Sacrificing the desert to save the Earth: BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah solar power project will soon be a humming city with 24-hour lighting, a wastewater processing facility and a gas-fired power plant.

To make room, BrightSource has mowed down a swath of desert plants, displaced dozens of animal species and relocated scores of imperiled desert tortoises, a move that some experts say could kill up to a third of them.

Environmentalists are torn over the high cost of breaking reliance on fossil fuels. Public comment has been sought, but insiders are calling the shots.

Read our article here, and be sure to check out the accompanying graphic.

Images: Top, artist’s conception of Ivanpah ‘solar farm’ project. Bottom, the impact of a solar farm on desert ecosystems.

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