January 9, 2015
Press releases, Scotland

Reliable information on wind power is important & The road to ruin

Winds of Justice

The people of Scotland deserve the real truth regarding the costs, to them, of Renewables.

If the general public realised how hard the SNP government’s policy on wind farms was (and already is) going to impact their health and hit them in the pocket from so many different sources for NO energy security, NO affordable energy bills and NO guaranteed reduction in CO2 emissions, would they continue to go along with what they are being told by this government and the Renewables industry?

HOW MUCH EVIDENCE IS BEING HIDDEN & ARE WE BEING LIED TO ABOUT ADVERSE EFFECTS?

There is a ‘hierarchy of spin’ pervading all this. Firstly, the industry, then the DECC and finally the Institute of Acoustics who present themselves as the ‘honest brokers’ (statement available). They should not put a desire to keep the DECC happy above a need to protect the health of the public.

Councillors, planners, and statutory authorities such as SNH frequently attend presentations and workshops sponsored and hosted by the Renewables Industry.

Not only are most of these bodies prevented from attending events held by those with concerns about the industry, they are denied the same access to information such as that given at the inaugural Scottish Rural Parliament on 6th November 2013 in Oban, Argyll.

The workshop presentation was given in two parts. The first by Christine Metcalfe was entitled: “ Why the need for reliable information about wind power production is so important” focusing on health/legal directives/Forestry Commission Scotland and covering:

1. Why current wind energy policy is likely to affect the mass (urban) population and covers the immediate health impacts of those forced to live in close proximity to industrial wind turbines including issues such as Low Frequency Noise.

2. The danger of ‘Paying to be Poisoned’ through water contamination from IWT’s. See for example: http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/2014/12/doctor-claims-scotlands-biggest-windfarm-has-contaminated-public-water-supply-with-cancer-causing-chemical/ [1] and http://stopthesethings.com/2014/08/15/scotlands-toxic-shock-wind-farms-poisoning-neighbours/ [2]

(A valuable website to view for information is www.westcorkwind.com [3] which includes a particularly relevant section on CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT. The concept of citizen participation, defined by sociologist Sherry Arnstein as “the redistribution of power that enables the have-not citizens, presently excluded from the political and economic processes, to be deliberately included in the future” is graphically illustrated in the form of ‘Arnstein’s Ladder’.)

Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse with crippling energy bills, fuel poverty, escalating costs on our goods and services and our local authorities slashing their expenditure, the realisation dawns that there are those living in a complete nightmare with family’s health being compromised by living near industrial wind turbines which are approved by a government with a remit to protect us.

3. How the Forestry Commission Scotland’s role as a government organisation is being used to further government aims against the best interests of the electorate.

4. How we are forced to abide by one set of laws whilst by-passing others. How can a government insist that the EU directives relating to climate change are legally binding, whilst ignoring and by-passing equally legally binding directives which should protect our environment? The UK government is in breach of article 7 of the UN’s Aarhus Convention.

The second presentation was the “The road to ruin” by Stuart Young and has been the subject of a letter to Nicola Sturgeon and a press release.

Links to the presentations are:

http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/2014/12/why-reliable-information-on-wind-power-is-so-important/ [4]

Transcript 1: Why-reliable-information-on-wind-power-is-so-important [5]

Transcript 2: The-Road-to-Ruin [6]

Enough misleading claims have been made. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has a brief opportunity to restore truth and integrity as a mainstay of the Scottish Government in dealing with the people it is elected to serve. It will prove politically and morally dangerous to ignore the urgent need to conduct a review of all Scottish Government pronunciations on renewable energy, scrutinise them for their honesty and accuracy, and restore some moral fibre to the Governance of this country.

Notes

1. Winds of Justice is the trademark and name of the web site of a non-governmental organisation promoting environmental protection. The company – Biosphere and Dark Sky Park Protection Ltd. – purpose is, where possible, through representation to give primacy (in the face of competing development interests) to the protection of the Galloway & South Ayrshire Biosphere and the International Dark Sky Park. Also protection to the local environment against potential individual or cumulative environmental intrusion from wind farm and other industrial developments. www.windsofjustice.org.uk [7]

2. Christine Metcalfe journeyed to Geneva in Dec.2012 to attend the Hearing called by the UN’s Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. This was to defend the complaint lodged on behalf of her Community Council. That complaint was upheld in that the UK was found to be non-compliant with Article 7 of the Convention. Susan Crosthwaite was one of the observers who also spoke at the Hearing.

3. Stuart Young is a committed anti windfarm campaigner, former Chair of Caithness Windfarm Information Forum www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk [8] and author of the report “Analysis of UK Wind Power Generation November 2008 to December 2010” sometimes known as the “John Muir Report.” http://www.jmt.org/assets/report_analysis%20uk%20wind_syoung.pdf [9]

The environment of Scotland and the UK does not belong to administrators to do with as they wish, such as filling it with wind turbines and pylons. Instead, the environment of Scotland (including land held by Scottish Water and Forestry Commission Scotland) belongs to its people and they have defined rights in law, which must be respected.

In support of the above statement on the ‘hierarchy of spin’ – the Renewables UK approach has been comprehensively debunked in passing by Mike Stigwood in his paper found at //docs.wind-watch.org/Internoise-2014-Stigwood.pdf [10] titled ‘Initial findings of the UK Cotton Farm Wind Farm long term community noise monitoring project. Proceedings of INTER-NOISE 2014.’

‘This paper outlines the Cotton Farm Wind Farm community noise monitoring project where real time sound and weather data is continuously gathered at a representative community location and provided on-line for anyone to research, evaluate and improve their understanding of wind farm noise. The Cotton Farm WF project compliments measurements made by MAS Environment al (MAS) of amplitude modulation (AM) and other elements of wind farm noise at over 18 sites.’ The IoA Statement is also available.

Re. the SNH remit [11] on water: Catchment management

A catchment is the area of land drained by a river and its tributaries. The area of a catchment could include the slopes of hills, floodplains, lochs and forests. The quality and quantity of waters within a catchment closely reflect a wide range of natural processes and human activitieswhich occur throughout the entire catchment, including its ground waters and wetlands.

The waters in a catchment are connected, which means that an activity leading to poor water quality in one part of the catchment may have the potential to affect the health of a much wider area.

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is again the legislation by which SNH prevent deterioration and enhance status of aquatic ecosystems, including groundwater:

• promote sustainable water use;

• reduce pollution;

• contribute to the mitigation of floods and droughts.

Groundwater is an important resource, providing more than one-third of the potable water supply in the British Isles. In addition, it provides essential base-flow to rivers and wetland areas, often supporting important ecological systems. However, groundwater is vulnerable to pollution – especially because it is generally less apparent than surface water and the potential impacts on groundwater are rarely observed and so tend to receive little consideration. Groundwater pollution is problematic because aquifer pollution persists for long periods and is often very difficult and costly to remediate: groundwater pollution prevention measures cost 10– 20 times less than groundwater clean-up and aquifer remediation programmes. Groundwater quality is endangered by construction activities that provide a pollution source or pathway or that significantly vary natural groundwater levels. In contrast to surface water, groundwater is generally more vulnerable to pollution by chemicals, metals, hydrocarbons and salts than by sediments, because particulate pollutants are naturally filtered during infiltration and recharge. Pollution of groundwater is likely to result in the loss of potable or other water supplies, the degradation of receiving river or wetland waters and habitats, and, for offenders, prosecution.

Contacts for further information:

Susan Crosthwaite – 01465 831363
Christine Metcalfe – 01866 844220
Lyndsey Ward – 01463 782997
Stuart Young – 01877 330206


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/alerts/2015/01/09/reliable-information-on-wind-power-is-important-the-road-to-ruin/


URLs in this post:

[1] http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/2014/12/doctor-claims-scotlands-biggest-windfarm-has-contaminated-public-water-supply-with-cancer-causing-chemical/: http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/2014/12/doctor-claims-scotlands-biggest-windfarm-has-contaminated-public-water-supply-with-cancer-causing-chemical/

[2] http://stopthesethings.com/2014/08/15/scotlands-toxic-shock-wind-farms-poisoning-neighbours/: http://stopthesethings.com/2014/08/15/scotlands-toxic-shock-wind-farms-poisoning-neighbours/

[3] www.westcorkwind.com: http://www.westcorkwind.com/

[4] http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/2014/12/why-reliable-information-on-wind-power-is-so-important/: http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/2014/12/why-reliable-information-on-wind-power-is-so-important/

[5] Why-reliable-information-on-wind-power-is-so-important: http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Rural-Parliament-Why-reliable-information-on-windfarms-is-important6-11-14.pdf

[6] The-Road-to-Ruin: http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/The-Road-to-Ruin-6-11-14.pdf

[7] www.windsofjustice.org.uk: http://www.windsofjustice.org.uk/

[8] www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk: http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/

[9] http://www.jmt.org/assets/report_analysis%20uk%20wind_syoung.pdf: http://www.jmt.org/assets/report_analysis%20uk%20wind_syoung.pdf

[10] //docs.wind-watch.org/Internoise-2014-Stigwood.pdf: https://docs.wind-watch.org/Internoise-2014-Stigwood.pdf

[11] the SNH remit: https://www.nature.scot/sites/default/files/2017-07/A1168678%20-%20Good%20Practice%20during%20Wind%20Farm%20construction%20-%20Sept%202015.pdf