Solar farms or polar farms

When humanity started manufacturing tools to make the work of human beings easier and more efficient and to make lifestyles more comfortable, there arose a serious need for more energy to run the industry that made those tools. That was the crucial point in the history of energy making where humanity made a grave mistake, which led to consequences with which generations to come would have to fight. That grave mistake was to look for energy under the surface of the earth rather than above the atmosphere. Humanity started digging for fossil fuel to generate energy to run the industries instead of using the energy the sun was drenching the earth with every day. We could have gone solar instead of going fossil. But we didn’t. Governments around the world range from utterly reluctant to somewhat inclined toward it. But I am sure of one thing about solar energy and its relationship with all the governments around the world: someday they would all tax it.

There is a strong urge in the United States right now to generate solar power. Tesla has plans to install vehicle charging stations which would be entirely run by solar power, meaning your Tesla or any other electric vehicle would charge directly from the sun. That being said, the United States is also home to the wildest conspiracy theories ever heard. Wind farms have suffered massive propaganda attacks from the far right groups such as that they are noisy and residents in the area cannot sleep at night, that they cause birth defects in Portuguese horses, and that the turbines break and fall in nearby areas potentially killing people. The last nail in the coffin is the online propaganda that wind farms do not reduce any carbon emissions.

When it comes to solar farms, there are customised conspiracy theories. Perhaps the most ridiculous one and yet believed the most is that solar farms suck the energy out of our sun rendering it useless for humanity in the near future. Another says that solar farms destroy arable land and create toxic air in the area causing cancer to those who live nearby. There are many others but there is an interesting thing happening right now: the activists who have been led to believe in those conspiracy theories are protesting out of genuine concern for their communities and they are joined by those industry players who benefit from the spread of such conspiracy theories.

Not just the fossil fuel industry but even the nuclear energy industry also feel threatened by the increase in the energy market share and potential overtaking of the US energy market by solar and wind energy production means. Currently, only about 3.4 % of the US energy production happens through solar means. That is going to dramatically increase over the years if the United States has to slow down and eventually stop carbon emissions resulting from dirty energy.

When solar farm plans are advertised in any community across America, wild conspiracy theories are suddenly born and spread across the internet. The result is a divided and confused population in the area with mixed feelings, if not total rejection, for the proposed solar farm. The conspiracy theories play the role of slowing down, if not outright dismantling, of the plans for installing solar farms in various communities across America. This is one of the previous methods used by the tobacco and fossil fuel industries in creating doubt and dividing people over opinion. Michael Mann has written about it in his impeccable book The New Climate War and I wrote about it in this space as well.

It is quite a remarkable trait of human beings to be in favour of actions that are against their own interests. I mean really, why else would we be smoking cigarettes and driving gasoline run cars, while knowing we are actually committing a slow mass suicide. Science has fought against deadly diseases but it has made us deadly.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2023.

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