The Imaginary Case Against the Wind Turbine

August 18th, 2008 by Joshua S Hill

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









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