Go to original: “Blight for Naught: Wind Turbines and the Rationalized Desecration of Nature [1]”
“To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.” – Aldo Leopold *
Unsettling numbers of environmentalists fail to see that wind turbines are enemies of nature posing as saviors. Calling them eco-traitors is justified when you study the scope of future plans. Wind in the abstract sense is clean and natural, but the physical manifestation of how people “harvest” wind is big and unnatural [4] by necessity. Wind zealots refuse to see that ruining the countryside with obscenely large towers is a continuum of the “build, build, build!” mentality that’s destroyed nature throughout history. It’s the towering, spinning version of “drill, baby, drill!” and supply-side ideology. Wind energy promoters keep pushing the fable that their emperor isn’t an ungainly giant who cuts down trees, blasts ridges, kills airborne animals and tortures ground-based ones with blight and noise. They claim to be environmentalists but they’re mainly about non-fossil energy and new income streams. Ancient respect for landscapes, including modest human additions, has been replaced with crass talk of “installed capacity” and “market share of renewables.” The presumption that nothing is workable unless someone’s profiting is a big part of the problem. Modern economies thrive on the destruction of nature with various terms to gloss it over, like “clean energy.” The greed may never stop until society crashes like a brakeless wind turbine [5] (rare source of humor on this topic).
The original point of environmentalism was buffering nature from all human intrusions and toxins, not just fighting a specific type of pollution. Wind cheerleaders have decided that giant, mechanical weeds are green because they “must” be green. Many would probably accept dirt bikes and ATVs crawling all over hills and dunes as long as they had electric motors. Today’s “sustainability” is much more about coddling civilization than protecting nature. Some younger people may not understand what “the environment” is beyond AGW warnings they’ve heard since childhood. To become well-rounded environmentalists they should study the history of physical landscape destruction, which began with agriculture, logging & mining but has entered a major new phase with wind power. Nature has a bleak future unless this industry is restrained. It’s a tragic case of blight for naught when you see how ineffectual [6] wind turbines really are. An all-electric economy may never be possible without earthbound nuclear fusion [7] in portable configurations. Armies of ugly wind towers are doing nothing for nature itself.
Landscape-change denial has become as bad as climate-change denial and it’s worse in a hypocritical sense. The Kochs and Pruitts of the world at least aren’t pretending to be green. Large industrial wind turbines are becoming the ugliest evidence of the Anthropocene [8], creating an unprecedented visual plague with over a quarter million already installed as of 2016 (exact counts of IWTs are elusive; please send a good source if you have one). Benign depictions of wind turbines “dotting” the landscape should be changed to “stabbing” and “blighting.” Nothing else is as tall, widespread, stark and kinetic. As with climate change or cancer in the initial stages, honest discussions of wind power must include its future potential spread, not just what’s known today. The industry seeks to fill up every possible “wind resource zone” and there’s no precedent for machines of this size and quantity, especially in scenic areas. Their closest rivals are offshore oil rigs which are far less numerous, not seen from inland areas, and not designed for permanence. Some future schemes call for nearly 4 million wind turbines [9] but backlash is already strong because people can no longer ignore their presence.
Below is a list of wind industry propaganda tactics, with responses. Quasi-environmentalists keep repeating the same rationalizations for this growing blight on nature. This list may be edited as new spin emerges.
Below is an example of wind industry propaganda and arrogance from wind-energy-the-facts.org [33], which echoes awea.org [34]. The .org domain is also a ruse since wind power is clearly commercial.
“The effects of landscape and visual impact cannot be measured or calculated and mitigation measures are limited. However, experience gained recently suggests that opposition to wind farms is mainly encountered during the planning stage. After commissioning the acceptability is strong.” (source [35])
The wind business forces itself onto rural communities and expects them to adopt a Stockholm Syndrome mindset. Gag orders are placed on landowners as part of their turbine-hosting agreements (almost everyone has a price) and upbeat polls ask if people favor “renewable energy” without specifying its ugliest component. Articles and forums supporting wind power are constantly ignoring or downplaying its aesthetic damage to scenery and the animals it kills. A truly green business wouldn’t need so many cover stories. They’re filling the fields, mountains and oceans with colossal, noisy, flashing towers and acting like it’s easily ignored (see cognitive dissonance [36]). Engineers are generally not stupid people, so they’re either lying to themselves or have chosen to disrespect nature.
awea.org [34] (money clearly motivates them, just like the fossil fuel business)
wind-works.org [38] (wind advocate since the 70s, pretends the scale hasn’t grown ugly)
windustry.org [39] (lists the downsides [40] but gives them little weight; common shill tactic)
climatecrocks.com [41] (critical comments are drowned out by arrogant, quasi-green talking points)
cleantechnica.com [42] (see no evil, hear no evil; bans anyone who criticizes wind power in a forceful way)
ramblingsdc.net/windenergyopposition.html [43] (rambles about the “benefits” of rural industrialization, claims to respect nature)
thestranger.com/…/rural-people-who-hate-wind-power [44] (insults rural folk, ignores wind energy’s blight & futility; see smug quote [45])
You can’t reach hardened wind power advocates with aesthetic arguments. Many of them don’t intrinsically respect nature because they’re anthropocentric technophiles and neo-environmentalists. They probably spend far more time looking at computer screens than physical horizons. Maintenance of the technological world and its power grid is their top priority, with nature as a quaint distraction, or a backdrop for extreme sports. The height of wind turbines plays into the bungee-jumping, thrillseeker mindset and they get fascinated with the ability to build something that large. Ancient concern for nature is lost in their awe of Man’s hubris (not unique to wind turbines but they’re top dog now). Windnuts share many traits with the wingnut climate deniers they claim to despise; always pushing for more gigawatts and construction projects. Instead of protecting nature from people, now it’s about sustaining what people built with fossil fuels, using much weaker forms of energy that require vast acreage. If landscapes must be trashed for the “greener good,” they’re fine with it. Way to go, you soulless idiots! Pursuing a nature-wrecking technology in the name of environmentalism is dystopian irony at its worst. Wind power just escalates Man’s historical plundering of nature and the Manifest Destiny mindset. It squanders our last chance to downsize per countless warnings about carrying-capacity overshoot.
Wind turbine manufacturers compete to see who can build the biggest eyesores. Watch some of these videos [46] where they take pride in looming as tall as possible over the countryside. Anything green is long forgotten in those brag-fests. It’s become a bloated excuse for manufacturing, mining, logging, blasting, road building, trucking and crane rigging jobs. That’s what it takes to get huge machines installed in the hundreds of thousands, eventually millions if madness prevails. Too bad they can’t try it on a different planet instead of experimenting on the public and wildlife. Maybe there’s a planet Enercon (emphasis on the con) or a planet Vestas with no natural vistas. There’s also something sinister about the word Iberdrola, like a disease that’s also a corporation. Not only are they in the wind business, they’re vested in a controversial hydroelectric dam in Brazil [47]. Groups like Greenpeace oppose them for that but not for wind power blight. Where’s the moral consistency?
Interactive map of U.S. wind projects [48]. This is a good way to see the total sprawl of these “farms” and debunk minimal land use claims (point 5 above). You can drive for hours in some places and always see turbines. The industry wants to keep making them taller so they’ll work in lower wind areas. Scenery be damned is the general consensus. Be mindful of the 360-degree viewshed, not just their exact placement.
People who oppose the damming of water yet support the mass-disruption of airspace are a hypocritical bunch. You can put large generators at ground level or small ones inside large towers in much greater numbers. A high percentage of existing dams merely hold back water and could be retrofitted to generate electricity, which should be considered instead of more wind projects. Water is 784 times denser than air and creates a lot more power per unit area. Water dams kill swimming animals and wind dams kill flying ones. They both disturb nature in big ways, so if you’re against damming rivers, why make excuses for damming the sky? At least hydro-power makes lakes, which are also formed by natural landslides and lava. Nothing in nature looks like wind machines jutting into the sky. Wind power is a hasty reaction to the fossil fuel dilemma, not our sole choice on this scale (see wind energy vs. oil’s density [51]). The definition of the word clean contains “morally uncontaminated; pure; innocent,” which is the opposite of scenery fouled by wind turbines.
The anti-fracking movie, Promised Land [52], was originally going to be about wind turbines. They ought to do a sequel since the public is still largely duped by wind hype, thanks to media soft-pedaling. Both industries convert scenic, quiet places into energy factories and know it will disrupt lives, so they use slick propaganda. But fracking is much less visible at a distance than wind power and its lands can be restored, though water issues plague it.
* It’s unlikely that famous conservationists & naturalists like Henry Thoreau, John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, Ansel Adams, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, et al., would have welcomed this assault on landscapes. As an example, the John Muir Trust [53] (a Scottish legacy charity) is against wind turbines in any sort of wilderness area but they’re fighting a tough battle. In America, Muir founded the Sierra Club, which has sold out to green-tech, dodging the evidence and calling for “appropriately sited” renewable energy projects. Do they think the planet has endless places to hide huge towers, with so many projects already resisted? Even iconic Loch Ness is threatened by wind energy now. It’s discouraging to see modern environmentalists buy into the weak benefits of a bloated, unreliable power source.
In case you think this is a rant with no hope, I’m all for rooftop & parking-lot solar panels or putting them over train tracks and canals. They are much greener than wind monsters because they don’t increase the human footprint, which was never solely about carbon until recent attitudes took hold. Geothermal is another good renewable source, along with small, non-dense wind turbines (under 50 feet tall) and safer forms of nuclear power. The whole centralized model of building “energy farms” and moving electricity over long transmission lines (additional sources of blight) needs to end. Anything truly green should have a minimal footprint. Unless people practice restraint and use more birth control, our long-term existence on this planet isn’t assured by any technology [54]. Fossil fuels built this whole mess and it’s hard to sustain without them. The whole notion that there “must be a solution” is countered by historical evidence of human greed and shortsightedness. The modern energy quagmire vs. the scale of growing wants & needs is unprecedented. Very large machines in the countryside are a new phase of urban sprawl that leaves many of us speechless. Ecocide, Phase 2 is a good term for it. If these were housing developments or freeways, most environmentalists would oppose them for destroying open space! In light of these inexplicable new values, some ecological thinkers have resigned themselves [55] to the continued destruction of nature by old and new technologies. Wind power is actually an old technology, rebooted in the worst way.
It’s easy to find wind energy opposition groups [56] and antidotes to industry propaganda. The media has done a poor job of reporting both sides of the wind energy story but the tide seems to be turning as these machines reach a critical mass. Hopefully there will be a global moratorium on further construction, at least on mountaintops, where wind turbines are the most disrespectful. Subsidies in various nations have already been cut back as the ruse reveals itself but there needs to be an “outrage clause” that stops them for nature’s sake alone. With all the talk of Climate Justice, why not mention Landscape Justice?
Disclaimer: This blog has been referenced on some anti-wind-power sites that promote global warming denial, which is definitely not the angle here. The real solution (if any) to environmental problems is economic growth cessation and a stable population size.
This page will be updated and reworded at random with new information. [1] If you cite it, please post the link instead of a pasted snapshot.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/blight-for-naught-wind-turbines-and-the-rationalized-desecration-of-nature/
URLs in this post:
[1] Blight for Naught: Wind Turbines and the Rationalized Desecration of Nature: https://falseprogress.home.blog/2016/08/29/windturbineslandscapes/
[2] R.I.P.: https://www.google.com/search?q=mars+hill+maine+wind+turbines+lawsuit
[3] battery storage: https://docs.wind-watch.org/blight_files/laurel-mountain-wv-wind-battery-storage.jpg
[4] big and unnatural: https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+turbines+get+bigger
[5] brakeless wind turbine: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wind+turbine+out+of+control
[6] ineffectual: https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+energiewende+CO2+emissions
[7] nuclear fusion: https://www.google.com/search?q=why+is+nuclear+fusion+so+difficult
[8] Anthropocene: https://www.google.com/search?q=anthropocene+environmental+impact
[9] nearly 4 million wind turbines: https://www.google.com/search?q=jacobson+delucchi+stanford+3.8+million+wind+turbines
[10] historical sense of place: https://www.google.com/search?q=Wind+farms+gone+wild%3A+is+the+environmental+damage+justified%3F
[11] elsewhere: https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+turbines+depend+on+subsidies+PTC
[12] like this: https://www.wind-watch.org/documentsblight_files/false-perspective-water-pump-windmills-vs-wind-turbines.jpg
[13] stretch fossil fuels: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22fossil+fuel+extenders%22
[14] “wind turbine battle” video: https://youtu.be/LD5Pufk94HM
[15] concrete: https://www.google.com/search?q=concrete+wind+turbine+tower
[16] calculators for visibility vs. height and distance: https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+turbines+visible+distance+miles+horizon+calculator
[17] popular scientist repeated this deception: https://www.google.com/search?q=neil+degrasse+tyson+wind+turbines+cosmos+land
[18] 2,000 acres of a 320,000-acre ranch: http://www.powercompanyofwyoming.com/
[19] 229,000 acres: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/70695/93594/112808/CCSM_Vol_ll-Ch3a.pdf
[20] see map: https://docs.wind-watch.org/blight_files/chokecherry-sierramadre1.png
[21] NRDC ANWR land-grab map: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/arcticmap_2000acres.pdf
[22] wind energy platitudes: https://www.nrdc.org/issues/increase-renewable-energy
[23] Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/environmental-impacts-wind-power.html
[24] home values aren’t affected: https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+turbines+home+property+values
[25] Falmouth, MA: https://www.google.com/search?q=Falmouth%2C+MA+wind+turbines+removal
[26] North Carolina: https://www.google.com/search?q=North+Carolina+mountain+ridge+act+1983+wind+turbines+2009
[27] called them ugly: https://www.google.com/search?q=ugly+ranch+T.+Boone+Pickens+wind+turbines
[28] King and Kenedy ranches: https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+turbines+texas+king+ranch+kenedy+jack+hunt
[29] Read these articles.: https://www.google.com/search?q=USGS+bats+killed+by+wind+turbines
[30] Infrasound: https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+turbines+infrasound
[31] German academics saw this coming in 1998: https://www.google.com/search?q=darmstadt+manifesto+1998+wind
[32] EROI: https://www.google.com/search?q=eroi+energy+return+on+investment
[33] wind-energy-the-facts.org: http://www.wind-energy-the-facts.org/
[34] awea.org: http://www.awea.org/
[35] source: http://www.wind-energy-the-facts.org/onshore-impacts.html
[36] cognitive dissonance: https://www.google.com/search?q=cognitive+dissonance
[37] 3.8 million: https://www.google.com/search?q=jacobson+delucchi+3.8+million+wind+turbines
[38] wind-works.org: http://www.wind-works.org/
[39] windustry.org: http://www.windustry.org/
[40] downsides: http://www.windustry.org/pros_cons_wind_energy
[41] climatecrocks.com: https://climatecrocks.com/
[42] cleantechnica.com: https://cleantechnica.com/
[43] ramblingsdc.net/windenergyopposition.html: http://ramblingsdc.net/windenergyopposition.html
[44] thestranger.com/…/rural-people-who-hate-wind-power: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/03/05/rural-people-who-hate-wind-power
[45] smug quote: https://www.wind-watch.org/documentsblight_files/charles_mudede_pro-wind_quote_2012.jpg
[46] Watch some of these videos: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tallest+wind+turbine
[47] hydroelectric dam in Brazil: https://www.google.com/search?q=Iberdrola+Belo+Monte+dam+Brazil
[48] Interactive map of U.S. wind projects: https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/uswtdb/
[49] source: http://eerscmap.usgs.gov/windfarm/
[50] invade lower wind regions: http://energy.gov/eere/articles/unlocking-our-nation-s-wind-potential
[51] see wind energy vs. oil’s density: https://docs.wind-watch.org/blight_files/cubic-mile-of-oil-vs-wind-turbines-h-crane.jpg
[52] Promised Land: https://www.google.com/search?q=Promised+Land+2012+original+wind+energy+fracking
[53] John Muir Trust: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.johnmuirtrust.org%2F+wind+turbines
[54] any technology: https://www.google.com/search?q=techno-fix+book+huesemann
[55] have resigned themselves: https://www.google.com/search?q=dark+mountain+kingsnorth+wind+turbines
[56] It’s easy to find wind energy opposition groups: https://www.google.com/search?q=wind+energy+opposition+groups
[57] click for large version: https://docs.wind-watch.org/blight_files/wind-turbines-ugly-noisy-lethal-futile-blight-for-naught.png