Bresnihan, Patrick and Brodie, Patrick (2023) Data sinks, carbon services: Waste, storage and energy cultures on Ireland’s peat bogs. New Media & Society, 25 (2). pp. 361-383. ISSN 1461-4448

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Abstract

This article examines strategies by the Irish state to phase out the extraction and burning of peat as a carbon fuel source in relation to the growing energy demands of data centres. One of the major proposals within the ‘just transition’ for post-extractive peat boglands is to incentivise the construction of data centres and associated energy infrastructures alongside bog reclamation projects to encourage carbon sequestration. These entangled plans for data, energy and carbon ‘storage’, driven by large-scale and transformative relations to boglands, inherit colonial ways of valuing bogs as ‘wastelands’ that must be put to work for industrial capital. We argue that through paired digital and green industrial strategies, the transformative energy cultures and frontiers of capital continue to expand beyond the apparent sites of data and energy infrastructural development, penetrating deeper into the earth and its atmosphere.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Bogs; climate change; data centres; decarbonisation; energy humanities; Ireland; renewable energy; waste;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, ICARUS
Item ID:	18397
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221149948
Depositing User:	Patrick Bresnihan
Date Deposited:	16 Apr 2024 14:17
Journal or Publication Title:	New Media & Society
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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