Data Centres Part 2: Are They Really That Bad?

Sunday, 30 August 2026 - 11:00am to 11:30am
Data centre internal.

Off the back of part one—an interview with independent climate expert Ketan Joshi last month—Mia brings in other perspectives on the data centre boom.

 

You’ll hear from Professor Priya Rajagopalan of RMIT Univeristy; Dr. Thomas Nann, CEO of Allegro Energy and a globally recognised expert on long-duration energy storage.; and Britney Henderson, Greens candidate for the western metropolitan region in Victoria’s upcoming state election and a vocal opponent to the major data centre expansion in Narrm/melbourne’s west.

 

Guests:

 

Professor Priya Rajagopalan is the Director of the Post Carbon Research Centre for Infrastructure and the Built Environment and Associate Dean (Research and Innovation) in the school of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University. She is a building scientist with extensive experience in energy and indoor environmental quality of buildings and urban climatology.

 

Dr Thomas Nann is a globally recognised expert and pioneer on micro-emulsion storage technology. He can speak about long-duration energy storage, climate policy and data centre energy profiles as well as Australia’s clean energy future.

 

Britney Henderson is the Greens’ Lead Candidate for Western Metropolitan in Victoria. She is a Bunurong person living and raised in Narrm (melbourne)’s West, by a big, staunch queer Aboriginal family.

 

Links:

 

Wiki community for the campaign for a data centre moratorium: https://datacentremoratorium.net/index.php/Data_Centre_Moratorium_Wiki:About(link is external)

 

Western Warrang (sydney) resistance: https://swelteringcities.org/2026/04/21/data-centres-ai-urban-heat-and-community-action-comes-together-in-western-sydney/(link is external)

 

Petition: Stop the expansion of data centres in New South Wales: https://www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/halt-the-expansion-of-data-centres-in-nsw

 

Petition: Stop the AI Data Centre Frenzy: https://greens.org.au/vic/campaigns/stop-ai-data-centre-frenzy

 

Earth Matters #1572 was produced by Mia Audrey on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country.

Sunday 11:00am to 11:30am
Local and global environmental issues from grassroots, activist perspectives with a strong social justice focus. Distributed nationally on the Community Radio Network.

Presenter

Bec Horridge, Claudia Craig, Mia Audrey & Keiran Stewart-Assheton.

Topic