Now, what are they going to bitch about?

Because I am a known enthusiast of wind power--and you would be too if you lived out on the prairie--I occasionally am contacted by some tormented soul who wants to complain about the environmental disaster threatened by wind turbines.  Usually it involves bird strikes--which WAS a problem of early designs but with the slow-turning modern turbines are now almost unheard of.

And then there are those who complain about the aesthetics.  I don't even know how to respond to this because I am of the opinion that wind turbines are some of the most beautiful structures ever erected by humans.  I just love them.  I also love sloops, sailplanes, Apple computers, Lexus LS sedans, and Mozart string quartets.  Since this is a list shared by few, I understand that one's aesthetic preferences are quite personal.  So I suppose some folks really DO find wind turbines ugly.  But compared to what?  Coal fired generator plants have never been exactly beautiful while the destroyed landscapes where coal is extracted by mountaintop removal and the forests dying from acid rain really ARE ugh-lee!

Unfortunately, most of the critics of wind energy seem to have baser motivation.  They are malcontents who only have the ability to complain, they are offended by anything so large, or some other fears-of-change worry.  In any case, they are NO fun to debate because they are attached to a belief set impervious to reason.

Marine Life Flourishing Beneath Off-Shore Wind Turbines

Written by Susan Kraemer

Published on January 19th, 2010 

Not only do off-shore wind turbines not harm marine life, but they actively encourage more of it, a very encouraging study has just concluded, after closely following the effects of the off-shore wind farms being built off the European coast. 

A Swedish Scientist at the Stockholm University’s Zoology Department studying the effects of off-shore wind turbines discovered that marine life has become more abundant and diverse near the foundations. Dan Wilhelmsson found that offshore wind turbines constitute habitats for fish, crabs, mussels, lobsters and plants. more