The Imaginary Case Against the Wind Turbine
With the rush to install as many renewable energy generators by the end of the year in the US, there are more and more stories popping up about great steps being made. However, sadly, with an increase in the good, there is also an increase in the bad, and it looks as though some people have a major bone to pick regarding the installation of wind turbines.
More often than not, in our efforts to bring environmental news to attention, we find ourselves as writers having to step back a bit, divorcing ourselves from the story to just portray the facts of the matter at hand. This often leaves us with a lot of pent up aggression and anger, often focused towards those seemingly doing all that they can to hurt the environment.
Well no longer, I say, or at least, not for the next 10 minutes. I have had enough of the petty machinations of men and women who are literally attempting to deceive people into an environmentally unfriendly way of life.
This latest tirade was sparked by an article written by the Associated Press. It is a lengthy tale, focusing primarily on the Maple Ridge Wind Farm, the largest wind project in New York State. In particular, one Mr. John Yancey, a man for whom I am immediately categorizing as a man who would oppose better education for America if it happened to interfere with his life in the slightest.
Apparently, and I’ll try and be short, Mr. Yancey hates the turbines that his father allowed to be installed on the family land. “I was sold out by my own father,” he apparently sputtered after indicating it was the noise, the “rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines” as author Helen O’Neill put it, that so enrages him.
“I just want to be able to get a good night’s sleep and to live in my home without these monstrosities hovering over me,” he says.
It gets better, because apparently his father’s decision to allow the installation of these wind turbines across the Yancey land, forced him to not speak to his father for a long time, in addition to – for whatever reason – taking a toll on his marriage.
Now if you haven’t already caught my disgust for this man, let’s just focus on the fact that John Yancey must actually be the world’s pettiest man, to apparently be so disturbed by the noise of these wind turbines. While it may not be first hand, I spent just a few minutes on YouTube listening to the videos taken of wind turbines, and it seems to me that the noise is not even louder than occasional traffic.
Furthermore, and what outrages me the most, is the fact that I have lived on main roads for a vast majority of my life. In fact, my bedroom currently resides with an open window less than 5 meters from a main road. Not only do I not care, but I am no longer affected by the noise. This also comes after living my entire early life in quiet suburbs, with no noise at all. It’s simple; you adapt!
The noise isn’t the only problem that some people will attempt to raise. Michelle Bennett yesterday wrote about the possible health risks thrown up by wind turbines, a topic that anyone in an unbiased position will acknowledge to be up in the air at best. There are the accusations that they are destroying bird populations as well, and are an ecological menace.
After spending the past hour looking at examples of people who have issues with wind turbines, I begin to get a feel for what it must have been like a century or so ago, when the automobile and skyscrapers begun to appear. Some petty English Lord probably exercised some close relationship with a city official to ensure that cars were not allowed to drive within a mile of his front gates.
Basically, it all comes down to this; wind turbines = cleaner energy, which in and of itself should also reduce land owners electricity bills (in addition to the handsome rent deals they are signing). These complaints (with the exception of the possible health risks which I will get 100% behind if proven to be true) are nothing but modern day versions of complaints that have been pestering the majority for centuries, from petty minded individuals with more interest in their own little lives than anyone else.
Photo Credit AP Photo/Mike Groll
My wife grew up in a busy metro area near the firehouse and the local hospital. Her house was two blocks from a major road. She is used to noise when sleeping and in fact had a tough time adjusting to living where we do ( a quiet suburb ).
I grew up on a hilltop on a small island in the Caribbean. Pin drop silence at night.
To this day, I do not get a restful night of sleep when she “needs” to have a fan on in the room.
You admit that YOU do not live near a wind turbine and do NOT know what the sound is like. Perhaps you should experience it for a length of time before making JUDGEMENT on this fellow.
Yes, cleaner energy. That doesn’t mean they don’t make noise. Noise bothers some people. They’re also tall and imposing objects on any landscape. That also bothers some people.
There are other ways to make clean energy, and perhaps landowners who don’t mind noise. Why attack the character of this fellow over it?
i agree with khurt. you’re arguments are just as childish as the subject about whom you’re writing. people like living in the country for a reason–whether it be the space or the lack of noise. and while i agree with the idea and use of wind power, we cannot expect anyone and everyone blindly accept their presence while you sit back and criticize those unwilling to make the rather significant sacrifices necessary for accommodating these windmills. it’s always easy to judge, joshua.
I like to visit this site for interesting news related to technology and the environment…not to read angry, biased ranting. If you wish to call yourself a “writer”, then a certain amount of objectivity and decorum is appropriate. I’m sure that you can find another outlet for your “pent up aggression”.
As for the topic at hand, I personally have not been close enough to a large wind turbine to know what they sound like, so I’ll have to reserve judgement on the fellow described in this article. I do know, however, that rhythmic, pulsating noise patterns are more disruptive than random noise that one might experience living near a roadway.
Mr. Yancey may have a perfectly valid complaint. It’s hardly fair to judge his motives when you don’t even have first-hand knowledge of his situation. Somehow I doubt that his goal is to destroy the earth by convincing the world that wind turbines are evil. Please just stick to reporting the news.
Actually, I don’t find myself having any pent-up aggression or anger at all after reporting on environmentally-related stories. On the contrary, I often have a renewed sense of hope. Like it or not, we have to deal with NIMBY complaints when considering the installation of renewable energy sources. These are valid concerns - we need to find ways to satisfy as many parties as possible or these technologies will not work in our society. Lambasting people who don’t want turbines in their backyard is not going to help anything.
Why would so many professions be involved in the International Symposium of Wind Turbine Noise http://www.windturbinenoise2007.org/ if noise was not an issue??
I grew up near a large wind power installation. We were about a mile from the nearest windmill, you couldn’t hear it, but you could clearly hear the freeway 3-4 miles away. I used to ride my bike up through the hills within a dozen yards or so of the turbines and they emit a bit of a hum and woosh sound, but it’s rather quiet and not bad at all. Nobody we knew who lived amongst the turbines cared. We all thought it was pretty cool, and were proud to have them around.
People are just being hysterical.
Have you seen the results of the meteorological studies that prove the benefits of the wind turbines?
I recently went to see the largest wind farm in Indiana and one of the largest in the midwest and I have to say I was absolutely amazed how some machine that big can be so quiet. If you are not in the immediate vicinity of the turbine chances are that you would hear the wind in the trees and fields rather than the quiet whoosh they produce. The only valid argument against wind farms is that few people see them as an eyesore. For me they are the most graceful and majestic machines I have seen in my life.
The photo above says it all. Commercial wind power doesn’t belong in communities where we live. Given it’s track record, it doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s a scourge upon the land, and perpetuated by corporations - not for its ‘greenness’- but for the resulting tax shelters that they themselves successfully lobbied for. NO ONE would welcome towering 42-story machines into their surroundings if they realized how ineffective they were in almost every respect. If people understood that T. Boone Pickens was including wind in his natural gas scheme only for the tax advantages, they would tell him to take a hike. (Understand please, that all the taxes he avoids will ultimately be bourn by us!) Does anyone ever notice that awe-inspiring images of wind turbines never reveal their miles and miles of industrial access roads, substations, overhead power lines, or massive scale in relation to the environment around them? Mr. Hill, as an ‘environmental news writer’ you really need to take a crash course in the complex issues associated with industrial wind power. Your ignorance contributes to the confusion. Turbine noise, for instance, has been the focus of several annual international symposiums hosted by the industry itself. It’s real, and it can turn people’s lives upside down if they have to live with it 24/7. But it’s just one of MANY negative impacts. The most disturbing part of this boondoggle is that while caring citizens believe their support is helping address critical problems, those problems will continue to spiral out of control. If a potential crisis from climate change truly looms, then we don’t have 20-30 years or more to be sidelined by the folly of commercial wind power. Its massive machines and intrusive development won’t stabilize soaring energy costs or cool a warming planet. It will only delay finding legitimate solutions that could make a real and meaningful difference.