This image has been making the rounds on social media lately, and certainly, there is a darn good bit of truth to the statement. Solar energy makes the world go 'round, makes life on the planet possible, etc. etc. Sunny days are "nice days" for the most part.
But solar development isn't as pretty as all that, folks, and it's worth thinking critically about an untempered enthusiasm for solar energy. Where, pray tell, are they putting those solar generating stations? If we're talking enormous solar generating stations in the middle of the Mojave desert, you might as well talk about mountain top removal mining. Because once they've bladed over the desert to build these energy developments, the desert (and the ancient soils and ecosystems that occur there) is gone. For good [sic].
Mad props go to groups like Basin and Range Watch for continuing to call out the destruction that industry is wreaking in our western deserts. They are being squished by solar propagandists like desert tortoises under a bulldozer.
More recent 'developments' on the issue can be found here, where our friend Chris Clarke has been tracking the real 'renewability' of renewable energy projects in California.
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