https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/22/trees-cut-down-site-tesla-gigafactory-germany-deforestation
Satellite image analysis shows 329 hectares of forest cleared during development of factory in Germany
The 'forest' cut down there is just a wood farm. There's no ecosystem lost, since these farm are basically sterile
There’s no ecosystem lost, since these farm are basically sterile
Wow. All star naturalist here.
As @Encrypt-Keeper put it so well:
Trees are trees, but trees aren’t forests.
Forests are what's actually worth prtotecting. This is not different from a field of corn. There is no ecological value to a farm of pine trees. If you ever walked in one, you would know that.
Trees are trees, but trees aren’t forests. And a trees don’t have nearly the ecological impact of forests. In fact, in the U.S. and around the world we have the problem of way too many trees, which is causing apocalyptic ecological damage, because they’re the wrong kind.
Cutting down all those trees in a tree farm isn’t hurting the environment very much for the same reason that randomly planting a bunch of trees for a tree farm doesn’t help the environment, which is why conservation is so important.
Trees planted there to farm wood. It's a wood farm, not a natural forest. Get over it already.
With that logic we could cut down pretty much every single forest in Sweden and tell people to stop crying about it.
Edit: Why the down votes? We pretty much have no natural forests left in Sweden. It's basically all mono cultures planted with the intent to be cut down and sold. But if that's the only forests you have they're still very valuable (as forests I mean).
Why the downvotes
I for my part downvoted because it's just false equivalence. Cutting down a part of a commercial forest is pretty far from completely cutting "every single forest" in Sweden.
Is it great that trees were cut down without replanting? No.
Is there a perfectly cleared and infrastructurally connected plot of land in Brandenburg that Tesla could have used instead? Also no.
Your comparison was basically the same as "We sell a plot of land to Elon? Why not just sell every plot of land to him then!".
The point is not that sweden is selling every inch of land to elon.
The point is that every forest in sweden is "commercial forest" so that's a meaningless justification.
Ok, but take a step back. You’re now using the lack of original forest in Sweden to somehow argue against commercial forest in Germany being chopped down to make way for construction.
Ah I see the problem then. I wasn't trying to equate anything. I was simply addressing the reasoning behind the statement (that non-natural forests don't matter), taking it to the extreme to make point. I don't know anything about the forest in question, and I wasn't talking about it.
You are correct. It was a monoculture forest and designed to be cut down sooner or later anyway.
Yeah, it was just naturally monoculture. And now it's naturally concrete. Whats the big deal?!?! \s
Wanna bet that gigafactory somehow gets closed down or cancelled before opening? Tesla might not even survive that long.
Is it cheaper to cut down a forest than to buy a agriculture field?
That area was planted to be cut down. It was a monoculture for wood harvesting and the surrounding area still is, AFAIK. The only change to the original plan has been to not plant young trees again after cutting everything down and instead build a factory.
Probably since physical labor jobs is valued so cheap and thats not mentioning that immigrants are easily used for that kind of work for even cheaper
The wooden Cyber Truck is already a thing. Relevant video:
I'd rather not have a Tesla even if it meant I dont have an EV ever. Crappy overpriced cars.
Currently yeah, but why can't we see electric cars as the step towards getting rid of oil? More electric cars will make more and more people want cleaner energy. Where eventually the fuel to run the cars comes from fully renewable sources.
The number of trees is Europe is growing quickly. In fact, terribly so, this is an official part of the carbon mitigation strategy of many western democracies.
You can be angry about a lot of things but unless this is some ancient yewtree wood, this is honestly a nothing-burger.
Can't we just find some kind of space vehicle to put Musk in and fling it at Mars? He always wanted to go there I've heard.
Bet if we bury him in a spacesuit and a chrome coffin he wouldn't know the difference.
When talking trade-offs you can't just compare a combustion engine to an electric engine, you gotta consider electric public transport too. This has the bonus of pissing on Musk.
Germany wanted this. They courted and kissed Elon's ass for this. For all their pr, I've learned that Germans aren't as progressive and smart as they would like the rest of us to think
