The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Tuesday, 27 November 2007 by Elizabeth
Vote: Are wind turbines beautiful or ugly?
I am all for individual windmills, but square miles of windmills across formerly beautiful green earth is so hideous, it makes my heart ache.
Virginia Robin
Taylors, South Carolina
Mother Earth News reader
Ms. Robin’s letter to the editors of Mother Earth News sparked them to do a survey about our opinions of large-scale windmill farms.
Hop over and take the survey. If you’d like, share your thoughts on the subject.
Personally, I’m in the same camp as Ms. Robin. Windmills themselves are not bad, but thousands of acres of huge windmills are as much an eyesore as transmission power lines. Plus, they are a hazard to birds, as well. Small-scale personal windmills don’t bother me. When I answered the poll, readers were pretty much split 50/50 on the issue.
The best answer to our energy problem is to step back and use less. Overall, our country isn’t doing this, so I imagine the day will come when we have to choose between the lesser of evils. Between coal-powered plants, nuclear reactors, and windmill farms. In this instance, the factory windmill farms don’t seem like such a bad option.
We have windmill farms in the area, I think they are neat looking. Maybe it would be worse if the area wasn’t desert but I don’t think so. They are in the hills and aren’t as bad looking as some might think. Dh sells parts to one of the big windmill farms in the area and scoffs at the idea that they are hazardous to birds. He’s been up there a number of times and has never seen dead birds lying around.
We also have a solar farm in the desert near us, I like that too. We have a couple of hydro plants near us, I like these the least, the pipes and lines are an eyesore in a beautiful river valley. But if you go a little further down the river and you can’t see them anymore. Honestly, I would rather see any of these three choices than coal plants.
We have a tier system for electric rates. If you stay within your baseline the rates are low at about 12 cents a kwh, each tier above that is more. We have friends that pay 35 cents or more a kwh, it doesn’t make them conserve at all. If you have the money for all the toys that use lots of power you also have the money to pay higher rates.
Winds of Change Blow into Roscoe, Texas
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16658695
Here’s a story about wind farms from another perspective.
Definitely a lot to think about with this issue. Kim, I agree that the windmills are softer on the eyes than a tangle of pipes and lines.
I could write a long rant about coal plants. We rape the land when we take out the coal, then we pollute the air with its smoke, and pollute the land yet again with the waste. And they are an eyesore.
Kim wrote:
>>If you have the money for all the toys that use lots of power you also have the money to pay higher rates.<<
And as long as you have the money, you can buy carbon offsets and tell everyone you really are green! :p
Yea…