“The day must come when electricity will be for everyone, as the waters of the rivers and the wind of heaven. It should not merely be supplied, but lavished, that men may use it at their will, as the air they breathe.” wrote the French novelist Emile Zola in his novel Travail [Work], published in 1901. This quote is on the cover of the second edition of the Consumer Guide and Cookery Book, published by the Municipal Electricity Department [MED] of Christchurch, New Zealand, in the 1930s. The Preface to that book states:

“Today electricity is paramount. It is representative of modern life and modern thought, and as such in time to come, it will be looked on as the force which typifies our age.”

Figure 1: A first edition cover of ‘Work’ by Emile Zola.

‘Our’ age? Ninety years later, what force typifies ‘our’ age? Is electricity still paramount? Is it possible to trace a line from New Zealand’s first state-owned and operated hydro-electricity station – opened in 1914 ¹⁾ and still supplying power to the citizens of Christchurch 110 years later – to the state encouragement ²⁾ of electricity-hungry data centres owned and operated by foreign companies, which are currently being built in New Zealand? ³⁾

Most of the MED book is devoted to very basic recipes. These follow twelve pages devoted to machines or tools that use electricity and instructions on how to use them. The main focus is on cooking with electricity, but other energy-using items covered include curling tongs, floor polishers, washing machines, refrigerators, sewing machines and heating pads. Domestic items, most of which were standard in New Zealand homes by the 1950s. Appliances. Musician Andrew London satirized the Kiwi fondness for buying and using them in his song of the same name ⁴⁾ – but is this really what the ‘force that typifies our age’ is all about? Is this what should be lavished on the world?

Certainly, according to the corporations which sell them and advertise them – mostly on-line. Like Amazon – although these days it makes most of its money from its data centers business. Amazon Web Services is currently vying with Microsoft and Google to be the most valuable data center company in the world – and data uses a lot more energy than appliances. So much more that the Big Data Three now have plans to go nuclear. ⁵⁾

Nuclear energy was an option which New Zealand ruled out in the 1980s, after a decade of protests against nuclear weapons and nuclear power, and also against the expansion of hydro-electric schemes which damage rivers and lakes, and of energy-hungry and polluting industries (like aluminum smelters). The government which ruled it out – the fourth Labour government 1984-1990 – also followed the political trend being set in the UK and the USA of privatizing public assets, and deregulating markets. ⁶⁾ This included selling off the state-owned power generators and retailers, partially or completely.

This did not result in cheaper electricity prices for consumers, as promised. It did result in higher returns for investors and little or no investment in improving electricity supply using existing means, or (without state assistance) the development of solar and wind energy sources. So by 2020 Aotearoa was facing all the physical energy supply issues identified by Scheyder in The War Below and all the market manipulation issues covered by Christophers in The Price Is Wrong ⁷⁾ By 2024 the government had dug the country into a deeper hole of energy contradictions. A top wind turbine company canceled plans to build off-shore wind power in New Zealand after the government drafted legislation to fast track consent for a seabed mining company wanting to mine sites suitable for wind power, while the same fast track status was granted to a trash-to-energy incinerator company after the local government authorities had declined to consent to its plans, and the then Minister for the Environment had referred the matter to the Environment Court. ⁸⁾

As I write, New Zealand is also facing the biggest sucker of electrical energy ever created – digital data storage and delivery. This was bad enough when it was being sent directly to electricity-powered digital ‘appliances’ (phones, personal and commercial computers, screens of all kinds),⁹⁾ but in 2023 a new and extremely energy-intensive function was introduced – machine learning, commonly known as AI. It is extremely difficult to get accurate data on the contribution of different industries to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as each one has an obvious interest in disguising how big their contribution is. I have been trying to track it for the past few years, and different sources give different numbers. However, the trend is clear – the GHG emissions of the Internet now exceed those of global aviation, not to mention that so-called renewable energies do not offer a ‘clean’ or clear cut solution to the fossil fuel dependency or other activities like mining that are rooted into their production. With the introduction of AI, they are also rising rapidly. ¹⁰⁾

Photos of the first state owned and operated hydro dams to supply electric power to Christchurch. Source: From the MED Consumers Guide and Cookery Book (1951).

How can this be? Isn’t digital data all in a fluffy white cloud somewhere? No – it is stored in and travels through large data centers powered by electricity, and most of that electricity is currently generated by GHG emitting power plants, fueled by coal or gas. New Zealand is unusual in that only +/- 20% of its current electricity supply is generated by burning fossil fuels, but that percentage increases in drought years, when the damage is compounded by importing low-grade coal as the power source. ¹¹⁾

The non-fossil electricity usually keeps the domestic and commercial appliances running, but in 2024 it was too expensive to keep two major wood fiber processing mills in business, and they both closed after decades of operation.¹²⁾ The current government was not prepared to help the wood processing industry keep using energy from renewable sources. This is consistent with the position taken by the current prime minister, back in May 2023, when he was leader of the National Party. At that time he called the Labour government’s $140 million grant to the Glenbrook steel mill to help it convert to renewable energy an example of “corporate welfare”. ¹³⁾

In July 2023 that Labour government gave $90 million to the mega-dairy company Fonterra (which produces 30% of the world’s dairy exports) to help it also transition out of coal. Fonterra claims it will be done with coal by 2037, and “Net Zero” by 2050.¹⁴⁾

So if sustainably-produced electricity is currently too expensive for one primary industry, and two other major industries have to be subsidized to move away from coal and gas, where and how are the Big Data companies going to source their ‘green’ energy? How much energy will they need? How much will Fonterra and Glenbrook need? Will the price of electricity paid by New Zealand’s only aluminum smelter remain so low that it means that “…every household in the country [pays] an extra $200 a year to subsidize it…” ¹⁵⁾ What is the rate of return on investing in a data company versus a dairy or an aluminum company? How long is a piece of string….?

Cover of the first edition (1935) of the MED Consumers guide and cookery book.

I can’t predict where this is going to go. I can say that energy and nature exploitation by the state and corporations operating in Aotearoa follows a pattern which was established over two centuries ago, when in 1768 Captain James Cook was sent out by the UK government (Admiralty branch) and the Royal Society with instructions (which were kept secret) to explore the lands in the South Pacific and “… carefully to observe the Nature of the Soil, and the Products thereof; the Beasts and Fowls that inhabit or frequent it, the Fishes that are to be found in the Rivers or upon the Coast and in what Plenty and in Case you find any Mines, Minerals, or valuable Stones you are to bring home Specimens of each, as also such Specimens of the Seeds of the Trees, Fruits and Grains as you may be able to collect…” ¹⁶⁾ He was also instructed to take possession of those lands for His Majesty. Ideally with the consent of the natives – but where it was not granted, as it certainly was not in the case of Australia – it happened anyway.

From the late 18th century a process of continuous exploitation for export of all the ‘natural resources’ of Aotearoa New Zealand began, and it continues to this day. Fur seals, right whales, kauri trees and gum, harakeke (flax), gold, coal, podocarp forests, orange roughy, crayfish, beech forests, gas … the list goes on and on. Now that most of those things have gone, what is left?
Primary export-related industries (dairy, meat and fertilizer) made up half of the top twelve GHG emitters in 2023¹⁷⁾ 17 and the picture was much the same in 2024 – with the added twist that what you don’t know about can’t hurt you – or whatever other rationale the government is using to pass legislation to stop company-level data on greenhouse gas emissions from farms from being published.¹⁸⁾

But now a new horse is in the race to exploit and export energy-based products from New Zealand – Big Data. How long will this race run, who will win out, and what will the vast majority of New Zealanders pay in money, pollution, extreme weather events, sea level rise, land degradation and loss of fellow life forms to subsidize the continuing exploitation of Papatuanuku (Mother Earth)? Will New Zealanders catch up with the Swiss, learn that 2000 watts per capita is all that is needed to live a good life, and work out how to make it happen accordingly? ¹⁹⁾ Will they start to exercise the ‘little powers’ referred to by Raúl Zibechi in Territories in Resistance²⁰⁾ in preference to being crushed by the big powers of entangled corporations and states?
2000 watts sounds lavish enough for me, and I think Zola would be happy with it. He wasn’t a fan of greedy elites; he cared about those in need. Time to power down?

About the Author: Christine Dann is a researcher, writer and gardener who has been active in the feminist and environmental movements in Aotearoa New Zealand, has written books on politics, gardening and food, and has a Ph.D. in environmental policy. For the past twenty years she has been co-working on creating a one hectare 'habitat' garden and forest on Te Pataka o Rakaihautu/Banks Peninsula.