Wind Farms

[poliphilo]

Well, that's the end of wind farms, I suppose.

David Cameron has said he'll get rid of them if he returns to power. And I imagine the other party leaders will shortly have the same idea (and claim they had it first). It's a cheap policy and there are votes in it.

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I think wind turbines are beautiful. On the other you can have too much of a good thing.

But I predict that eventually- once most of them have been swept away- there'll be a change of heart and people will start talking about how much they add to the landscape and campaigns will spring up to " save our turbines" and the few survivors will be lovingly restored and emoted over as symbols of millennial Britain.

Comments

[raakone.livejournal.com]

They could come up with a new design with a "cage" around it, or some other devices, to keep away birds, that's the main concern most of the time. Or is it a case of NIMBYism? Are wind turbines the new wooden escalators? (villified and demonized beyond what they did)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They're new therefore they're ugly- that's how the thinking goes.

[raakone.livejournal.com]

So it's pretty much NIMBYism, pure and simple?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes it is.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Even the RSPB say they don't harm birds. It's not at if the blades go around very fast, after all.

Interestingly, by coincidence, I was getting my students (17-18 year olds) to discuss windfarms today. There was almost unanimous support for them, as long as there were in a sensible place.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've never been convinced by the argument about birds. Those blades don't turn so very fast- and besides birds are used to getting out of the way of things.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Birds have evolved to dodge hawks, not to mention tree branches swaying in the wind. A lazily turning blade on a wind-turbine isn't going to cause them much trouble.