How solar farms took over the California desert: ‘An oasis has become a dead sea’

The Guardian ^ | May 21, 2023 | Oliver Wainwright

[AZJeep]

How solar farms took over the California desert: ‘An oasis has become a dead sea’

Residents feel trapped and choked by dust, while experts warn environmental damage is ‘solving one problem by creating others’ eep in the Mojave desert, about halfway between Los Angeles and Phoenix, a sparkling blue sea shimmers on the horizon. Visible from the I-10 highway, amid the parched plains and sun-baked mountains, it is an improbable sight: a deep blue slick stretching for miles across the Chuckwalla Valley, forming an endless glistening mirror.

But something’s not quite right. Closer up, the water’s edge appears blocky and pixelated, with the look of a low-res computer rendering, while its surface is sculpted in orderly geometric ridges, like frozen waves.

“We had a guy pull in the other day towing a big boat,” says Don Sneddon, a local resident. “He asked us how to get to the launch ramp to the lake. I don’t think he realized he was looking at a lake of solar panels.”

The massive solar project covering 150,000 acres in Mohave desert causes major damage to environment, destroy plants and protected animals. The desert plants can live thousands of years and create underground forests, while removing CO2 and burying it underground. Now all this is destroyed!

[Pikachu_Dad]

Such as when there is wind creating dust storms !

[Scrambler Bob]

Such as when there is wind creating dust storms !
= = =

You don’t get it.

The wind creates dust storms when the surface has been disturbed.

Otherwise, there are a lot of desert plants, some very small, that hold the dirt in place. Even in ‘high’ winds.

That is why, during winds, the dirt clouds come from dirt roads, not just over the whole desert surface.

Construction projects are required to water the dirt when they disturb it. Because the damage the native surface.

[5th MEB]

You might also want to let the “PIKACHU PLAYING IDIOT” know that a little item called DESERT PAVEMENT, a naturally occurring condition of big rocks, small rocks, pebbles, and finer gravels and heavy sands are the natural surfacing of most American deserts.

These pavements have not been disturbed for hundreds or thousands of years, even driving on an undisturbed area will leave scars that last for centuries.

Once disturbed all the fine dust and clays beneath the pavements are subject to windblown dust storm conditions.

It’s pretty obvious the PIKACHU IDIOT knows absolutely nothing about desert environmental conditions and what affects them.