On reading the letters in the press, it amazes me to discover how many so-called Greens there are out there who are in favour of industrial wind turbines being put up over our lovely Devon landscape.
I consider myself to be environmentally friendly. I recycle all my rubbish. I restore my home rather than renovate it to avoid over-use of materials. I economise on heat and lighting in every way I can. I minimise my use of petrol. I do not spoil my environment or spoil it for others. I plant thousands of trees and grow a lot of my own food to cut down on expensive importation. I am kind to all animals and plants which share our planet. I even feed hibernating butterflies to keep them alive over winter.
And most importantly, and the main reason why our planet is in such a mess, I have not over-burdened it by contributing to its over-population.
In fact, most people think of me as being very environmentally friendly. However, I am not in favour of on-shore wind turbines.
Anyone who has bothered to analyse the facts and figures will realise they are not economically a viable source of energy and will do next to nothing to cut CO2 emissions. They are not environmentally friendly. They are not really green.
I would have thought that Green people would care about all forms of life; that they would not want to see birds and protected bats mangled by massive turbine blades, or see their habitats destroyed; that they would want to conserve our precious, special, beautiful Devon landscape and not destroy it by wishing to industrialise it; that they would care that people’s health and safety were not compromised by the noise, vibrations and dangers from these wind turbines; that they would have some compassion for people whose lives are being made a misery by these noisy monsters, while others are having their livelihoods ruined, which rebounds on the economy of the whole region and affects us all.
Do these Greens really care so little about all these matters? They seem to take the attitude: “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up.”
We are all only custodians of our heritage and our environment and I would not wish to condone a policy which leaves a lasting legacy of environmental disaster on these lovely Devon landscapes.
So who is the greenest of us all? One dictionary definition of green is “naive.” So maybe I am not green after all.
Anita D Allen,
BSc (Hons) Cert Ed,
(former lecturer in Biological and Applied Sciences),
Knowstone
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/12/06/who-is-the-greenest-of-them-all/