The Sorensen Monologues

The Dangers of Solar Panels

This comic was inspired by a ProPublica article entitled “Unfounded Health Concerns are Powering a Solar Backlash.” by Anna Clark. She reports that farmers in Michigan are being thwarted from installing solar projects on the basis of completely unscientific health and safety concerns:

These fears are especially ironic given the overwhelming evidence of fossil fuels polluting our air and water, not to mention the omnipresent noise of internal combustion engines (yes, one of the objections to solar panels is the “noise,” from a device called an inverter which is typically inaudible to the public). The article goes on to debunk in detail the various arguments used by anti-solar activists.

I’m not sure what is to be done when society has reached this point of paranoia – as usual reserved for things that are beneficial. Not only would the solar projects help with the energy crisis, but they would keep struggling family farms afloat.

Roberts Guts the Voting Rights Act

This cartoon is, of course, addressing the recent Supreme Court ruling that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. The recent ruling allows gerrymandering that will severely curtail the voting power of entire communities. States are already scrambling to redistrict before the midterms. 

John Roberts, who has a long history of hostility to the VRA, made the statement that “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating based on race” in 2007 during a case about school integration plans. In 2023, when the Roberts court basically ended affirmative action, Justice Kentaji Jackson Brown wrote in her dissent, “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, the majority pulls the rip cord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”