One of many misconceptions about solar energy is that it can't meet real-world energy needs, or, if it could, that we'd need to cover the whole world in solar panels in order to produce enough energy to power the modern world.

Not true. And not true.

Just see the above graphic, which elegantly makes clear how much more space the extraction of oil and gas takes than solar.

And, of course -- as well as ideally, I'm a big fan of rooftop and parking lot solar -- you can put solar panels in cities, on houses, buildings, and over parking lots.

You can't do that with oil and gas wells, though, sadly, with the mad rush to fracking, oil and natural gas drilling is encroaching on suburban and urban areas here in Colorado, and elsewhere, besmirching the landscape, and threatening our water supplies.

It's rather convenient for the oil and gas industries that the negative health consequences that fracking is virtually certain to produce will show up years, if not decades, after the drilling, isn't it?

Which is all the more reason we need to move off of oil and gas and onto solar -- which we can put on our home rooftop without worrying whether it will destroy the local water supply -- as quickly as possible.

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