@mackayim2022 And a lot of solar is deployed on roofs, so you're not losing the space. They also find that a lot of crops can be grown at higher yields when they're planted under solar panels. You also have a spaces like parking lots which could be covered without losing any space there either.

@mackayim2022 1/3rd of Tasmania is opium poppy farms. if you put solar panels there they'd get in the way of the irrigation robots, please put them somewhere else

@mackayim2022 Ooh this is a really useful graphic. Thanks. !

@mackayim2022
Typo, "fossil files" should be "fossil fuels".

;)

@mackayim2022 Jeez, we're a long way from building that Dyson sphere yet.

@mackayim2022

There were complaints about the Alberta Oil Sands occupying 142,000 sq km - if we were to mine them all, that much land would be disturbed. So far, "just" 150 square miles - about 400 sq. km - have been dug up, a hundred metres deep.

About one-fifth the land needed to power all of Canada.

But those are just the oil sands; Alberta has drilled some 466,000 oil wells, each uses up an half-hectare or so you can't farm on, just for access road, that's another 2300 sq.km.

@mackayim2022 wonder how big the rectangle is for coal and gas mines/wells.

@mackayim2022 my county in the US state of NC just issued a 2 year moratorium on new solar farms. stupid rednecks.

@mackayim2022 Also the trend of “solar panels over parking lots” is kind of nice, really.

@mackayim2022
Hopefully reported and beautifully rendered! 🙏

@mackayim2022 @decryption as an example, the loss of farmland is often trotted out as an issue here. I work on a farm. I talk to farmers. *Smart* farmers are thinking about how they can include solar on-farm in order to diversify income.

@mackayim2022 Also, solar panels are great to farm under because they help the soil retain water.

@mackayim2022 Is anyone familiar enough with such things as to know how to find out how much of Australia's area is covered by mining leases?

@mackayim2022 Also, on top of roofs, parking lots, irrigation channels, places that could use some shade...is not taking land away.

@mackayim2022 this is smaller than the world’s largest cattle station, Anna Creek Station, 23,677km2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Creek_Station

@mackayim2022 so, 10,000km² less than what the US alone devotes to carparks.

https://brilliantmaps.com/europe-vs-us-parking/

@mackayim2022

Anyone produce a graph of how much land has been destroyed forest has been destroyed for the sake of fossil fuels?

How about the amount of land that’s been destroyed because of their use? By this I mean, freeways everywhere, and modern petrochemical farming, where approximately 10 fossil fuel calories are used to grow and then deliver to table one calorie of food

We destroy a living biome that’s responsible for regional climate, converting it into a fire pit

@mackayim2022 also, if we put all those panels in deserts, well that land wasn't doing much of anything else anyway. So we're making land useful that wasn't before

@mackayim2022 19,000 square km used for solar? shocking

meanwhile, 48,000,000 sq km (44% of total habitable land area on earth) used for cattle

this is not a good faith argument, so it doesn't need a response

@mackayim2022 I'd live to see the done for how much land is "lost" to roads...

@mackayim2022 @europlus If you want a world with 100x or 1000x today’s energy, only one source will get you there

No, not nuclear 😂

@mackayim2022 Interestingly, farming and having solar panels on the land is not mutually exclusive. You can do both on the same land. The solar panels can help to provide shade and cool to vulnerable plants. You can have live stock grazing in between the panels. Many options there.

@mackayim2022
The problem is not that we are consuming generic land, but that we are consuming land suitable for agriculture. In fact, the panels are put in populated areas that are easily accessible by roads, not in remote areas that cannot be farmed. It is more serious to lose 100 square meters in a fertile area in Tasmania than 100 square kilometers in central Australia