Landscapes of Accumulation
Connecting the North
On October 6, 2017, the Matawa First Nations announced that high-speed fibre-optic Internet is coming to Far North Ontario.1 Rapid Lynx Telecommunications, a $70 million, 881-km cable network intends to bridge the digital divide between the Canada’s rural north and urbanized south by connecting five remote Indigenous communities with the global exchange of data. The project is closely linked with mining interests in the region as extensive chromite deposits—essential minerals for electric vehicle batteries—have been discovered beneath the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Since 2017, communities have been negotiating with mining companies seeking employment, access to services, and protection of the pristine environment. The Matawa First Nations have used provincial and federal interest in the mining rights to advocate for development in their remote communities that have lagged far behind in government investment and access to essential services that most Canadians take for granted.
1 Matawa First Nations Management, “Matawa First Nations Welcome Required Federal and Provincial Investments to Proceed with a State of the Art Fibre-to-the-Home High-Speed Broadband Internet,” 2017.
For 18 000 households in Canada, predominantly in the north, satellites provide basic telecommunication and broadcasting services. Satellite service is slower and less dependable than physical connections, often limited to maximum download and upload speeds below 5 megabytes per second (MBPS) and 1MBPS, respectively. These slow and unreliable speeds impede access to education, health, financial, and government services along with other modern day conveniences. According to the October 2014 Satellite Inquiry Report released by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), 89 communities depend on satellite for internet alone, 83 communities use satellite for voice services, and 76 communities have satellite for internet and voice services.
As the physical infrastructure of the Internet stretches into Far North Ontario it will intersect with one of the largest natural storage systems on Earth, the carbon-rich peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands The average slope of the terrain is minimal at a fall of 0.5m per kilometre, which exposes the land to cold arctic outflows, and in conjunction with limited permeability, results in the slow drainage of water. The resulting water-logged soils and cold conditions create an environment where Sphagnum mosses thrive. These minuscule, non-vascular plants grow in enormous quantities, transforming the landscape over generations. Peat, the mass of dead Sphagnum, builds over time due to the anoxic and acidic environment that inhibits decomposition below the water table. Since the end of the last ice age around 10,000 years ago, the accumulated peat in the region’s diverse wetlands is estimated to contain 1% of global soil carbon.
Black Spruce
Black spruce (Picea mariana) is the predominant tree in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, with a range of that stretches across North America’s boreal forest. The species may establish pure stands but also grows with jack pine, white spruce, balsam fir, and aspen. Black spruce has low value for timber due to the narrowness of mature trunks.
The meeting of global internet infrastructure and the peat reserves of the Hudson Bay Lowlands will create an unique opportunity for the integration of digital and natural systems. In this proposal, the natural carbon storage of peat is integrated with the growing demand for data centres, seeking to combine digital and ecological storage systems. Throughout the world, the proliferation of the internet has spurred the mass construction of data centres that contain the internet and store our digital lives. These vast, unpopulated spaces demand enormous amounts of energy and generate heat as a by-product. In Far North Ontario, peatlands expel combustible methane, generating a positive feedback loop that is caused by and exacerbating climate change, prompting a dilemma as peatlands could soon become a net source of greenhouse gas emissions rather than a net sink. Thus, with the convergence of the internet and Far North Ontario, the storage of carbon and data can be mutually beneficial. The subterranean data centre is coupled with the deployment of an ETFE canopy, wherein methane can be siphoned to power plants where it can concentrated and burned for power. Excess heat and CO2 from combustion are used to enhance growing conditions inside the greenhouse apparatus by artificially extending the growing season, thereby increasing CO2 sequestration through accelerated peat production. While mining for mineral resources might provide the Canadian economy with resources for the 21st century—at the cost of environmental degradation—data mining in Far North Ontario might provide residents with a larger stake in global infrastructure and an environmental management system for generations to come.
Throughout the expansive horizontal terrain of the Hudson Bay Lowlands, local variations in atmospheric conditions, soil moisture, water sources, temperature, and permafrost have produced numerous wetland typologies. Unique vegetative communities have emerged within these niches that may be distinguished by predominantly open, treed, or water filled environments, creating complexity in the landscape. These wetland typologies have varying capacities to accumulate peat which build up over millennia of growth.
Above Landscape section with ETFE canopy, methane combustion facility, and access to subterranean data centre
Below Isometric diagrams of Hudson Bay Lowland wetland typologies based on descriptions and data from: J. L. Riley, Wetlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland: An Ontario Overview (Toronto: Nature Conservancy of Canada, 2011).
The Hudson Bay Lowlands exist in a state of flux responding to ecological and climatic changes that affect the growth of Sphagnum and the accumulation of peat over time. The wetlands are both the product and producer of these environments as peat accumulation affects local topography. Generations of Sphagnum growth may raise the datum of living vegetative layer above the water table, permitting trees to establish as their roots cannot grow in fully saturated soils. The integration of the peatlands with data centre and greenhouses presents the possibility of hacking natural trends of wetland succession, accelerating and adapting environmental systems amidst an unprecedented period of anthropocentric climate change. With knowledge of ecological succession trends—the general pathways of landscape transformation— a cyborg landscape could manage existing peat resources, capture methane, and enhance peat production.
Isometric diagram adapted from diagram in Riley (2011) p. 57. J. L. Riley, Wetlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland: An Ontario Overview (Toronto: Nature Conservancy of Canada, 2011).