The 50-liters-per-image figure is not an outlier — it is representative of how environmental claims about AI propagate. A specific, countable number arrives attached to a moral charge, spreads through networks that reward outrage, and has already shaped how the audience understands the issue before any technical reply can travel the same distance . The correction — that most cooling water is recycled in closed loops and that energy consumption is the more significant pressure — is accurate but structurally disadvantaged. It requires more context to understand and generates…