My dining room table and my fireplace mantel are both made of red oak — one specific red oak tree, to be precise. It was one individual in a small forest cleared by a relative of a relative. Why did he deforest his property?
To make room for the solar array the state of Maryland was subsidizing in his backyard. Nothing says “save the planet” like “chop down lots of trees.”
The red oaks of Maryland might not be missed, but what about the Joshua tree?
The Joshua tree is a rare and beautiful plant that exists only in a few places, including California’s Mojave Desert. The state government has an insatiable appetite for green energy, and so, it has granted a few solar developers permission to knock down Joshua trees.
The ABC News affiliate in Bakersfield explains:
“‘The threat of climate change really is an existential threat to the species, and so, the only way we’re going to save Joshua trees is to get to 100% renewable energy,’ said [environmental lawyer Brendan] Cummings. ‘If the solution to climate change is to cut down the habitat, cut down thousands of climate-threatened trees, that’s not really the solution.'”
The ABC story quotes Tehachapi, California, woman Julie Weigel painting a grim picture of what she’s seen after the Joshua trees have been torn down.
“They were at least 50-foot-long piles, at least 20- to 30-foot high, just piles and piles of Joshua trees,” explained Weigel.
“Pictures Weigel said she took of the piles back in February show the damage,” the article reports. “She says all those trees were still standing just weeks before the pictures were taken. She estimates hundreds if not thousands were cut down, and all that’s left is what you see scattered across the dirt.”
“This huge mound of where the Joshua trees were, are now this fuzzy mulch Joshua tree that you can just see that they’re trying to hide,” said Weigel.
The solar companies deny they are clearing the trees, but a green-energy plan that allows you to kill endangered species is one that might be more about profit than the other sort of green.
