‘The fire has reached the stream. The green corridor is now black’

Less than an hour after we concluded our final visit to the location of the planned Meta hyperscale data centre in Gamonal/Talavera de la Reina, a large bush fire ripped through the landscape.

The night before, a local resident had guided us through the landscape to share his own fears and hopes for this territory. He pointed out how Meta had promised to maintain a ‘green corridor’ between the planned megainfrastructure and the neighbouring industrial estate to soften the destructive impact of the project. Now, he was alerting us via Whatsapp about the arrival of a large fire.

Bush fires are not unusual on this dry land. The last large fire erupted almost exactly one year ago and burned through most of the Southern half of the terrain.



Photo 1: News of the fire spreading via one of Meta’s flagship products
Photo 2: The extent of the fire as seen from above (images via Terrascope and INFOCAM)
Photo 3: Traces of last year’s fire captured during our scoping visit in September 2024
Photo 4: Remnants of last year’s fire in the ‘green corridor’
Photo 5: One of the last photographs of the ‘green corridor’ before the fire

Made possible by the Creative Industries Fund NL

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