World War "G(reen)"

Robert McKnight

3-27-09

11:31

A "Green Civil War" of sorts is on in California where a senator is fighting to protect the state's desert land from solar and wind power plant development projects.  Californians are divided between those who want to save the earth by preserving thousands of square-miles of desert by declaring it a national monument, and those who want to save the earth by cutting carbon emissions via solar and wind power from the desert.  

Apparently, it's entirely possible for both sides to get what they want.  According to the U.S. Energy Department, "enough sunlight hits a 100-square-mile portion of the Nevada desert to power the entire country, if it could be harnessed."  It's all a matter of determining what parts of the enormous Southwestern desert region contain habitat areas vital to indigenous species of plants and animals.  Those parts that do, should be left alone, those parts that don't, should have gigantic renewable energy facilities.  The circle of life...

Quite an interesting confrontation, here.  In these times of earth-crippling-urban-sprawl, thousands of square-miles of uninhabited land (particularly in California) is very rare and very precious, but we're also in a time of earth-crippling-carbon-based-self-destruction.  We need to transition to renewable energy and we need land to do it on.  The greater good seems fairly obvious here (the planet over a portion of the California desert), but it's certainly worth thinking about.      

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