Quietly
I fucking hate headline writers.
While the Kubuqi Desert isn't China's largest desert, thirty years ago, the land's main export was sandstorms. Today, the Junma Solar Power Station, which is located in the desert, generates tons of electricity, and the solar panels encourage plant growth by, among other things, reducing ground speed winds. You can now find plenty of shrubs and bushes throughout the Kubuqi Desert, as well as the occasional fox or hare darting between them. And like the Gonghe Photovoltaic Park, the benefits stretch beyond just clean energy. The Junma Solar Power Station also provides grazing areas for cattle, supports crops such as watermelons and jujube (Chinese dates), and encourages tourism.
A similar experiment is taking place in California. Project Nexus is a study designed to examine the effects of solar panels and the shade they provide over the Hickman Canal, which is located east of San Francisco. The theory is that the installation could help save 63 billion gallons of water by preventing evaporation. While not necessarily as life changing as encouraging plant growth in a desert, Project Nexus works on the same principle. Regardless, large solar farms (in addition to studies that utilize cyanobacteria) could be the key to preventing future desertification.
Listen. I like this article. It's the kind of Hopium Lemmy could use more of. I like that we're getting a target to aim for that isn't just "ask politicians very nicely to ask businesses very nicely to stop lighting the planet on fire". And I recognize that - because all the big commercial venues have been poisoned against Woke Green Energy - we're just not going to see this kind of coverage in the NYT or the WSJ. I even like that it gets away from a bland "China Did Good" coverage and throws in a project a little closer to home, so we're not reflexively inundated with China Hate as a response.
But this is some high school essay ass writing style. BRG is not sending their best.
