Politician Claims NT Groundwater Could Flip Earth's Poles — Scientists Disagree

A government minister in Australia's Northern Territory (NT) has been criticised by scientists for making false claims about Earth's magnetic poles. Robyn Cahill, the NT minister for trade and business, said last week that the territory needs to use more of its underground water. She claimed that if it doesn't, the weight of that water could cause Earth's poles to flip. Scientists say this is simply not true.

Cahill made the comments while speaking in Darwin about the government's plan to turn the NT into 'the datacentre capital of the globe.' Data centres are large buildings filled with computers and servers that store and process data for the internet and artificial intelligence (AI). These facilities use huge amounts of water to stay cool, so Cahill was arguing that the NT's underground water supply would be perfect for them.

During her speech, Cahill said there is so much underground water in the NT that it can affect the axis of Earth during a bad wet season. She then suggested that using some of that water could prevent the poles from flipping. Scientists pushed back hard against this idea, explaining that it has no basis in real science.

Kirsty Howey, the head of the Environment Centre NT (ECNT), called Cahill's claim 'completely cooked,' which is an Australian way of saying it is totally wrong. 'The minister appears to believe that the Northern Territory's wet season can alter Earth's axis, which has no scientific basis,' Howey said. She added that it is worrying for officials in charge of big industries to misunderstand basic water science.

Dr. Dylan Irvine, a groundwater expert at Charles Darwin University, also spoke out. He told ABC Darwin that there is no risk of the poles flipping due to groundwater. 'This is driven by processes that happen in the deep Earth … that happen in the Earth's core … not so much groundwater systems,' he said. In other words, what happens far underground in Earth's molten core drives any changes to the magnetic poles — not water near the surface.

So what actually causes Earth's magnetic poles to flip? Scientists call a full flip a 'geomagnetic reversal.' The last major one, known as the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, happened about 780,000 years ago. These reversals do not happen quickly — on average, they take around 7,000 years to complete. A smaller, temporary flip called an 'excursion' happened about 42,000 years ago and lasted roughly 1,000 years.

While the pole-flipping claim is false, experts do have real worries about data centres and water use in the NT. Large data centres, especially in hot climates, need a lot of water and energy to keep their computers from overheating. The ECNT is calling for a public ban on new data centres and fracking — a method of drilling for gas — until their effects on water supplies and the climate are fully studied. 'We don't want to see our precious aquifers drained for AI while we get nothing in return,' Howey said.

Despite the concerns, the NT government is moving ahead with its plans. On Wednesday, NT chief minister Lia Finocchiaro announced that a company called Beetaloo Digital had been given rights to 185 hectares of land near Darwin. The plan is to build a giant AI data centre there, powered by up to 2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity from natural gas. To put that in perspective, 2GW is enough electricity to power about 2 million homes each year.

Another large project is also in the works. A company called Energy North has proposed 'Project Ares,' a 1GW data centre planned for Murranji station in the NT's Barkly region. The NT government says as many as a dozen data centre developers are interested in the area. Minister Cahill was asked to respond to the criticism but had not yet commented at the time this story was published.