When I see data centres—huge warehouses full of servers—I think of the scene in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner in which the protagonist, Deckard, approaches the Tyrell Corporation building in his hover car. The building looms menacingly over the city, casting a shadow in the already dark environment, the atmosphere long since polluted by the unfettered growth of industry. The corporation and its tech founder, Dr Eldon Tyrell, dominate this dystopian world, producing cutting-edge technology to service off-world colonies, including the production of replicants.
These robots are designed to be “more human than human”, replacing jobs previously done by human labourers. Many of the workers the replicants replace cannot afford to relocate to the cleaner, more habitable off-world colonies. Thrown on the scrap heap by technological advance, they are reduced to scrounging in the filthy streets to make ends meet, in the shadow of the Tyrell Corporation, a constant reminder of their industrial overlord, and of their own dispensability.
It’s hard not to feel like we are one step closer to this dystopia as artificial intelligence, and the environmentally destructive data centres that service it, proliferate around us.
The recent boom in data centres worldwide has been driven predominantly by the massive computing requirements of generative AI. There is big money in this technology. A look at the stock market shows the top five companies ranked by market capitalisation are NVIDIA, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Apple, Microsoft and Amazon—all companies involved in the AI sector. Workers are already feeling the consequences, as many companies use the technology to justify mass lay-offs. Earlier this year, Atlassian cut 1,600 jobs from its global workforce, Amazon announced 16,000 job cuts, and Meta plans to reduce its workforce by 20 percent, all to make way for AI.
It’s not just workers’ livelihoods being affected by the growth of AI. Much of this technology is being developed for military purposes, such as faster targeting systems. AI can rapidly crunch data from satellites, intelligence agencies, drones and sensors, enabling the grotesquely named “kill chains”—decision-making processes about where to drop bombs—to be reduced from days to seconds. The human cost of this advance in military technology is horrendous. In February, at the start of the US-Israel-Iran war, the US military mistakenly bombed a school for girls, killing 180 people, mostly young children. The targeting decision was made by an AI system called Maven, developed by Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies. Instead of retiring the deadly technology, the US secretary of defense subsequently declared that Maven would be permanently incorporated into military operating systems.
This technology requires large data centres, which use immense quantities of electricity and water. The warehouses are also a significant source of noise and light pollution, and emit substantial heat to the surrounding area, according to the Environmental Health Project. This is placing extreme stress on the power and water supply of communities where they are built.
In Australia, this tends to be in working-class communities like western Sydney. New South Wales has 90 data centres already, with sixteen more in the pipeline. In a press release on 27 March, state cabinet ministers indicated that all but three of these new facilities will be built in western Sydney and three of those will be in Fairfield, the poorest local government area in the city.
Despite the impact on working-class neighbourhoods and the environment, state governments are competing to attract investment from these tech corporations, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey advertising the state as a “premium destination for data centres” and fast-tracking their approval.
One of the most pressing issues surrounding data centres is their energy consumption. We are already on track to at least three degrees of global warming by the end of the century, and most countries are well behind in meeting their emissions reduction targets. Add data centres and their insatiable thirst for electricity into the mix, and the future of the Earth’s climate is looking pretty grim.
A recent report by Greenpeace on the climate impact of data centres in Australia puts this into perspective. Australia’s biggest proposed data centre in western Sydney will generate the same annual emissions as 560,000 petrol cars or all domestic flights. Some of the largest centres being planned could emit more than the entire city of Adelaide.
While the government is requiring data centres to account for their emissions by investing in renewables or offsetting their carbon footprint, the reality is that this happening is looking very unlikely. The Greenpeace report found that no project adequately proved the data centre developers’ claim that they were investing in more renewables in Australia above what was already going to be built. Worse, many are turning to the gas industry as a cheap source of energy to power their facilities.
In the US, instead of waiting for connection to the already stretched electricity grid or building renewable energy plants, data centre operators are more and more building off-grid gas-fired power plants to power their facilities. According to a report in January by Global Energy Monitor, installed gas capacity in the US tripled last year to meet data centre demand. OpenAI’s Stargate project in New Mexico has its own dedicated gas plant, which has been estimated to generate fourteen MTCO2-e per year, equivalent to wiping out 20 years of climate progress in that state. Absurdly, this is happening in a place with more solar and wind power potential than nearly anywhere on Earth.
This trend is also happening with data centres in the UK, Europe and now Australia. A Sydney-based company called Cloud Carrier is appealing to the NSW government for permission to build three off-grid gas-fired power stations to generate electricity for their massive data centres in Moss Vale. The three plants combined would generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes and would become the third largest gas plant in Australia. If approved, this would override the desires of the local community, which rejected previous proposals for smaller off-grid gas plants. Cloud Carrier can bypass the local council and appeal directly to the state government because the size of the current proposal, twenty times larger than the original, means it qualifies as a significant project.
The data centre boom has given the gas industry a second wind. Nefarious relationships between fossil fuel companies and data centre developers have blossomed in this environment. It’s little wonder that Origin Energy (a major gas producer), Jemena (a high-emitting utility provider) and Siemens and Caterpillar (both gas turbine constructors) have become listed members of the Data Centres Australia lobby group.
In a drought-prone country like Australia, the demand on fresh water supply of data centres is another major concern. Data centres require fresh water in their cooling systems to prevent their servers overheating. Sydney Water has projected that, within the decade, these facilities will use a quarter of all of Sydney’s drinking water.
What’s more, data centres that do connect to the electricity grid will put upward pressure on energy prices. A recent Climate Council report estimated that, if not matched with an increase in renewable energy infrastructure, data centre growth could cause wholesale electricity prices to increase by more than 20 percent on average. This translates to a 26 and 23 percent increase in NSW and Victoria, respectively, significantly impacting household energy bills. If the government’s refusal meaningfully to address the rising cost of fuel for ordinary people since the outbreak of war in Iran is anything to go by, we shouldn’t expect any cost-of-living support when data centres drive up the price of electricity.
Corporations like Apple, Microsoft and Google are like Ridley Scott’s Tyrell Corporation. They are run by capitalists who want to maximise their profits without concern for the environmental or human cost of their operations. The Labor government has welcomed these corporations with open arms. In June, federal ministers attended a lobby event, the Australian Data Centres Power and Water Summit, which boasted “event partners” like Origin and Beach Energy, both of which have large stakes in the future of gas.
The government is bending over backwards to invite investments from these wealthy corporations, no matter the cost, because Labor, just like the Liberals and One Nation, are dedicated to maximising the profits of Australian capitalism. Yet it will be workers, and the environment, that inevitably pay the price of these decisions, all to increase the obscene wealth of tech giants and the fossil fuel industry.
But working-class communities are starting to fight back. In the US, several campaigns have succeeded in stopping data centres from being built. According to Data Centre Watch, US$64 billion of data centre projects have been blocked or delayed due to local opposition. Pro-data centre officials have been voted off local government bodies by angry communities that refuse to bear the cost of building them in their neighbourhoods. Other communities have organised protests and petitions that have received tens of thousands of signatures. In Virginia, a state that has seen tremendous growth in data centres, there are 42 opposition groups campaigning to halt further data centre development. While data centres continue to be built, widespread opposition is becoming a political problem for politicians, especially at the local level.
In Australia, Moss Vale residents recently protested Cloud Carrier’s plans to build off-grid gas-fired power plants. Locals rallied at the proposed site, just five years after the council declared a “climate emergency” and stopped a coal mine being developed on the very same site. While climate change is a key concern, residents are also worried about respiratory health from increased air pollution due to burning fossil fuels in their neighbourhood. Residents are demanding the state government reject the proposal and instead force the company to power its data centre entirely with renewable power.
Instead of building much needed public housing, investing in schools and hospitals, developing green spaces in working-class areas and rapidly transitioning to renewables, politicians would rather hand over precious water resources and continue burning fossil fuels to enable the profits of giant tech corporations.
Despite significant opposition to the construction of data centres in working-class communities, they continue to be built. Governments around the world will continue to allow these corporations essentially free rein over energy and water resources in exchange for investments. Imperialist superpowers, like the US and China, salivate over the advanced weapons technology and military superiority that AI promises. Data centres, for all the suffering they will impose on working-class communities and the environment, is to them the acceptable cost of doing business.
Sign the NSW Socialists’ petition to stop the expansion of data centres.
