Sacrificing U.S. forests for solar energy "misses the plot" on climate action

Sacrificing U.S. forests for solar energy "misses the plot" on climate action

U.S. states such as Vermont and Massachusetts are cutting thousands of acres of forest for solar power projects, despite the fact that this harms biodiversity and degrades ecosystems' carbon sequestration capacity.

Journalist and author Judith Schwartz joins the Mongabay Newscast to speak with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about the seeming irony of cutting forests for renewable energy, and why she says states like hers are 'missing the plot' on climate action: she lives near a forest in southwestern Vermont where a company has proposed an 85-acre project that would export its electricity 100 miles south, to customers in Connecticut.

A recent report found that such deforestation in nearby Massachusetts is unnecessary to meet that state's clean energy commitments, and would be better achieved by using already developed land like rooftops and parking lots, instead of farms or forests.

Yet the acreage lost to solar energy projects in Massachusetts since 2010 has already released the equivalent of the annual emissions of more than 100,000 cars.

Read Judith Schwartz's commentary for Mongabay about this situation here.

*Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday and Mongabay's 25th anniversary during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. *

Listen to the entire conversation on the Mongabay Newscast wherever you get your podcasts from.

If you want to support the podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.

Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.

Image: An array of ground mounted solar panels. Image by Derek Sutton via Unsplash

---

Timecodes

(00:00) Introduction

(03:09) The Irony of Clearing Forests for Renewable Energy

(10:19) AI and Data Centers Increasingly Demand More Energy

(16:24) Forests and Heat Mitigation

(25:46) Community Awareness and Action

(35:10) Credits

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(360)

A 'coalition of the willing' to urge the world to drop fossil fuels

A 'coalition of the willing' to urge the world to drop fossil fuels

A group of 57 nations mostly from the Global South, describing themselves as "coalition of the willing" intent on making the Transition Away From Fossil Fuels, or TAFF, convened in the Colombian city ...

2 Jun 33min

Australia claims it's 'on track' to meet its environment targets. Scientists disagree

Australia claims it's 'on track' to meet its environment targets. Scientists disagree

Australia is one of 17 "megadiverse" countries that account for 70% of Earth's biodiversity. However, Australia is unique in having the highest mammalian extinction rate in the world. That makes cons...

26 Mai 42min

The world must address pandemic threats urgently, says former CDC officer

The world must address pandemic threats urgently, says former CDC officer

"[The]cruel irony here [is] that the world cannot get its act together to address these threats … people are dying, animals are suffering, we're losing rainforest … these are all interconnected threat...

19 Mai 35min

Protest works, but it needs your help now more than ever, veteran activists say

Protest works, but it needs your help now more than ever, veteran activists say

"We are experiencing what some people call sort of a shutdown of the public square in the United States and around the world," says veteran environmental activist André Carothers. Along with the forme...

12 Mai 51min

A new Netflix documentary captures rare mountain gorilla behavior

A new Netflix documentary captures rare mountain gorilla behavior

"That might be something that you see in a decade, not in two years of filming," Tara Stoinksi, CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, tells me. The behavior she's referring to occurs in mountain gorill...

5 Mai 38min

Centering an Indigenous approach to forestry through reciprocity, not extraction

Centering an Indigenous approach to forestry through reciprocity, not extraction

Forester and scientist Suzanne Simard is well known for her landmark 1997 paper, which demonstrated that two distinct species of trees could share resources. At the time, it turned traditional Western...

28 Apr 41min

Across oceans, seabird flyways gain recognition — and a chance at protection

Across oceans, seabird flyways gain recognition — and a chance at protection

The routes taken by migratory birds, known as flyways, often cross vast expanses of ocean. Six of these marine flyways have now been formally recognized by the U.N.'s Convention on Migratory Species,...

21 Apr 28min

The coyotes next door: What we get wrong about America's 'song dog'

The coyotes next door: What we get wrong about America's 'song dog'

Coyotes are now present in almost every major urban-metropolitan area in the United States, yet conflicts between the canines and humans are exceptionally low. Between 1960 and 2006, only 146 docume...

14 Apr 44min

Populært innen Vitenskap

fastlegen
tingenes-tilstand
jss
rekommandert
liberal-halvtime
sinnsyn
forskningno
villmarksliv
rss-overskuddsliv
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
kvinnehelsepodden
rss-paradigmepodden
dekodet-2
rss-zahid-ali-hjelper-deg
rss-rekommandert
rss-inn-til-kjernen-med-sunniva-rose
hva-er-greia-med
psykopoden
rss-lundqvist-podden
tidlose-historier