"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." -  R. P. Feynman

 WATER FIRST: ONE PUBLIC RECORD FOR EVERY DATA CENTER, NO EXEMPTIONS
OUR WATER. OUR POWER. OUR FUTURE.
Due Date: April 17, 2028 Legislation must be passed, technology benchmarked, and updated.

WHY THIS MATTERS TO EVERYONE
Earth is our home. It is where our families farm, where our children play in the snow and on the lakes, and where we depend on every drop of water to keep our communities alive. This year, state officials in Utah reported that the entire state was in some level of drought. Families and farmers are being asked to conserve. Meanwhile, some of the largest users of power and water are not being asked to show us their numbers.

All technology runs on electricity, and nearly all of that electricity ends up as heat. Removing that heat takes cooling, and cooling often takes water. A single byte-based data center can withdraw 35 million gallons in a year. Much of that water evaporates into the air and is never returned to the rivers and lakes it came from, and no public record shows how much. Communities cannot see how much water is used, how much is lost to evaporation, how much power their data is consuming, or what companies are doing to fix the problem.

Properly designed technology is not a partisan issue, and neither is water availability and security. We are calling on legislators to treat information technology the way they treat every other industry that uses the public’s resources: measure it, publish it, and hold it in alignment with nature’s highest standard, with no leeway for convenience, old habits, or passing the cost to the public.

WHY ARE WE CALLING FOR CHANGE?
Information is physical. In 1961, Rolf Landauer showed that handling a bit of information produces heat. In 2012, a team of researchers confirmed this by experiment, yet the National Institute of Standards and Technology has not updated its definitions to reflect that confirmation. Melvin Vopson later proposed that, because information is physical, it carries a measurable mass. Through m(p,T) = kBT ln(P)/c², with p = 2 for a bit, that gives us a way to quantify it and meet the minimum requirements for metrology. Because Boltzmann’s constant is defined in the International System of Units, the minimum energy and mass of a bit of information can be written in joules and kilograms, the same units used to measure heat, power, and water. That is the link that ties information technology to physical metrology, allowing for one quantum accounting ledger.

For decades, technology was designed as if its physical cost did not exist. Computers were built to be fast and easy to program, and every layer was designed to hide the physics below it. That choice made sense when chips got more efficient every year and hid the waste. That trend ended around 2005, and the waste now shows up as hot buildings, strained power grids, and dry rivers.

Most of this waste is not forced by nature. It comes from design choices, so it can be designed out. A well-built data architecture needs less storage, less energy, and far less water. We cannot fix what we do not measure, and right now we are not measuring it.

1. WHAT WE MEASURE IS WHAT WE CAN FIX
We can use the mass-energy-information equivalence as a benchmark because engineers do not wait for a number to be proven in every possible way before using it. They need it to be clear, to be something anyone can calculate, and to connect to things we can measure. This one meets all three. It starts with the minimum heat for erasing a bit, which Landauer showed and researchers confirmed, and divides it by c², one of the most tested results in physics. Two people running the same calculation get the same number.

Together, the equations below form one chain from the bit to the mitochondria, linking energy, heat, electromagnetism, and information mass, and with the conversions for evaporating water and for materials added, they form one quantum accounting ledger for energy, heat, water, electromagnetism, and materials.

(e × Δψₘ)/ℏ  ⇆  ν = ω/2π  ⇆  c = λν  ⇆  T = b/λ  ⇆  m(p,T) = kBT ln(P)/c²  ⇆  E = kBT ln(P)  ⇆  logₚ(p) = 1

The equations link together, so each one must be included for the full picture to be accounted for. Definitions of each variable and the metrology derived from them are published on Infoton.

2. NO EXEMPTIONS FOR OLDER FACILITIES
Some states legislature like Utah’s HB 76 requires qualifying new large data centers to report their water use. In doing so the state exempts facilities that were already operating, or already under construction, before July 1, 2026. Water does not care when a building opened. An older facility evaporates the same water as a new one. Every exemption leaves a hole in the water budget that everyone else has to fill. Nature knows and understands the quantum accounting does not reconcile.

3. COMMUNITIES DESERVE REAL-TIME ANSWERS
People who live near a data center feel the noise, the heat, and the pressure on local water and power. Their concerns are not an obstacle. They are feedback, and good engineers listen to feedback. Every community needs be able to see, in real time, how much water a facility withdraws and evaporates, how much energy it uses, and what materials it consumes.

4. TRACK THE PROBLEM WITHOUT CREATING A BIGGER ONE
Reporting systems must not add to the problem. Metrology must be built into both the physical facility design and the code, and accounting must not evaporate more water or burn more power just to keep score.

5. MONEY DOES NOT EXCUSE WASTE
Being able to afford the power bill does not make wasted energy acceptable. When a data center wastes power, everyone on the shared grid and in the shared watershed pays the price, including households, farms, and small businesses. Every facility, large or small, old or new, needs be held to the same acceptance criterion for energy use, water use, and heat waste.

OUR FORMAL DEMAND
We, the undersigned, call upon the United States to
1. Require all data centers, including those operating or under construction before July 1, 2026, to report their water withdrawals, water evaporation, and energy use.
2. Publish this data in a single public record that any resident can read in real time.
3. Base the reporting standard on measurable physics, so that numbers come from how nature works and not from estimates.
4. Include heat, entropy, and electromagnetic output in the reporting, along with water and power.
6. Set clear public targets for reducing energy use, water use, and heat waste, and report progress on a regular schedule.
7. Make sure the reporting system itself uses as little water and energy as possible.
8. Give communities a direct way to respond when the numbers show a problem.

THIS IS ABOUT THE PLANET WE WANT TO CONTINUE TO EXIST ON.

We want our children to inherit rivers that still run, a lake that still holds water, and snow that still falls. We want technology that brings wonder and uplift without draining the land it sits on. Information Physics shows  a well-designed data center does not need to use water, and that better designed data architecture means we may not need to keep building bigger ones.

All life depends on water, and the Earth’s need for it comes first. If we cut our heat and energy use sharply, water and materials stops being a strained resource and goes back to supporting farms, families, and fun, from skiing to paddle boarding.

DERIVE METROLOGY. MEASURE. REPORT. IMPROVE.

ADD YOUR VOICE

Signing this petition is also a commitment to change your own habits. Use these equations in your personal and professional work, and ask others to do the same. Change in technology starts with everyday behavior and spreads faster than policy can be written. We do not have a year to wait as malware and viruses have learned information physics level exploits cannot be detected in code and must be measured at the source.

SIGN THE PETITION. DEMAND ONE PUBLIC RECORD AND ALL TECHNOLOGY BE BUILT WITH AND UPDATE TO HAVE METROLOGY.

Paid partnership. January N. Walker is a Change Ambassador who receives compensation in connection with this petition.