Permanently Deleted
It's really funny how people suddenly start caring about desert ecosystems. Just like they suddenly started caring about child slaves in the Congo mining cobalt for EV batteries. Those people never cared when the cobalt was mainly used as a catalyst for refining gasoline. Funny how that works, eh? But anyway. It's simply not true that building solar farms will somehow create a barren wasteland. The opposite is true. Solar farms can often help improve biodiversity on the land they're installed on.
It is possible and necessary to care about both.
The original comment is entirely valid. Deserts are not empty and those ecosystems have a complex relationship with other parts of the web of life.
The most important thing we can realize is the earth is a series of complex interconnected systems. We evolved under conditions where we were small compared the systems regeneration abilities. This is no longer true and we do have to consider how any project will affect and shift the earth's systems.
Its worth noting that CO2 emissions are not the only vector by which we are pushing the earth systems to collapse and they are interlinked. We can't push ahead on solutions that only tackle one aspect of the problem or we likely will be as unstuck as we are now.
The answer to some people using real issues to push for climate delay is not to pretend those issues don't exist (that will make the backlash worse!) but to get on top of them and study the whole positive and negative aspects and make an informed decision about the best options to tackle all the systemic challenges we face.
You have to choose: kill a few snakes and scorpions in a desert, destroy the entire planet with co2 production, or go back to live in a tent and use the horse you have parked in your garage. It's up to you.
Just worth saying that the tone is uncessarily. We rely directly and indirect on ecosystems (even ones far away from where we live) and we must get on top of our impact on them to survive.
We aren't in a position globally of just killing a few snakes but out threatening the viability of the whole web of life and risking ecosystem collapse certain areas.
We absolutely have to be questioning which projects help alleviate those issues as a whole as they are interlinked!
Also I think its worth challenging your strawman of go back to live in a tent. It is based on a misunderstanding of human prehistory and its relationship to the environment. Additionally, there is a huge spectrum in energy demands for different technologies and lifestyles and how much we can sustain is a key question for environmentalism.
