Desert solar is proposed as a solution to climate change and a way to meet CA energy goals. In reality, it is an environmentally destructive and energetically inefficient solution that benefits industry. Across the Mojave Desert, large solar projects are in various states of approval which will destroy many thousands of Joshua trees. Each Joshua tree requires a permit to destroy it accompanied by a fee which can be as high as several thousand dollars. That money is then used to purchase and protect other prime Joshua tree habitat, a version of the capitalist driven conservation model.  What if a bunch of baby Joshua trees were planted overnight on pre-developed solar sites driving up the cost? What kind of tools would exist at the nexus of ecological restoration/ activism/ mock-institutional interventions? 

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Solar belongs on rooftops, parking structures, and degraded landscapes.