The many faces of environmentalism...

Anyone hoping that solar energy will solve the problem of America's energy independence will have to wait at least another few years for anything to come about.

The federal Bureau of Land Management placed a temporary moratorium on applications for new solar projects to be placed on federal lands, citing that it had nearly 150 applications that still needed to be reviewed and that it would not be accepting any new applications until May of 2010. This certainly throws a damper on the development of solar energy in the U.S.

The particular area of interest is the southwest United States; namely Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and California. There are vast hectares of desert in these states and in turn is recognized as being one of the world's best spots to capture solar energy. As a result, companies have been lining up to develop solar farms in these areas. In theory (which doesn't always work out in practice) the combined electricity production of these proposed solar farms would be able to satisfy nearly all the demand of the United States. To say it bluntly, that's a shitload of power. And it's all clean and renewable.

So what's the problem?

It isn't money or technology, and it isn't the meddling fingers of King Coal, Queen Oil or Prince Gas. Quite simply, it's the environmentalists. Gasp!

"But aren't the environmentalists the ones who love solar energy and all that hippie stuff?" you might ask. But there are several parts to environmentalism. Different people have different priorities, but all want to save the environment. It's more than likely that the enviro-types in favour of solar power are more focused on combating global warming, while those who are stifling this development are a little more holistic.

They feel (and justifiably so) that no work should be developed until there are legitimate environmental impact assessments done and that no work should be done if harm will come to the existing environment. The law certainly backs them on this end. But the controversy has arisen on two fronts:

Firstly, why has it taken so long to go through these applications? Other energy developers like the oil companies or coal companies don't seem to get backed up like this.

Secondly, where do our priorities lie as human beings?

This is probably the most important question in the entire situation. We're constantly being reminded that global warming is creeping up to deliver us our impending doom and so it is becoming ever so important that we start to save ourselves and the planet before it's too late. Do we sacrifice the strict and lengthy, but valuable impact assessments for the sake of saving the world before it's too late? Especially when the environment in question is the desert?

As a society, we're going to have to decide where to put our priorities in the age of global warming. We've passed the point of realizing that global warming is a real problem that needs to be averted. But now we've hit the issue of how far are we willing to go and what may need to fall to the side in order to keep the world running. We need to establish that very quickly. Otherwise, all of our good intentions may leave us screwed anyways. We'd be fucked.

But it's the thought that counts right...