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"And in any case, these effects are based on hypothetical scenarios. Our Sahara scenario was based on covering 20% of the entire desert in PV solar farms, for i
by tony_cannistra 3y ago
"And in any case, these effects are based on hypothetical scenarios. Our Sahara scenario was based on covering 20% of the entire desert in PV solar farms, for instance, and though there have been ambitious proposals, anything on that scale is unlikely to happen in the near future. If the covered area is reduced to a more plausible (though still unlikely) 5% of the Sahara, the global effects become mostly negligible."
All that, then this. Hard to take this seriously outside the realm of academic curiosity.
- Angostura 3y ago> Hard to take this seriously outside the realm of academic curiosity. Which is a fantastic realm
- tony_cannistra 3y agoCertainly true.
- rokkitmensch 3y agoNothing wrong with taking the intellectual dirt bikes out for a rip at all! Keeps the mind young.
- Angostura 3y agoLove this metaphor!
- olddustytrail 3y agoFor reference, the contiguous United States of America are slightly smaller than the Sahara. You're not going to cover even a noticeable fraction of a percent of that area with anything.
- willsmith72 3y agoi love how they went for something more plausible, and then still used 5%. Do they know how big the sahara is? Why not go to something like 0.1%?
- shermozle 3y agoBut don't worry, this will get round-the-clock coverage on Fox News and Sky After Dark's tenured denialists.
- jmspring 3y ago20% of the Sahara is a lot of land. I think solar is a great addition combined with other things. My primary residence is in a rural county with a lot of cattle/range land where solar farms could help greatly with something like a microgrid. At a larger level we need wind, hydro and nuclear as well.
- abhibeckert 3y agoYou could probably just cover the existing buildings on your cattle farm with solar panels and get more electricity than you can use.
- bruce511 3y agoIn academics, even a negative is useful information. This article could be reframed as "no need to every about changing the climate " As they point out, even covering 5% of the Sahara, or huge swathes of the Aussie Outback, (both unfathomable large areas) would have negligible effects. That's good to know.
- abhibeckert 3y ago20% of the Sahara would be 331 terawatts of solar panels. To put it in perspective that's an order of magnitude more than the entire global power consumption right now. I mean sure, I guess one day we'll probably consume that much power. But it won't all come from one place. It will be diversified from solar panels spread all over the world as well as and countless other forms of energy generation. Covering 20% of the Sahara in solar is a ridiculous scenario. And the impact would be, what, a slight weather variation in a few other places around the world? OK. Sounds pretty good actually.
- Ekaros 3y agoIt seems reasonable research to do. Something we should be reasonably happy to pay for.
- hannob 3y agoEntirely reasonable to research it. Not reasonable to write an article that sounds like this is an actual problem, only to tell people in the third last paragraph that it is largely a hypothetical scenario and in all likelyhood not going to matter for any real-world scenario.