....I live in the southern Appalachians and we fought off wind farms 2 years ago in my county...but I know they’ll keep coming...they are mostly outfits from out of state who think we’re rubes, so they can run it by us...they play on people’s save-the-planet emotions...they never talk about the drawbacks that your post mentioned...or say that in the winter those turbines throw off boulder-sized blocks of ice.
Yes, I fear it's inevitable. At least you fought it as best you could. And I was stupid, my son thought it was a good idea as it could generate more income for me, so only then did I start asking questions and learned the downside. I forgot about throwing off ice. Just recently I saw a photo of the INSIDE of one of those monsters, reminded me of a missile silo.
There's a related thread here:
Wind turbines making us sick: Protestors
I know I wouldn't like to live near the whine either. To some extent, we can adapt, but how fast and at what cost?
The smaller ones seem like a better solution if we have to have them and developing more solar technology (that looks strange, too) and not a total solution (see below).
I think some liberals and conservatives alike would like to return our world to a pristine environment, but people and their needs at this time in history are what they are.
Did you notice they're playing up the oil spill? By no means do I minimize the tragedy and the consequences of that. But it will be used to counter the "Drill, Baby, drill" mantra. We live in an imperfect world, have to face it and have to make the best of it.
Do you think I could have a smaller one in my backyard? Not a chance. Why? Environmental again, NIMBY. There seems to be no perfect solution, but every aspect of it is agenda-driven and not in the best interest of a lot of people.
Burn wood? Smoke is bad for you and others. Burn corn? Waste of food. Harness the ocean currents? Bad for fish. Hydroelectric plants? Bad for fish again. Solar? Doesn't work in some parts of the country to supply sufficient need, still more for affluent although you can build your own if you understand the technology and have the DIY skills.
What has always bothered me about the anti-drilling people is I guess it's not ok to mess up our environment with it, but it's ok for the mideast and elsewhere to mess up theirs? And all the rest of it. Granted that a lot of that is desert, so why should we care, anyway? We don't know what those empty cavities cause by emptying the earth pockets from which it comes in terms of techtonic plates, at least I don't.
No matter where we go from here, we need to ease into it, not put all our eggs in one basket so to speak. Horses were bad? Yes, there was a downside to it. Cars are good? They or I should say drivers of them have killed thousands of people. Everything comes at a price. So did the horse and buggy days; people got killed in those, too.
And nature seems to have a way of mocking all our efforts; we think we're in control. To some extent we've learned to be, but stop and earthquake, tornado, volcano, other natural disasters? I think not. I once thought interstate highways were almost the greatest thing since sliced bread. Felt safer on them at first. Now I no longer do because of the high speeds, so many more large semis, and such increased traffic. Would I eliminate them? Of course not.
There I had my say for now.
No, I haven't. I LOVE stone walls lol. I think they enhance the environment and are so picturesque plus they don't particularly hurt anything of which I'm aware. IOW they're natural and harmonize with the environment.