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Are you under the impression farmland is not a massive source of dust? It's tilled and aerated soil populated by short-lived crops genetically engineered to spe

Are you under the impression farmland is not a massive source of dust? It's tilled and aerated soil populated by short-lived crops genetically engineered to spend as much of their energy on the edible part as possible. If you want a concern to hold, it's that this will probably increase pioneer grass spreading during the rainy season and then then the panels will all get melted in a wildfire. You don't need to plant anything to pollinator-friendly stuff on your land in California. It shows up with a vengeance.

hedora 7y ago
If you don’t water California soil, it cracks and then turns to dust. eg: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cracked+california+soil&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cracked+california+soil&iax=images... Also, if not controlled, Avena grass (the invasive species that turns the hills yellow during the summer) takes over, killing off anything that would support pollinators during the summer and fall.
- KirinDave 7y ago
  The cracked soil is a feature of being a desert, and since the entire point of this is that it's unsustainable to irrigate a desert that far from a major waterway, there isn't much to be done in the long term about what species thrive. That's the wages of climate change.
  - hedora 7y ago
    This area didn’t start out as desert. It is some of the most fertile (remaining) land on earth. (Like the Sahara used to be.) It also currently, but unsustainably, produces a large fraction of all food on earth. Here’s an article from 2012 with some anecdotes if numbers aren’t your thing: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/californias-central-valley-land-of-a-billion-vegetables.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/californias-cent... Here is a table of crops: https://republicans-naturalresources.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=368934 https://republicans-naturalresources.house.gov/newsroom/docu... (it doesn’t seem to include exports, so the numbers are low-balled) It is clearly being over-farmed, but the solution to that is crop rotation and letting the fields periodically go fallow. Blanketing it with solar panels is likely irreversible.
    - KirinDave 7y ago
      I'm quite aware of how much food California produces. I'm also quite comfortable with California not overfarming and just, you know, letting the rest of the country stop producing subsidized corn. I can't help but feel like it's a subtle contradiction to propose that without constant watering the soil in California will crack up and vanish and that's not going to happen with crop rotation but will happen with crop rotation (as if many farms in California aren't already forced to do this because of the nature of our groundwater). Are you also opposed to orchards? They're full of solar panels that make fruit rather than electricity.
- samplatt 7y ago
  An answer, then, is to plant some longer-term grass (or something that can hold the topsoil), and give the panels a short spray of water every morning to remove dust. Increases efficiency, prevents undesired pollinators taking control of neighboring paddocks, uses an order of magnitude less water than actual crop irrigation.
  - KirinDave 7y ago
    I'm fairly sure the pollinators are a benefit, even if we're going to have to accept much more aggressive and dangerous varieties populating the state as the average temperature rises and ongoing insect migrations continue.

hedora 7y ago

If you don’t water California soil, it cracks and then turns to dust. eg: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cracked+california+soil&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cracked+california+soil&iax=images... Also, if not controlled, Avena grass (the invasive species that turns the hills yellow during the summer) takes over, killing off anything that would support pollinators during the summer and fall.

KirinDave 7y ago
The cracked soil is a feature of being a desert, and since the entire point of this is that it's unsustainable to irrigate a desert that far from a major waterway, there isn't much to be done in the long term about what species thrive. That's the wages of climate change.
- hedora 7y ago
  This area didn’t start out as desert. It is some of the most fertile (remaining) land on earth. (Like the Sahara used to be.) It also currently, but unsustainably, produces a large fraction of all food on earth. Here’s an article from 2012 with some anecdotes if numbers aren’t your thing: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/californias-central-valley-land-of-a-billion-vegetables.html https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/californias-cent... Here is a table of crops: https://republicans-naturalresources.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=368934 https://republicans-naturalresources.house.gov/newsroom/docu... (it doesn’t seem to include exports, so the numbers are low-balled) It is clearly being over-farmed, but the solution to that is crop rotation and letting the fields periodically go fallow. Blanketing it with solar panels is likely irreversible.
  - KirinDave 7y ago
    I'm quite aware of how much food California produces. I'm also quite comfortable with California not overfarming and just, you know, letting the rest of the country stop producing subsidized corn. I can't help but feel like it's a subtle contradiction to propose that without constant watering the soil in California will crack up and vanish and that's not going to happen with crop rotation but will happen with crop rotation (as if many farms in California aren't already forced to do this because of the nature of our groundwater). Are you also opposed to orchards? They're full of solar panels that make fruit rather than electricity.
samplatt 7y ago
An answer, then, is to plant some longer-term grass (or something that can hold the topsoil), and give the panels a short spray of water every morning to remove dust. Increases efficiency, prevents undesired pollinators taking control of neighboring paddocks, uses an order of magnitude less water than actual crop irrigation.
- KirinDave 7y ago
  I'm fairly sure the pollinators are a benefit, even if we're going to have to accept much more aggressive and dangerous varieties populating the state as the average temperature rises and ongoing insect migrations continue.