Wind power and warming

Two papers published Oct. 4 in the journals Joule and Environmental Research Letters by Harvard University researchers find that the transition to wind or solar power would require five to 20 times more land then previously thought and, if such large wind farms were built, it would warm average surface temperatures in the continental United States by 0.4 degrees.

Question 6 locks us into 50 percent reliance on energy sources that create this dubious environmental impact. We don’t know what other types of energy production will reveal themselves, but reducing the window for such possibilities seems counterproductive.