11mo ago

Solar project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert

ca.news.yahoo.com

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.crimedad.work/post/91685

cross-posted from: https://jorts.horse/users/fathermcgruder/statuses/112563861339745778
Solar project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/solar-project-destroy-thousands-joshua-100000768.html
It's crazy to me that a destructive photovoltaic solar project like this one is considered reasonable, but a new nuclear power plant within or adjacent to a city is beyond the pale.
@usa

CA Native Plants @lemm.ee

matilija @lemmy.world

11mo ago

Very sad they're destroying the century-old trees instead of selling them

ca.news.yahoo.com /solar-project-destroy-thousands-joshua-100000768.html

Nuclear @sh.itjust.works

CrimeDad @lemmy.crimedad.work

11mo ago

Solar project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert

ca.news.yahoo.com /solar-project-destroy-thousands-joshua-100000768.html

65 comments

Chopping down Joshua trees is a bit absurd. I live in the mohave desert, there are PLENTY of barren areas to do it, you almost have to be looking for the ancient Joshua trees to decide to do that. And as far as I know they are protected in most places, especially the California side.
But I will say the article seems a bit ragebaity. "To power wealthy people's homes". Unless they are super isolated somehow, that power is going into the grid, just like every other means of electricity production. The dude that wrote the article will be using it to charge his laptop when it's done, just like the rest of us.
- yep. and it's hardly like there are FORESTS of johsua trees, it's one here, another one over there, a few kms down the road another one.... the idea that they're paving over a forest....
  also, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they can just build around the fuckers, they're small ass trees to start with.
  Edit:
  there are totally areas chock fulla Joshua Trees. I stand corrected, see links below.
  But still think they can find space for this and other solar all throughout the southwest desert.
  
  Eh. There are legit forests as alien as it may seem. This is on my drive to work: https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/10/ae/a1/0e/the-joshua-tree-forest.jpg
  This is a random picture off Google, there are denser areas too. But, if you go a mile or two in any direction it is pretty desolate for another 50 miles. Just go anywhere other than the splotch of forest. Pretty simple.
- All of the electricity in a power grid is physically identical, but markets make a distinction between the sources by way of purchase agreements and various types of renewable energy credits. If it seems crazy for the locals to complain that they are losing their forest and not even getting the electricity from this new plant, it's not because they're mistaken. It's because we have a crazy system to try and use market incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity production.

Oh no, there destroying 1000! That must be a lot!
Oh wait, there's 10 million in existence.
Thanks, but I think this is a fine trade.
- If people think solar destroys the environment, wait till they find out about coal and natural gas
- What about all the sunny land that doesn't have Joshua trees? Why are we even trying to build power plants so far away from where the electricity is mostly needed?
  
  Do you think there are no reasons? Would you accept this if there were, or would you just say the reasons were bad?

I don't care enough about the subject to actually look into this, but the title reads like astroturfing.
- What headline would you have written instead?

crossposted from /nuclear
Alright then...
- What's wrong with !nuclear@sh.itjust.works?

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish there would be some trees around.
- These people apparently found the only ones and decided to build a solar farm there.
- No, not those shrivelled black things!

Saving the environment by killing trees. Good lord!
- I mean, they’re called a tree, but they’re an overgrown cactus. They don’t get very big and don’t have near the carbon capture something like a pine does. But there are plenty of areas of just scrub brush better suited for this project.
- Wouldn't be surprised if the local government did it on purpose to fight the jewish woke green agenda...
  
  fight the jewish woke green agenda…
  ah a fan of their space lasers I take it?

I am always really annoyed when perfectly flat space in Austria is wasted with solar panels WHEN there are huge flat roofed buildings around.
I hope they are not also chopping down trees.

I never liked U2 after they got all up themselves anyway.
- I love the story of when they played at the Barrow lands in Glasgow, I think. I'm paraphrasing
  Bono walks onto the stage and claps really slowly, at 3 second intervals.
  After a bit, he says dramatically "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies"
  A bloke in the audience shouts "Stop doing it then you cruel cunt"
  
  Scots take few prisoners, in humour.

Sounds fake

This is why new versions of net metering is a bad idea
- How? What are the differences between the new and old versions of net metering in California that are affecting this situation?
  
  I think the new version of net metering pays homeowners less than it did previously, for power that they feed into the grid, disincentivizing rooftop solar.

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !usa@lemmy.ml
- Lemmy.ml no thanks, thank you bot for trying

Solar project to destroy thousands of Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert... So Rich People Can Continue Privileged, Unsustainable Lifestyle

Reads like NIMBY propaganda. "Oh no muh construction dust." Bitch you live in a desert....
- Put solar panels in parking lots and on buildings, where the humans live, not in fragile ecosystems. Deserts aren't bereft of life, they are filled with some of the most resilient and charismatic flora and fauna known. Joshua trees and the Mojave have it bad enough already.
  
  Honestly, solar panels above parking lots would rock. Shade for people in the parking lots, and power generation. Yet we don't do it...
- Yes. Joshua trees and desert tortoises live in a desert. That's the point.
- “Construction dust that stirs up the fungus that causes valley fever…”
- There's more to NIMBYism than saying "not in my back yard" in opposition to any development for any reason. A position isn't meaningfully NIMBY unless it is in opposition to an arguably good development for bad reasons. For example, it is NIMBYism to oppose the construction of affordable housing because you don't want to attract poor minorities to your neighborhood. In this case, a PV solar power plant might arguably be a good thing, but the reasons for opposing it, including the destruction of a rare ecosystem and a specific type of dangerous construction pollution, are more than fair.

65 comments