‘A Dead Sea of Solar Panels:’ solar enclosure, extractivism and the progressive degradation of the California desert
Alexander Dunlap, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Bojana Novaković
Abstract
Based on conversations with 38 interview respondents, four focus groups and participant observation, this article examines intensive solar energy development in east Riverside County, California. Focusing on the Desert Center area, it argues that environmental policy, expressed through market-imperatives and bureaucratically-centered modeling science, severely threatens ecosystems, meanwhile failing to accomplish climate change mitigation. Critical Agrarian Studies (CAS) and Environmental Justice (EJ) are brought into dialogue to explore solar extractivism in Desert Center through the Four-Es (4Es) framework: Enclosure, Exclusion, Encroachment and Entrenchment. A scientific-bureaucratic approach to sustainable development, we find, structurally disregards rural residents, desert habitats and releases more carbon into the atmosphere.