To the Editor:

Kidder Township has announced a proposal to deforest 500 acres of land in the Poconos to build an industrial solar farm. According to the developer, the project will consist of 180,000 solar panels to be sited on a 700-acre property somewhere between Split Rock Resort and Hickory Run State Park.

Deforesting hundreds of acres of land for so-called renewable energy is not an effective strategy against climate change. Forests play a major role in regulating climate. Simply stated, water drawn up from the soil by tree roots evaporates through the leaves, releasing moisture into the air, which condenses in the atmosphere and falls back to earth in the form of precipitation. This process, known as the hydrologic cycle, helps to cool the planet, and this is why deforestation is among the top drivers of global warming. This used to be taught in our schools.

A single large oak tree is capable of transpiring 40,000 gallons of water into the atmosphere during one year (source: USGS). Today, nature’s role in regulating climate is being ignored in favor of massive “green energy” projects that require 200-300 times the land usage of natural gas or nuclear energy plants and generate tons of toxic waste that is piling up in landfills at great cost to our public health and the environment.

Kidder Township’s plan to replace 500 acres of trees in the Poconos with 180,000 heat-reflecting solar panels will do nothing to combat global warming and will probably make it worse.

Juliet Perrin

Albrightsville