Why is a retracting mast preferable to a freestanding rig with, e.g. a roller furling main or a nonsuch style wishbone boom? Is there a physics reason or is this a pragmatic trade-off to fit under bridges and stay out of the way during loading?
Animals in general are only a tiny sliver of life on this planet. What most people think of as 'nature' i.e. large animals that a child can name are vastly outweighed each by worms, molluscs, bacteria, insects, and of course -- by a couple orders of magnitude -- plants.
>The report projected that the United States would have a cumulative total of 7.5 to 10 million metric tons of solar panel waste in 2050.
This compares to 292 million tons of total landfill waste in 2018 alone [1], putting solar panel waste on the order of 0.1% of total waste produced in the US between now and 2050.
I'm fairly certain that it's illegal to pay someone for less than two hours of work [1 and 2] in California, so the practice of just doing a couple rides on your way home from dropping the kids off or hitting up peak rush hour for the bonus rate would be illegal.