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Luke Barratt

@lukewbarratt.bsky.social
535 followers 544 following 73 posts

Investigative reporter @sourcematerial.org | Climate change, corruption, democracy | luke@source-material.org | He/Him

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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
'Dark Side of the Boom', the project I worked on looking at the impact of data centre growth in the Asia Pacific region, has won a @coveringclimatenow.org award in the 'Large projects and collaborations' category.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
A couple of months ago, Danny Cullenward announced his resignation on Bluesky. Intrigued, I interviewed many of the people involved and obtained confidential documents, unearthing a fascinating story about a battle between scientists and lobbyists. www.source-material.org/ghg-protocol...
source-material.org
Lobbyists push for declaration that felling trees helps the climate
The timber industry’s influence over forest carbon accounting rules risks derailing global carbon calculations, scientists warn.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
I'm not saying the piece 'London's Best Bagel' in Vittles this morning should've showed more respect to Brick Lane but I would've been interested to hear a little more about it than this vague and incomprehensible jab
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Ryan Gallagher @rjgallagher.co.uk · 18/06/2026
Documents reveal that a European company linked to Israeli spyware seller NSO Group has been exporting surveillance technology to government agencies in repressive countries for years, despite EU regulations intended to curb such sales: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Circles Sold Phone Spy Tools to Repressive States, Report Says
A Bulgaria-based company sold controversial surveillance technology to governments in countries with records of repression, enabling authorities to track mobile phones and eavesdrop on private communi...
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
New from me: Workers at Africa's biggest energy project, a gas-drilling venture in Mozambique led by the French oil major Total, have been accused of sexual exploitation. Soldiers paid by the project have also committed sexual violence, it is alleged. www.source-material.org/totalenergie...
source-material.org
TotalEnergies project staff linked to sexual exploitation in Mozambique
Workers at Africa’s biggest energy project ‘offered jobs for sex’ as soldiers paid by French energy giant committed abuses.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Does wearing an England shirt completely transform a person's vibe or is there a whole type of guy that hides inside until England are playing in a tournament and then takes over every pub in London?
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
It's 25 degrees how are they still all wearing gilets in the city?
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
NEW: I travelled to Kenya in Feb to interview farmers engaged in a project run by the Italian state-owned oil company Eni. They're growing crops for Eni to make into sustainable fuel for European cars and planes. I heard the project is failing. www.source-material.org/eni-italian-...
source-material.org
How an Italian oil giant's African biofuel project left farmers stranded
SourceMaterial's investigation, based on interviews with 43 farmers, as well as biofuel experts, activists and lawyers, suggests the project is failing.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Finally published a major story I've been working on for some time, with my colleague @atikarehman.bsky.social and @sushmitaw.bsky.social. Leaked documents have revealed Amazon's "dirty energy empire", as families in Mumbai suffer. www.source-material.org/amazon-data-...
source-material.org
Leak reveals Amazon’s hidden data centres' impact on emissions
Soaring electricity demand in Mumbai, where Amazon has 16 data centres, has led to crumbling coal power stations being kept open.
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Marcus Leroux @marcusleroux.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Amazon, the biggest data centre provider in the world, is actually *even bigger* than we thought. New investigation based on leaked documents by my colleague @lukewbarratt.bsky.social. www.source-material.org/amazon-data-...
source-material.org
Amazon has twice as many data centres worldwide as previously reported
Amazon uses far more data centres across the globe—and has a bigger impact on the environment—than previously reported, leaked data reveals.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
New from me: I've seen more internal Amazon documents revealing the company's data centre footprint—and environmental impact—is even more massive than people already realised. In 2023, it used 924 data centres in 50 countries, and has built many more since. www.source-material.org/amazon-data-...
source-material.org
Amazon has twice as many data centres worldwide as previously reported
Amazon uses far more data centres across the globe—and has a bigger impact on the environment—than previously reported, leaked data reveals.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Good piece by @pgreenfielduk.bsky.social on the current state of the carbon markets. Almost 3 years on from our investigation, the market is reforming, but has the Trump White House killed corporate interest in protecting forests? www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘There is no money’: As carbon markets collapse, what happens to the forests they promised to protect?
After it was found most offsets did not represent real carbon reductions, the money dried up. But successful schemes such as Kasigau in Kenya now face a stark future
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Can't recommend today's SourceMaterial offering enough, by @marcusleroux.bsky.social. It's the story of the son of a lorry driver from Calabria who has often struggled to distance himself from the Italian mafia and is now poised to buy 11 North Sea gasfields www.source-material.org/mazzagatti-v...
source-material.org
North Sea Storm – SourceMaterial
Poised to take control of ‘the backbone of the UK’s energy production’, Franceso Mazzagatti is defending allegations bribery, forgery and fraud
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Got doorknocked by Tower Hamlets Labour, who are trying to win back the Tower Hamlets mayoralty from the socialist Lutfur Rahman. The two councillor candidates on my doorstep made the eye-opening claim that Rahman has failed to build any social housing, so I thought I'd look into it 🧵
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Just tried to sign up for Substack, didn't select any interests, and two of the first recommendations are Matt Goodwin and Nick Griffin. What on earth. I don't support Huddersfield either but I'm less worried about impressionable people being groomed into following League One.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
New from me: I've seen an internal memo from Amazon Web Services. It reveals, for the first time, figures on water consumption by Amazon's data centres. It is also enlightening about their approach to transparency, which they warn is "a one-way door" www.source-material.org/amazon-leak-...
source-material.org
Leak reveals Amazon plan to keep water use of data centres secret
Amazon strategised about ways to keep the public in the dark over the true extent of its data centres’ water use, a leaked internal document reveals.
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Zach Boren @zdboren.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
'Amazon hides its water consumption' was one hypothetical headline the memo warned of always amusing when someone writes down the thing they don't want to happen nice work from @lukewbarratt.bsky.social @rosafurneaux.bsky.social @source-material.org www.source-material.org/amazon-leak-...
source-material.org
Leak reveals Amazon plan to keep water use of data centres secret
Amazon strategised about ways to keep the public in the dark over the true extent of its data centres’ water use, a leaked internal document reveals.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
I'm extremely proud of all my SourceMaterial colleagues today for their work over the last year
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Sam Bright @writesbright.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
🔴 NEW 🔴 Nigel Farage will this afternoon headline an anti-climate event at 55 Tufton Street convened by a lobby group with close ties to Trump. 📝 @desmog.com scoop with @adambarnett.bsky.social
desmog.com
Nigel Farage to Headline Tufton Street Climate Denial Event
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is set to speak at an event today organised by a pro-Trump think tank and held in the home of the UK’s main climate science denial group, DeSmog can reveal. Farage, whose...
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
“What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel, and criminal killing of civilians. It’s the result of government policy—knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.” —Ex-Israeli PM nymag.com/intelligence...
nymag.com
Israel’s Crimes of the Century
How Israel, with the help of the U.S., broke not only Gaza but the foundations of humanitarian law.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
The Onion has suddenly become the Western world's most necessary news outlet
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Ian Carrillo @iansociologo.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Great story here, with powerful details on the local environmental injustices and settler colonial dynamics related to data centers.
“We know what happens when water use goes unchecked,” says Wadsworth, gesturing eastward toward the range across the lake, where Winnemucca once filled the next basin over. “Because all we have to do is look over there and see a dry, barren lake bed that used to be full.”

In an earlier interview, Wadsworth acknowledged that the world needs data centers. But he argued they should be spread out across the country, not densely clustered in the middle of the Nevada desert.

Given the fierce competition for resources up to now, he can’t imagine how there could be enough water to meet the demands of data centers, expanding cities, and other growing businesses without straining the limited local supplies that should, by his accounting, flow to Pyramid Lake.

He fears these growing pressures will force the tribe to wage new legal battles to protect their rights and preserve the lake, extending what he refers to as “a century of water wars.”

“We have seen the devastating effects of what happens when you mess with Mother Nature,” Wadsworth says. “Part of our spirit has left us. And that’s why we fight so hard to hold on to what’s left.”
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Sharon O'Dea @sharonodea.com · 21/05/2025
No one has ever LinkedIn this hard. I am CRINE.
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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 03/05/2025
One thing that tells you a particular social, cultural or political viewpoint is widespread, common sense, normal and uncontroversial is when a corporate representative of a household name global brand feels the need to come out and publicly distance their brand and products from said viewpoint.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Feels significant: the FT has published an editorial calling out "the West's shameful silence on Gaza". It writes: "Each new offensive makes it harder not to suspect that [Netanyahu aims] to ensure Gaza is uninhabitable and drive Palestinians from their land." www.ft.com/content/f5fd...
ft.com
The west’s shameful silence on Gaza
The US and European allies should do more to restrain Benjamin Netanyahu
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Isobel Oakeshott is a Reform cheerleader - but in 2018 she said the Kremlin “struck gold” with Arron Banks, who Reform’s West of England mayoral candidate. The article is still online. New from @marcusleroux.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/does-isabe...
democracyforsale.substack.com
Does Isabel Oakeshott still believe Arron Banks was “used by the Russians”?
Oakeshott is a Reform cheerleader but in 2018 she said the Kremlin “struck gold” with the party’s West of England mayoral candidate. The article is still online.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Not the most important thing about 'White Potus' but SNL's sketches are always *way* too long. They have one idea and try to string it out for five whole minutes.
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Kris Shrishak @krisshrishak.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
"The European Commission’s AI Continent Action Plan is closer to fiction than reality. Steeped in hype, the EU will burn more fossil fuels, rinse and repeat the past, all in the name of leadership." My piece on @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/the-eu-ai-co...
techpolicy.press
The EU AI Continent Action Plan: Hype, Burn, Rinse, and Repeat | TechPolicy.Press
The Commission's plan is not just to have more data centres and more data approaches, but also to repeat past announcements, writes Kris Shrishak.
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Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
No it is not "in the cloud", but very much down to Earth. And #ClimateEmergency not the only threat - what about water and other resource use? So we can have such #AI slop as "shrimp Jesus"? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Energy demands from AI datacentres to quadruple by 2030, says report
The IEA forecast indicates a sharp rise in the requirements of AI, but said threat to the climate was ‘overstated’
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
New from me: I've spent the last 6 months compiling a map of data centres, whose locations are generally secret, operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas. www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...
source-material.org
Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas
Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.
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Joe Sandler Clarke @jsandlerclarke.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas A really clever data story from @source-material.org and the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas
Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building datacentres in water-scarce parts of five continents
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
New from me: I've spent the last 6 months compiling a map of data centres, whose locations are generally secret, operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas. www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...
source-material.org
Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas
Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Fascinating story from @dominicponsford.bsky.social on the mainstream news outlets in the UK that have quoted 'experts' who, it turns out, don't even exist pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...
pressgazette.co.uk
Virtual reality: The widely-quoted media experts who are not what they seem
Press Gazette investigation into the widely-quoted national media experts who either do not exist, or whose credentials have not been checked.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
I was interviewed for the latest File on 4! It was really interesting working with the team as they looked at various issues with the UK's biggest carbon offsetting registry, from the potential exploitation of forest communities to issues with carbon counting. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - File on 4 Investigates, The Carbon Offset Trap
Max de Haldevang investigates problems with carbon offset projects.
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SourceMaterial @source-material.org · 04/04/2025
The Carbon Offset Trap: BBC File on 4 has taken an in-depth look at the current state of carbon markets. Our reporter @lukewbarratt.bsky.social spoke to them about some of their findings. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - File on 4 Investigates, The Carbon Offset Trap
Max de Haldevang investigates problems with carbon offset projects.
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McSweeney's @mcsweeneys.net · 22/03/2025
"Yes, there’s danger in opening our gates to this statue. But there’s also danger in keeping it out… the danger of eroding the sanctity of the gift-giving process."
mcsweeneys.net
Senator Schumer Votes to Let the Big Wooden Horse into Troy
“In the wake of votes by a handful of key Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to pass a GOP-led continuing resolution funding f...
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
A convicted fraudster regularly seen in London members clubs is launching a new political strategy firm Interesting update on Farage ally George Cottrell by @ethanshone.bsky.social www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...
opendemocracy.net
Firm set up by Farage's aristo-fraudster ally is ‘red flag’
Secretive new political firm set up by ‘posh’ George Cottrell raises ‘real red flags’, anti-corruption expert warns
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CNN @cnn.com · 11/03/2025
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is being flown to The Hague, his daughter says, after his arrest on an ICC warrant
cnn.com
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte forced onto plane to The Hague after ICC arrest, his daughter says | CNN
Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been put on a plane to The Hague following his arrest on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant, his daughter and local outlet The Philippine Sta...
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
🧵Something that caught my eye in the coverage of the oil tanker collision in the North Sea was a Department of Defense agency spokesperson telling CNN that the tanker was delivering military jet fuel to Killingholme, England, a tiny village in North Lincolnshire. (1/3)
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
A ray of good news: owners of the Solong say it was not carrying sodium cyanide after all. It had been, and 4 containers on board had previously held it, but these appear to have been offloaded prior to its final voyage.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Sorry to say we failed
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Great to see @luciemheath.bsky.social nominated for environment journalist of the year at the Press Awards! Congratulations, well-deserved www.thepressawards.com/finalists/lu...
thepressawards.com
Lucie Heath
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SourceMaterial @source-material.org · 13/02/2025
🧵Twice a day, sirens sound in the shadow of Touk Meas Mountain in Kampot province, Cambodia. "We're often coughing," said Pheara, who lives nearby. Here, a cement kiln producing hazardous emissions is supposedly at the heart of the global fight against plastic pollution.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
“We’re often coughing,” said Pheara, a 32-year-old mother of a six-year-old. With Sara Hussein at @afpnews.bsky.social, I looked into plastic offsetting, which some say can solve the pollution crisis, and found that it is largely based on burning plastic.
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Unearthed @unearthednews.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
NEW INVESTIGATION 🚢 Companies including Shell and Total import millions of tonnes of gas a year to Europe from the Russian Arctic on specialised LNG tankers. Last winter, these shipments relied on a fleet of sanctioned icebreakers to cross Siberian waters 🚢
unearthed.greenpeace.org
Sanctioned nuclear icebreakers helped export gas from the Russian Arctic bought by Shell
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Supporting Heathrow's third runway and now backing Drax, both prove Rachel Reeves wasn't lying when she said at Davos that growth was more important to this government than the UK's climate change goals.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Wow, only just seeing this: the editor of Euractiv, a website that covers EU policy, has completely gone off the deep-end with an Islamophobic rant published as an editorial on the site. He's now doubling down despite open criticism from his own staff and Amnesty. www.amnesty.eu/news/mainstr...
amnesty.eu
Mainstreaming Islamophobia: When an editor goes rogue, the publisher cannot hide behind a disclaimer – European Institutions Office
In an open letter to the editor of Euractiv, Amnesty International responded to the ‘The Brief – Never again?‘ published on 27 January 2025. Dear sir, It is with shock but not surprise that we at Amne...
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
It's always nice when a story has an immediate impact! I got hold of leaked documents late last year showing Dawn Meats' new incinerator in rural Ireland could emit illegal levels of sulphur dioxide, which can cause respiratory illnesses. Now the Irish EPA has acted to ensure that doesn't happen.
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Luke Barratt @lukewbarratt.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
cool name for a town
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