{"id":818456,"date":"2026-07-23T09:45:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818456\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T09:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:45:23","slug":"politicians-claim-earths-magnetic-poles-could-flip-if-nt-doesnt-use-more-groundwater-criticised-by-experts-northern-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/818456\/","title":{"rendered":"Politician\u2019s claim Earth\u2019s magnetic poles could flip if NT doesn\u2019t use more groundwater criticised by experts | Northern Territory"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Northern Territory<\/a> minister has been criticised for scientifically inaccurate claims that groundwater in the Northern Territory needs to be used to prevent the Earth\u2019s magnetic poles from flipping.<\/p>\n

The NT minister for trade and business, Robyn Cahill, made the claim while speaking in Darwin last week about the government\u2019s push to make the territory \u201cthe datacentre capital of the globe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor datacentres, the water supply is already in existence. It\u2019s mainly subterranean,\u201d she said. \u201cThe water supply that Darwin has is extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s scientific evidence to suggest that we have so much water underground in the Northern Territory that it actually impacts the axis of the Earth when we have a really bad wet season, so we need to use some of it otherwise we might find ourselves flipping the poles again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Environment Centre NT\u2019s executive director, Kirsty Howey, described Cahill\u2019s claim as \u201ccompletely cooked\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minister appears to believe that the Northern Territory\u2019s wet season can alter Earth\u2019s axis, which has no scientific basis,\u201d Howey said. \u201cIt\u2019s frightening that the people in charge of regulating dangerous industries like fracking and datacentres seem to lack even a high-school understanding of water science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Dylan Irvine, a groundwater hydrology expert at Charles Darwin University, told ABC Darwin: \u201cWe\u2019re not at risk of the poles flipping \u2026 I\u2019m not concerned about the Earth tipping or flipping of poles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Earth\u2019s most recent major geomagnetic reversal \u2013 in which the positions of magnetic north and magnetic south flip \u2013 is known as the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, and occurred an estimated 780,000 years ago<\/a>. The flip is not instant: scientific analysis<\/a> suggests reversals take 7,000 years on average to occur.<\/p>\n

A recent temporary flip of the poles, classified as an \u201cexcursion\u201d rather than a full geomagnetic reversal \u2013 occurred 42,000 years ago<\/a> and lasted for about 1,000 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is driven by processes that happen in the deep Earth \u2026 that happen in the Earth\u2019s core \u2026 not so much groundwater systems,\u201d Irvine said.<\/p>\n

Experts have warned, however, about the impact massive datacentre projects will have on already strained water resources<\/a>, particularly in hotter climates where centres require more energy or water to keep cool.<\/p>\n

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The ECNT is calling for a public ban on fracking and datacentres so their impacts on the NT\u2019s climate and water supplies can be properly considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see our precious aquifers drained for AI while we get nothing in return,\u201d Howey said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be the datacentre capital of the globe \u2013 we want safe drinking water and a livable future for our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the NT government, as many as a dozen datacentre developers are interested in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be the place all the hyperscalers come to have their datacentres here,\u201d Cahill said last week.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday the NT chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, announced the government had granted Beetaloo Digital \u2013 a subsidiary of gas company Beetaloo Energy \u2013 an exclusive commitment over 185 hectares of land near Darwin, for \u201ca massive project involving an integrated AI datacentre and on-site gas-fired power generation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The project would be \u201cpowered by up to 2GW of on-site power generation fuelled by Beetaloo gas\u201d, according to a government statement.<\/p>\n

For comparison, 2GW is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of approximately 2m households.<\/p>\n

It comes after the announcement of another hyperscale centre, Energy North\u2019s Project Ares, a 1GW project proposed for Murranji station in the NT\u2019s Barkly region.<\/p>\n

Cahill was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Northern Territory minister has been criticised for scientifically inaccurate claims that groundwater in the Northern Territory needs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-818456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}