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 |
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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: | 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 |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/18397 |
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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