Letters to the Editor: More solar panels won’t save us. Americans consume too much

To the editor: Though The Times has reported extensively about solar energy, it does not address the root cause of our environmental crisis — 8 billion people consuming the Earth’s resources faster than those resources can be restored.

Unless there is a significant change in our Western lifestyles, the demand for electricity will increase radically. To supply this demand by any source whatsoever will require mineral and land resources beyond anything we have ever imagined.

The time has come to admit several truths: Families do not need more than one modest residence;
oversize pickup trucks and SUVs are needed by very few people; we do not need annual overseas vacations; local in-season crops should make up more of our diets; and we need not be driven by regular fashion changes in clothes, automobiles or furniture.

In Europe, the energy consumption per person is half of what it is in the United States, and it can hardly be claimed that the lifestyle there is inferior to ours.

If we hope to survive our environmental crisis, it will require behavioral changes, not greater investment in the consumptive technologies that have led to the present situation.

Craig Deutsche, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I’m having a hard time justifying huge solar farms with miles of transmission lines and huge storage facilities when I look around my city and see acres of parking lots and millions of roofs that could be covered with solar panels.

Where is the thinking that the effort to capture solar energy should be local and geared toward self-sufficiency wherever possible, especially in a place with a climate such as ours?

Deborah Regan, Palos Verdes Peninsula