]
Farms & irrigation
≈90%
of farm water is for irrigation. By nation: Egypt ~96%, India ~89%, China ~60%; the US is the largest user by volume (~320 bn m³/yr).[Zipdo]
Household outdoor water
50,500gal/yr
the average US home pours outdoors — a typical lawn needs ~10,000 gal beyond rainfall, and soaking a 100′×100′ lawn once uses ~6,230 gal.[StacyMN]
Data centres & AI
415→945TWh
data-centre electricity, 2024 to a projected 2030 — demand jumped +17% in 2025 alone, with AI-focused centres growing far faster.[IEA]
Power-plant cooling
≈500km³/yr
water the world’s power plants use for cooling; US thermoelectric withdrawals (~133 bn gal/day) rival irrigation.[USGS]
Digital habits
0.8–2GB/hr
data TikTok streams per hour of autoplay video; one minute is charged ~0.27 L of water in some estimates. Instagram sits lower until Reels take over.[SpeedtestHQ]
A note on the figures: best-available public estimates from the sources tagged throughout (FAO, IEA, EPA, USGS and others). Methodologies — especially for digital energy and water — differ, so treat ranges as ranges. Compiled by The Dead Good Club darkroom.
