Is Solar & Onshore Power our Easter Island Moment?

I watched last night's BBC Panorama programme - "Rewiring Britain - the race to go green". I thought it was interesting & balanced. I hope the Government was watching too.

We know we need to generate far more electricity in order to stop using unsustainable non renewables. At least I hope we do all agree on that. Developments in both onshore & offshore sustainable generation have moved forward at pace. The technology is amazing & is improving all the time. 

The problems are twofold - 

• We don't have appropriate infrastructure to transport the electricity to where it is needed efficiently e.g. Substations & Pylons.
• The current solutions are industrialising the landscape & using precious productive farm land e.g solar "farms", substations & pylons again

 

It seems to me that the decision making is based mainly on cost. It is cheaper & quicker to do it above ground on land. If we continue along this route, not only will the government alienate the public who have valid concerns, but we will lose land we desperately need for food security & wildlife habitats. 

Exactly what they think happened on Easter Island, where the population perished because they chopped down the last trees & they were too far away from land to be able to establish themselves elsewhere. This could be our Easter Island moment. Not me - I'm too old. This is the possible future we are bequeathing to our grandchildren.

If the government are determined not to listen to valid concerns & won't learn from what Holland, Belgium & Germany et al are doing we are sounding our own death knell. It just seems so obvious & short termist to me. Yet again we are going down the route of not thinking of the inevitable outcomes of bad choices.

Surely the point of government is to look widely at evidence & select the best, least harmful option? Or am I too idealistic? Is Britain incapable of that because of our adversarial, power at all costs, (sorry about the pun), system of government? 

We need to wake up & see the light.