To some people, wind turbines such as these on the southwestern slope of the extinct Pu’u Kukui volcano on the Hawaiian Island of Maui, are magestic, graceful and peaceful. For other people, they spoil nature.
Through the window of a train car late last summer, as I watched the farmland south of Berlin pass by, before we reached the gorgeous Elbe River valley nearer the border with the Czech Republic, my eyes were drawn to the hundreds — probably thousands — of wind turbines which dominate an otherwise bucolic Bavarian landscape. And my mind traveled toward the thought that one person’s solution might be another person’s problem….. that one’s treasure might actually be another’s trash.
The thinking that wind power is less polluting than most other forms of energy is commonly accepted, but not entirely convincing to me. This is because I do not find a view of the horizon much more damaged by a strip mine than I do by seeing mile after mile of towering turbines across the landscape. When I see sprawling windmills standing in lakes and oceans, I want to scream!
To me, a seascape is as victimized by a spread of windmills as by a single derrick pumping oil or gas. Burning the fossil fuel at another time and place is another matter, of course; but in terms of upsetting natural beauty at the point of resource extraction, widespread windmills do as much visual damage as the derrick.
I don’t believe I’m alone in this thinking. Property owners along the Lake Michigan shoreline are strong advocates for a clean environment, and just as adamant that wind turbines are not positioned within their view and usage of that magnificent and massive fresh water ocean. Vacation destinations we visit around the world lobby powerfully for a clean environment, and they fight even harder to assure that any solutions are not within their line of sight.
Right now in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula local citizens are fighting to overturn a zoning board decision that would allow four dozen wind turbines spread over thousands of acres of an elevated slope in the northwest UP near Lake Superior — perfect for generating wind power, of course, but it’s also some of the UP’s most pristine property. Making matters worse…… the wind farm would be built on managed timberlands which our planet needs much more of to filter its air……and even worse, these lands are hunting and fishing grounds for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, which also opposes the project.
When advocates for wind power say this wind farm project will “change the landscape,” they are not just speaking metaphorically about what it may do for UP energy costs. Unintentionally, they also speak a literal truth.
The one and only operational wind farm in the UP, located in the south central portion of the peninsula near Lake Michigan, has become a target of law suits which claim a variety of negative effects upon humans, animals and the natural environment. These lawsuits are advancing in spite of company publicity heralding the jobs it has created and the donations it is making to local non-profits.
Our natural environment cries out for protection. This requires powerful push-back against polluters as well as some so-called progressives…..against both rampant pollution and reactionary solution. Erecting monstrous structures across miles of green spaces and waterways is not an adequate answer.
Good intentions can have bad results — in fact, they often have negative effects. This should not paralyze us; but it ought to humble us, and both inform and balance our responses to all kinds of serious issues which confront us.
ALL OVER THE MAP 