this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2024
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The amount of area needed for solar does not even begin to approach the amount of farm land. People generally aren’t building solar panels on farmland anyways? The largest instillations in the US are in the middle of the fucking desert.
Also get rid of as many parking lots as possible.
There is just so many layers of false and absurd narrative in this.
This post was maybe referring to agrovoltaics?
Still this is obviously worse right? We're taking untouched wilderness and turning it into a wasteland of blue silica. Deserts are pretty unique biomes with their own set of diverse animal and plant wildlife.
Farm land is already void of most biodiversity and usually used to grow corn or some other form of unnecessary cattle feed - yeah ideally both get rewilded - but it feels better to reuse an already existing bio wasteland instead of creating new ones..
It depends on how you see environment safety.
Either you want to safe dieing species and biomes, or you want to safe somehow the global ecosystem that keeps us alive.
First is illusionary, second is apparently too expensive according to the industrial nations.
If you can place solar in the desert without killing food supply, then do it!
The USA will have a big problem producing food once the Mediterranean climate zone wander north.
Also a lot of USAs food production is supported by a big underwater reservoir that is very close to dry up....
However I never see that they adress this issue....
A lot of farmland goes to hay fields too, which isnt just for cattle and aren't devoid of biodiversity. For example, barn owls use hay fields to hunt hence why they tend to nest in and around barns(how they got their name). Many farmers encourage them to live and nest on their property.
Hay often gets sold locally to people who own horses, goats, chickens, alpacas etc. Small, local rural economies depend on this sort of thing. Plus apiaries are often set up next to hay fields to promote pollination for certain types of grass hays, which is then sold as local honey at farmers markets.
Not saying solar can't coexist with what I've said above because it absolutely can and I'd love to see more of it. Just this idea that farmland doesnt support wildlife isnt true. Deer, barn owls, rabbits, mice, snakes all use the hay fields before and after cutting. Plus the fields used for hay aren't good for much else. Too rocky, hilly, or nothing else will grow.
Source - I've lived in a rural farm town for most of my life and grew up playing in hay fields. Lots of critters live in there.
Do you really think there's more wildlife in managed hay fields compared to letting those fields rewild? Seems quite dubious
FYI I'm a reject modernity return to hunter gatherer shill so I think humans should aim to reduce the amount of cultivated land in general
Not much desert around me. Good farmland is getting leveled and solar put on top when there are parking lots already flat they could do it on. It's just much, much easier to work with fresh ground. It's why old warehouses are left to rot and farmland right next to them are razed for new warehouses.
I put some solar on my farm, but made sure to use a plot that isn't suitable for farming.
In Germany they sometimes put solar on the south side of historic trash hills. Seems like a good idea I can't think of downsides.
You haven't seen much of the US from ground level have you. There are more and more panel farms being built on good farm land. Sizes ranging from 10 to 40 acres at a time from all the ones I've seen.
It might seem small to you, but it does add up.
At least here in Germany they do