“Those two data centers will, like, based on the developers' stats and the proposals alone, will have higher carbon emissions than the UK operations of ExxonMobil… two data centers that are proposed out of hundreds are going to have more emissions than the whole of the UK's ExxonMobil operations.”

Tech Won't Save Us · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · October 2026

Dark runs a group that sues big tech companies and challenges data center expansion. She explains that with hundreds of data centers queuing for a UK grid connection, developers are turning to their own gas-powered turbines. She cites figures her colleagues drew from two proposed sites' own planning documents.

Tech Won't Save Us · 2026-10-15 Listen to the episode → More from Martha Dark → More Tech Strategy & Big Tech quotes →

Transcript

Tech Won't Save Us Around 22:58 into the episode

Martha Dark

…quite square, that kind of idea doesn't square with what's actually happening, which is the development of the AI data centers in the UK are for American companies. The biggest ones are for Google, they're for Amazon, and they're for Microsoft. None of that, none of that screams sovereign AI.

Paris Marx

…that front too? Like, you know, we're talking about the various issues. Is there an economic benefit? What are the kind of sovereign implications of using all this? But there's also the environmental piece as well. What does that mean for the UK to see the proposals for these massive data centers?

Martha Dark

…like that. It tripled just because of the amount of energy, the amount of data centers that were trying to join the grid. And one of the things that we revealed quite recently, my colleagues Tim and Donald, is that there are these two data centers in the UK, one that's called Wopsy's Wood, which I think is a fantastic name in Buckinghamshire, and then one's called Quest Park in Bedfordshire. And those two data centers will, like, based on the developers' stats and the proposals alone, will have higher carbon emissions than the UK operations of ExxonMobil. When you hear that, like, that's just mind-blowing, right? Like, two data centers that are proposed out of hundreds are going to have more emissions than the whole of the UK's ExxonMobil operations. The emissions are through the roof, partly because of this move to gas-powered turbines and gas-powered data centers, because the AI race is such that they don't even feel they can wait for the grid…

Paris Marx

Yeah, it's so wild, right? And as you say, it's not just something that we're seeing in the UK. Like, I remember reading about or, you know, speaking to people in Ireland about that happening over there, right? You know, them skipping past the grid and just going to the gas. Obviously, we're seeing…

Martha Dark

cheer us up.

Paris Marx

Yeah. Let's talk about this legal challenge that you launched last year against a hyperscale data center in the UK, the first time that a hyperscale data center faced a legal challenge in your country. This was obviously a data center at Woodlands Park in Buckinghamshire. Can you talk about why…

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