I'm a conservationist. I was a conservationist before I was an
EcoGeek. There is very little land on earth left in a sem-
natural state, and I believe that we should keep as much of that
land as natural as possible forever. Unfortunately, that belief
does sometimes collide with my belief that we need to increase
renewable energy production as fast as possible. The Nature
Conservancy estimates that renewable energy will occupy some
73,000 square miles of land by 2030, meaning that renewable
energy could be the biggest threat to land conservation in
America. The only thing that comes even close is real estate
development. Renewable energy has a leg up on real estate
though, because renewable energy projects can be sourced on
public lands fairly easily. And these public lands are the very
lands that are the only untouched areas of America we have left.
And, of course, this discussion ranges beyond individual
projects. A wind power project might be built in the middle of a
corn field, but in order to get the power