Very nice reply, mairdie.
I’m reminded of the time many years ago when the environmentalists went apoplectic about the sight of offshore oil rigs off the Santa Barbara coast. They argued that the vistas were spoiled as well as the risk of oil spills. I think at some point when there are millions or even tens of millions of windmills they may come to their senses.
Surface mining companies (aka, strip mining) are required to post bonds to restore the landscape to its original condition after they have shut down the mine. So the cost of future restoration is baked into today’s cost of coal and minerals mined from the earth.
There are no such bonds required for windmills. In California, many windmills built 20 or more years ago are abandoned rusting hulks. There is no money to tear them down, pull up the hundreds of tons of concrete, and restore the landscape.
Imagine when ten million windmills have reached the end of their economic life in 2040 to 2050 and there is no bonded money for removal or restoration. Not only will the landscape be blighted with replacement windmills, all the obsolete rusting, deteriorating hulks will stand there mute, blades frozen in place, producing nothing, forever.
At least until the people rise up and scream “Do something about this mess” at which point the government will allocate $100 billion it doesn’t have to restore the sites.
This is so easy to see coming. Unfortunately, I won’t live long enough to enjoy watching this disaster unfold.
A few people are starting to talk about the environmental problem of disposing of the gigantic blades, but I haven’t heard anybody discuss how to restore the sites to their former verdant glory. Imagine a landscape with millions of bare windmill towers dotting the landscape like porcupine quills.
>> Imagine a landscape with millions of bare windmill towers dotting the landscape like porcupine quills.
Now imagine a host of skilled painters, who turn each derelict remain into an art piece of individually designed, but coherent, pieces of art. A gigantic landscape art piece whose individual pieces echo the constantly changing, but always the same, ripples and waves. No danger to the birds. No sounds that assault the ears and dull the soul.
Outside of the approved art collection, cut the remaining posts off at sand level and create a new water environment surrounded with cameras - a potential tourist diving experience.
But we have to wait until the idiots overdose on their own self-satisfaction to see common sense attack the problem in all the myriad locations with varied and clever solutions.
Sea Animals - Joseph Blanchard
https://youtu.be/UQZME_dpC_s
Love your quill image!