This’ll be a controversial one.
I think it is selfish to complain about plans to put wind turbine farms in their ‘back yards’. I say the more renewable energy sources the better!
Right or wrong, ‘NIMBY’ is a fact of life.
Yeah but still. If it was a toxic waste dump or a casino, complain. But if you are going to complain about something that will ultimately benefit the environment and mankind - expect people to find that a little selfish.
I am not saying they shouldn’t complain. I am just saying I see it as selfish.
I wouldn’t complain about a renewable casino.
Those who complain about wind turbines are full of hot air. I wouldn’t expect the controversey to blow over anytime soon, though.
This ignores the point that there are serious and legitimite concerns regarding wind turbines.
- They take up large amounts of land to be effective on larger scales.
- They make enormous amounts of noise. You’d complain if they built an airport next to you, right?
- They kill birds in large numbers.
This sets aside the fact that their economic feasibility isn’t proven.
In short, if you think it’s selfish, volunteer your land for a wind farm.
*The wind generators themselves do not take up very much land, they have alot of space in between them.
*Newer technologies and building them higher leads to less noise.
*If the threat of massive bird death was more menacing to our ecosystem than the threat of global warming/ozone depletion, then maybe I’d concede this point.
Sure coal plants are about five times cheaper per KW/h but coal plants pump tons and tons of pollution into the atmosphere.
By the way, I’d be first in line to volunteer my land, were it not for HA’s and living in a suburb.
Actually, I’m not a huge fan of coal plants either. I just take issue with the fact that anyone who doesn’t want to stick a giant turbine on their land is a whiner standing in the way of progress.
Who said that Ray?
Maybe they do have a legit complaint. I just don’t think they should expect a whole lot of support.
Technically it is selfish as they are saying “I don’t want it!” which is different to complaints about new roads - where what is at issue is the loss of homes for wildlife, not the fact that the road will be an eyesore to humans.
(I don’t see turbines as an eyesore btw)
Not if you build them off-shore, or on land that isn’t really useful for anything else.
Not the ones I’ve stood beside. I’d say it’s quieter than the noise from the street beside my house. How many have you been up close to?
I don’t have a cite but this is pretty debatable - after they switched from the scaffolding ones to the sleek ones, bird deaths went waaaay down. Do you have anything to support this assertion?
I don’t mean to sound snarky, I’m just wondering where these ideas come from.
I think people who tell other people what they should put in their back yards should keep their opinions to themselves. It’s easy to be selfless when someone else has to put up with crap in their yard.
If it’s selfish to not want a 200 foot monstrosity in my back yard. I am comfortible with that.
It’s the same amount of land, it’s just not bothering anyone out in the middle of Montana.
msmith537 you do know that by ‘back yard’ I/we mean ‘in a field a long way away, probably not visible from most of the complainer’s back yards’.
I just can’t see the problem with a few slender white windmills dotted around a rolling green hillside, probably making little to no noise.
There isn’t a problem with this where I live. The farmers get paid an obscenely high rent for the tiny chunk of land (about 1/4 acre) the windmill sits on. My sister in law’s dad wishes that company would build dozens of windmills on his property. The rent on the little piece of land is more than he could possibly make from farming it, unless he started growing coca or opium on it.
What pisses me off is the people who think windmills kill birds, so we have to stop making windmills. Dumbasses. Birds fly into buildings and cars too, but we don’t stop building those. Oh, hey, let’s just stop going places and building things. Let’s just stand perfectly still in the hopes no retarded birdy will bump into us and get hurt. What happened to natural selection? The bird that flies into a wind turbine doesn’t get to have any more stupid babies.
And, by the way:
*The ones near my town don’t make much noise. Alot less noise than the tractors still farming the land in between them anyway.
*Some grad students with government grants have been studying the land around these windmills for over a year now, looking for dead birds to prove that “They kill birds in large numbers.” ASSUMPTION. They haven’t found one dead bird yet. Not ONE. In a year. These grad students want to find dead birds too (so they can get an extension on their grant) so it’s not like their covering up evidence. If anything, they’ll want to plant dead birds on the scene just to keep the grants coming.
I remember reading about them putting some of these off the coast of Cape Cod, and all these people where bitching about it. Despite the fact that they would have generated a good deal of electricity and were safer for the environment, people bitched against it because they were visible on the horizon.
Uh…yeah…I just took a job as a business development manager with a power company that manages the things. I can tell you pretty much anything you want to know about them.
For example…they only apear “slender” because the smaller commercial turbines are a mere 150 feet tall (not including rotar).
Not only are they visible for miles but they also require a lot of maintenance. Expect a lot of heavy cranes coming around to change rotars and geerboxes and whatnot makin all kinds of noise.
They aren’t a bunch of little pinwheels.
Some pictures that give an idea of the scale:
http://www.icit.demon.co.uk/images/wind%20turbine2.jpg
http://www.newcastle-emlyn.com/images/turbine-2.jpg
http://www.fairfieldmabey.com/images/windmill.jpg
http://www.hydro.com.au/newsroom/photolib/wind/images/asign4.jpg
http://www.british-energy.co.uk/images/library/ph_bruce_wind_turbine.jpg
But hey, I’m with you. More turbines mean more cash money for me.
They keep having to chase the damn foxes away though…
I like the offshore windfarm idea:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3063433.stm
But if you want really, really minimal intrusion into the environment, try an underwater tidal turbine:
There are plenty of wind turbines near where I live. I like 'em. Not seen many heavy cranes coming round and making all sorts of noise, but I guess I must not have been up on the moor at the time. I’m looking forward to offshore wind farms off the West Cumbria coast (between me and Lobsang). I hope tidal power takes off.