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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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.