CIVIC LANE wo proposed English data centres have triggered debate over the environmental footprint of rapidly expanding AI infrastructure. One analysis estimated extremely high emissions under maximum-utilisation assumptions, while the government disputed the methodology. Data centres can bring investment, jobs and computing capacity but also require enormous amounts of power and infrastructure. The disagreement is therefore not simply pro-technology versus anti-technology but about what conditions society should attach to expansion. The most revealing question is which safeguard people would insist on first.