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And only someone blind to the ecological damage that agriculture does would regard all that land as free to use by humans, without consequences. Here [0] is a

by dTal 6y ago

And only someone blind to the ecological damage that agriculture does would regard all that land as free to use by humans, without consequences. Here [0] is a map of the world's remaining wilderness. Notice how it's nearly all desert, with the exception of the Amazon rainforest. And hey, guess what's happening to that? We are short of space. And time. [0] https://images.theconversation.com/files/256144/original/file-20190129-39344-xlctan.jpg https://images.theconversation.com/files/256144/original/fil...

samatman 6y ago
Granted that the desert is effectively ideal for solar panels, and less useful for agriculture. An interesting application of this technology would be building solar arrays along the edge of advancing deserts, with shade-tolerant plants with the sort of root systems which have been shown to halt and reverse desertification. It's easier to do good things (such as halting the inexorable spread of the Sahara) if the operation is revenue-positive. Even though this would be more labor and less energy than just putting up a panel farm and calling it a day, it's more of a return on investment than the big old zero you'd get from just planting to try and fix dunes.
Spooky23 6y ago
Financialized, high output agriculture drives that, not farming in general.
hutzlibu 6y ago
Deserts are a perfect place for greenhouses as well as solar panels. Just not both of them combined. That concept might make sense in very densly populated areas, where people want to use the most out of their garden greenhouse. But on industrial scale, I am very sceptical, the efficency should be a lot higher to justify the building costs and increased complexity.
andromeduck 6y ago
Nuclear power is a thing.
kube-system 6y ago
“wilderness” is defined as places generally untouched by people at all, not land that is unused. The vast majority of the unmarked areas of that map are still unused.
invalidusernam3 6y ago
What's the definition of wilderness used on this map? The only wilderness area on the map that I've been to is the Okavango delta (which is amazing btw), but in terms of remoteness (lack of people/infrastructure) it's not that different from many of the surrounding areas
fsflover 6y ago
Except most of the "agriculture" damage occurs due to meat production: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production#Grazing_and_land_use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_p... "In the contiguous United States, 127.4 million acres of crops are grown for animal consumption, compared to the 77.3 million acres of crops grown for human consumption.[23]"

by dTal 6y ago

samatman 6y ago

Granted that the desert is effectively ideal for solar panels, and less useful for agriculture. An interesting application of this technology would be building solar arrays along the edge of advancing deserts, with shade-tolerant plants with the sort of root systems which have been shown to halt and reverse desertification. It's easier to do good things (such as halting the inexorable spread of the Sahara) if the operation is revenue-positive. Even though this would be more labor and less energy than just putting up a panel farm and calling it a day, it's more of a return on investment than the big old zero you'd get from just planting to try and fix dunes.

Spooky23 6y ago

Financialized, high output agriculture drives that, not farming in general.

hutzlibu 6y ago

Deserts are a perfect place for greenhouses as well as solar panels. Just not both of them combined. That concept might make sense in very densly populated areas, where people want to use the most out of their garden greenhouse. But on industrial scale, I am very sceptical, the efficency should be a lot higher to justify the building costs and increased complexity.

andromeduck 6y ago

Nuclear power is a thing.

kube-system 6y ago

“wilderness” is defined as places generally untouched by people at all, not land that is unused. The vast majority of the unmarked areas of that map are still unused.

invalidusernam3 6y ago

What's the definition of wilderness used on this map? The only wilderness area on the map that I've been to is the Okavango delta (which is amazing btw), but in terms of remoteness (lack of people/infrastructure) it's not that different from many of the surrounding areas

fsflover 6y ago

Except most of the "agriculture" damage occurs due to meat production: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production#Grazing_and_land_use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_p... "In the contiguous United States, 127.4 million acres of crops are grown for animal consumption, compared to the 77.3 million acres of crops grown for human consumption.[23]"