Use solar power, kill a tortoise? Climate change solution carries environmental costs

Dustin Mulvaney, SJSU environmental studies professor, stands at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thurssday, May 2, 2024. Mulvaney believes California has far more than enough alternative space, including parking lots, contaminated land and other areas, that there’s no need for massive solar arrays in pristine areas such as the Mojave Desert. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) 

Turn on your toaster, bulldoze a Joshua tree. Flip a light switch, feed an endangered tortoise to a badger.

Solar power...