September 21, 2013
Australia, Letters

Turbine claims sail close to the wind

Central Western Daily | Sept. 21, 2013 | www.centralwesterndaily.com.au

I read the letter titled “Wind change for future generations” by Pat Bradbery (September 14) with utter disbelief.

The decision of the NSW Planning Assessment Commission to approve Bodangora wind farm is nothing but an act of negligence. The PAC has chosen to ignore the very powerful evidence put before them at the public meeting held in Wellington.

Mr Bradbery is absolutely incorrect in claiming that pseudo-science was presented by many of the speakers at the Bodangora Wind Farm Planning Assessment Commission’s public meeting. Did Mr Bradbery even bother to read what was presented? If Mr Bradbery had read and had any kind of understanding beyond what he chooses to believe in he would know that what was presented certainly wasn’t pseudo-science.

It has been well documented since 1987 that the noise and vibration emitted from the operation of industrial wind turbines is a human health hazard (see https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/07/26/wind-turbines-are-a-human-health-hazard-the-smoking-gun/).

Today in Australia we are seeing people being impacted by noise and vibration from industrial wind turbine developments out to 10km. There have been enough complaints for the NSW Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard to commission a noise audit and community survey of the Capital, Woodlawn and Cullerin Range wind farms. Has Mr Bradbery taken the time to talk with these people? I guess not!

It is also clear that NSW Health has chosen to ignore the recommendations made by the National Health and Medical Research Council that state a precautionary approach should be taken (see http://waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/how-apply-precautionary-principle-win-d-energy-projects/).

Legal cases are now being initiated throughout the world for negligence and it is only a matter of time before we see the same here.

If Mr Bradbery looked past his ideological belief that wind energy would save the world and he looked further into the scientific studies that have already been conducted and looked at the number of people being harmed he should realise that more research is needed before advocating for industrial wind turbine developments to proceed.

With what is known already the industrial wind turbine industry is solely based on making money at the expense of everyday people and future generations and not about a clean source of energy or saving the environment.

There is plenty of reputable scientific reports, research and data to prove that industrial wind turbine developments are useless in saving our environment, cost every day Australians a fortune and are harming human health and well-being.

I urge anybody interested in this topic to take the time to research for yourself, ask questions of the developers, ask them for evidence to back up what they have to say.

To date they have not provided any empirical scientific evidence to prove that wind energy is efficient, causes no harm and is cost-effective.

Patina Schneider,

Forest Reefs

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/09/21/turbine-claims-sail-close-to-the-wind/