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A comment on A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on the ground. Parent comment

Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by chrisbaker98 on Saturday December 10, 2022 @04:51AM (#33931343)
From a purely selfish human point of view, how important are desert ecosystems to the overall health of the planet and the planet's ability to support human life?

I feel like sacrificing the deserts to save the rainforests is a trade worth making - but is such a trade even possible, or is it not that simple?

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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by StanislavPetrov on Saturday December 10, 2022 @05:07AM (#33931391)
Deserts are a critical part of our ecosystem just like every other part of the planet.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/201...

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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by dr_dshiv on Saturday December 10, 2022 @06:07AM (#33931629)
This article actually suggests that desertification is a critical part of the Rainforest ecosystem.

There are important deserts and there are important grasslands and important forests. It seems a valid point that not all ecosystems are of equal importance.

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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by justinator on Saturday December 10, 2022 @11:25AM (#33933897)
>From a purely selfish human point of view

Well that's a point of view that's never steered us wrong.

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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by chrisbaker98 on Sunday December 11, 2022 @04:08AM (#33941543)
Well we've been the dominant species on our planet for tens of thousands of years, so I'd say it's gone pretty well so far.
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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by justinator on Monday December 12, 2022 @10:46AM (#33955916)
Pretty well so far for whom? We've initiated a mass global extinction. There wasn't ever a competition to take over the world as a species - no award, no prize - no one and nothing cares.

The only way we've done it is by eliminating everything in our path. We've been excellent at justifying eliminating entire ecosystems - when will we stop?

Probably right before we've justified eliminating entire countries of people with the weapons of death we've developed by extracting every last resource for the ground by digging it up.

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