(Is the left really on the side of life on this planet?)

Shadows Over Joshua Tree: Sacrificing Nature for Solar Power

Jason Brown | May 6, 2024

“4,200 Joshua trees are scheduled to be removed and replaced by solar panels for the Aratina Solar Project near Boron, CA in June of this year. They will not be salvaged but funds based on the size of the tree will be placed in a mitigation bank”, according to Basin & Range Watch.

Just in case you don’t know what a mitigation bank is? Well, it is a way to offset the ecological loss of a development project by compensating for the preservation and restoration of a different area. How is this right?

In 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that Joshua Trees are not endangered. They concluded they are unlikely to be significantly threatened in the next 50 years.

However, a study conducted in 2013 revealed that Joshua trees are experiencing a halt in reproduction across approximately half of their range within Joshua Tree National Park. As temperatures rise and conditions become drier, it is anticipated that the available habitat for Joshua trees will diminish significantly. By the end of the century, as much as 90 percent of the Joshua Tree habitat could vanish due to these environmental changes. You read that right, a reduction of 90 percent.

https://sierrawave.net/shadows-over-joshua-tree-sacrificing-nature-for-solar-power/