Earth's Data: Climate Change, Thai Carbon Markets, and the Planetary Atmosphere

Carbon markets are the primary regulatory device for confronting climate change. This article analyzes the data practices through which carbon markets connect local reductions in carbon emissions with the planetary atmosphere as such. Carbon markets and related accounting practices are a special form of what Kim Fortun calls "informating environmentalism," that is, the rendering of environmental issues into problems that can be managed by information systems. I explore the manufacture of carbon offsets (a kind of financial product) through two companies in Thailand who reduce carbon emissions from agricultural processing factories. Criticism of carbon markets may not recognize their importance if it ignores the information practices through which they are made and global problems to which they are addressed. The study of "Earth's data" helps emphasize the anthropological significance of carbon markets. Specifically, carbon regulation seeks to ensure Earth's future habitability by managing the chemical composition of the planetary atmosphere.