Thread by @docrussjackson

Ultra-neoliberal Britain has lost more of its biodiversity than almost anywhere else in western Europe.

Changes in land use & the advent of intensive farming have swept away insect-rich wildflower meadows, which are at around 3% of their former extent.

theconversation.com/solar-farms-a-…

A full or partial switch from agricultural land to solar farms in some places would allow the land to recover. A 2016 paper found that solar farms tended to have more species of plant, insect and bird than equivalent farm fields.

helapco.gr/wp-content/upl…

Earlier research from 2013 compared land used for solar to the surrounding farmland, which the solar farm used to be a part of, & found greater numbers of butterflies & bees on the site. Butterflies & bees are worth around £400 million/year to the UK economy as pollinators.

Several more recent reports illustrate the benefits of solar farms for bumblebees, honeybees & pollinator populations more generally. Where solar farms are managed in a way that allows flowers to grow from April to early autumn, these insects have more places to forage & breed.

It stands to reason that bigger insect populations would benefit species that feed on them, such as small mammals, bats and birds. Solar panels can provide some birds with a place to nest and perch while small mammals such as field voles can gain hiding places from birds of prey.

Clearly, there are multiple potential benefits from solar farms, a fact recognised by the industry itself. The climate crisis & the ecological crisis are inextricably linked & must be tackled together. Well-considered, designed & managed solar farms could offer this opportunity.

But Liz Truss isn’t a fan of solar farms, & Govt policies are now profoundly shaped by powerful anti-Net Zero free-market lobbyists, in the UK based on #TuftonStreet, who are funded by & represent the interests of, among other, fossil fuel corporations.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1562410418253041664?s=20&t=ICzVcxbEZ_MS1gMu6iazbw

In 2014, when she was environment secretary, she described rows of panels arranged in a field to capture energy from the sun as a “blight on the landscape”. During the recent Tory Party leadership debates, she said they were a threat to UK food supplies.

And now she & her catastrophically awful government seems intent on banning new solar farms by redefining some of the most promising sites for building them as prime farmland.

Tackling the climate emergency demands urgent decarbonisation of electricity systems.

To meet its own target of a clean electricity grid by 2035, the government expects to boost the deployment of solar power fivefold. This would only increase the land allocated to solar farms to 0.3%, roughly 0.5% of that used for agriculture.