It’s been some time since we have spilled one thing unrelated to Donald Trump: Dozens of readers wrote to the editor expressing dismay on the development of a solar energy undertaking within the Mojave Desert — reviews The Times’ Melody Petersen — which required the destruction of three,500 Joshua timber.
This is comprehensible. Joshua timber dot the desert Southwest in a manner that maybe solely the saguaro can match. Located inside a selected elevation window within the Mojave Desert – a window that’s closing as a consequence of local weather change – the vegetation act as a sort of unmistakable pure border between metropolitan Los Angeles and the excessive desert. Who would not discover the primary Joshua tree they see driving out of LA over the Cajon Pass or the 14 Freeway?
But we have come far sufficient down the street on local weather change that we have now to contemplate trade-offs, and that is one in every of them. Humanity wants to chop its carbon emissions, photo voltaic power can assist us get there, and there are few higher locations to generate photo voltaic power than the sun-soaked Mojave Desert. Readers pleading for the survival of Joshua timber recommended options resembling extra photo voltaic rooftops within the metropolis and conservation.
This shouldn’t be the primary environmental change made within the battle in opposition to local weather change. My hope is that the Joshua tree doesn’t find yourself with the grizzly bear as California’s iconic species being killed off.
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In the editor: The picture of a 150-to-200-year-old Joshua tree together with your article on the Aratina Solar Project triggered my throat to clear.
Why cannot 180,000 houses in coastal neighborhoods obtain rooftop solar energy? I’ve rooftop photo voltaic, and it would not detract from the great thing about my home. Why are threatened Joshua timber and endangered desert tortoises being sacrificed for houses so far-off?
The well-being of the residents of Boron and close by small cities will even be sacrificed for the well-being of the wealthier neighborhood. Why was the invention of a toxic soil fungus ignored?
This shouldn’t be “saving the planet.” I consider in increasing renewable power sources, however the fast repair – bulldozing, chopping and clearing a big tract of land for houses miles away – is lazy and inconsiderate.
Rooftop photo voltaic is the reply.
Starflower Thomson, Joshua Tree, Calif.
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In the editor: Most of us environmentally involved individuals within the desert Southwest knew from the beginning that this “save the planet” angle solely goes as far as tolerating NIMBYism and company greed.
An environmentalist within the Northeast who fears the removing of timber in a forest might be much less moved by the mass destruction of cactus habitat within the California desert.
An eco-concerned denizen of grizzly bear nation wouldn’t be apoplectic about eliminating rattlesnake or tortoise habitat in Arizona.
Too many Americans view the desert as a wasteland. Why do you suppose they constructed and examined nukes in New Mexico?
Destroying Joshua timber supposedly to serve the higher good is immoral. This is a failure to acknowledge that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) doesn’t shield the general public, and that we have already got many overdeveloped (and due to this fact run down) housing particularly in city areas which might be underutilized. for power manufacturing.
We must incentivize rooftop photo voltaic in order that householders and others can afford the price of putting in photo voltaic. Why, precisely, does the CPUC exist?
Denys Arcurius, an Indian
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In the editor: Joshua timber, in reality most timber, are value saving. So are the animals of the desert.
But let’s be clear: If we hope to sluggish, and finally cease, international warming, we should cease burning fossil fuels and swap to scrub, renewable power generated by wind, water and the solar.
Building photo voltaic farms wherever we are able to is about saving individuals, not killing timber or desert animals. The planet will survive international warming; persons are not.
Fortunately, scientists at Stanford University have created a renewable power street map for all 50 states and, up to now, greater than 150 different nations to information the world in making the transition. It’s time to welcome clear power infrastructure, not oppose it.
Court Casady, Palos Verdes Peninsula
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In the editor: I do not suppose it is a good trade-off to destroy the pure habitat to offer electrical energy to individuals. Conservation could also be one other manner ahead.
Joshua timber and desert dwellers (together with people) even have a proper to exist. Also, as time goes on, we people (8 billion of us) might lose what else this lovely planet of ours has to supply.
John Muir had quite a bit to say in regards to the significance of the wilderness to the human soul. For instance:
“The conflict we have now fought, and proceed to battle, for the forest is a part of the everlasting battle between proper and improper, and we can’t anticipate to see the tip of it. … Therefore we should depend on watching and striving for these timber, and should at all times be glad to see something that’s absolutely and noble effort.”
Erica Hahn, Monrovia
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In the editor: If you journey round Scotland and Germany, two of the least sunny locations on the planet, the ubiquity of rooftop photo voltaic installations is sort of stunning. How is that this potential?
They take local weather mitigation personally. California is clearly not.
Here in sunny California, the place there are millions of acres of rooftops ready to be solarized, personal fairness has gotten the go-ahead to destroy a pristine desert space with endangered vegetation and animals and powerless poor individuals subsequent door.
A non-public equity-owned developer is about to construct this huge photo voltaic facility to serve rich coastal areas, and we let that occur? What is improper with this state?
Not yet one more massive photo voltaic undertaking ought to be constructed till the photo voltaic potential of each single roof is exhausted, which is the place the power is required.
Sara R. Nichols, Los Angeles
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In the editor: As the late Huell Howser defined years in the past, it is not simply the Joshua tree that is in danger, however the habitat it offers for reptiles, bugs, birds and small desert mammals.
Can’t discover one other website for the proposed photo voltaic plant? We want clear power, however it takes years for Joshua timber to develop and multiply.
If it have been just some timber, that might be acceptable – however destroying hundreds looks like a criminal offense.
Kathleen Trinity, Acton
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In the editor: The members of the Kern County Board of Supervisors ought to be ashamed of themselves and vote out of workplace for approving the for-profit undertaking that may destroy previous progress Joshua timber and guarded habitat in wildlife.
Who is the personal fairness agency that constructed the plant to say that the advantages outweigh this horrible desecration of our pure sources? The indisputable fact that it plans to chop timber on the location to keep away from visibility and backlash proves the evil nature of this undertaking.
This sort of growth shouldn’t be a part of California’s path to scrub power, and the undertaking ought to be stopped instantly.
Peter Fennema, West Los Angeles