Solar’s sunny side

Re The Darker Side Of Solar Power (May 28): Do solar photovoltaics have any negative environmental impacts? Yes. But they pale in comparison to the global environmental damage left in the wake of the fossil fuel industry’s entire life cycle (e.g. exploration, extraction, distribution, refinement and especially burning), even when normalizing for energy output.

Suggesting otherwise is disingenuous. It’s like warning obese people about the drawbacks of exercise and whole foods. Yes, one could find some drawbacks, but to highlight them completely obscures the consequences of continuing with the status quo.

Let’s keep things in perspective.

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Note: This appeared as a letter to the editor in The Globe & Mail.