A Green Dilemma
February 25, 2008
Posted by CindyC in : Opinions & Thoughts , trackback
As more people become environmentally conscious, unexpected dilemmas and questions come up. Do I buy local or organic? Should I support carbon offsets? Is biofuel really a good thing? All good questions with no one “right” answer so we all do the best we can when making choices. However, a recent court ruling make me wonder what to do when no one is in the wrong?
According to this reported story, one neighbor sued the other because their redwood trees blocked sunlight to his rooftop solar panels. The California Solar Shade Control Act prevents homeowners from shading more than 10% of neighboring solar panels between the hours of 10am to 2pm; the law exempts trees existing prior to solar panel installation. After six years of legal fights, a judge ordered the tree owners to cut down several of their redwoods; the owners will not appeal as they’ve run out of energy and money to continue the legal fight.
Although this incident seems extreme, there is no apparent good or bad guy. The solar panel owner wants to maximize his solar input and his investment. The tree owners are not against solar power but feel that trees are a valuable part of the environment too. I’m not picking sides, other than the one that believes laws should aid in the practical implementation and resolution of the dilemmas we all face.
What do you think?
CindyC at Organicpicks
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Comments»
Ohh, that’s a sad one! I think I might side with the trees. We have to remember how long those trees take to grow. They recently cut down an oak tree at our city park because it was “diseased”. It probably was 100 years to grow - you just can’t replace that!
Trees are wonderful - they provide shade, keep things naturally cool, suck carbon out of the air, provide habitat.
In any event, this is a good post. I run into so many dilemmas these days where I have to decide what to buy, weighing local, organic, packaging, GMO, etc. Who knew it would be so tough and that there wouldn’t be any readily identifiable “right” answers in most situations.
I side with the trees as well. If the trees were there before the panels were installed, they should stay. Even if they weren’t big enough to block the panels when they were installed, who doesn’t realize that trees are going to grow, especially redwoods?
I have no idea about the numbers, but I doubt that cutting down huge trees to make solar energy can be a positive thing, environmentally speaking.
Count me in as a treehugger as well. Like Michelle and Wendy said, trees take a long time to grow and they were there first!