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Green Issues

A weekly column on current issues by John A Burton of the World Land Trust. The views expressed are personal, and do not necessarily reflect those of the WLT. Feedback and comments are welcomed.

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More on wind turbines

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Responses to the Green Issues are relatively few and far between, but it is exceptionally depressing to get a response such as the following:

100% of the population are to be denied job oppertunity [sic]for a few birds?? get a life.
Sent anonymously, if it represents the view of even a minority of the world, it gives little hope for the future, showing a complete lack of understanding of what the debate is about, let alone the issues.

I presume it relates to a piece I posted about wind turbines in the Hebrides. Fortunately such responses are outnumbered by those in agreement with my articles ? afterall thinking about the issues is the most important step to take. Blindly criticizing and assuming jobs can be even equated with bird mortality, is so crass as to be hardly worth discussing. However, it is worth mentioning that there is increasing evidence that turbines do kill significantly more wildlife than was once thought. In principle, it seems sensible to place turbines off shore, but there is so little data on the impact of them on seabirds that even here we should exercise caution.

Building wind turbines will certainly create jobs, and will almost certainly make profits for the manufacturers, but the real question should be : ?Will they actually save non-renewable energy?? That?s the difficult one to answer. Before supporting proposals to turn the wilder parts of the landscape into industrial sites, we should first assess if we really need all this energy? It is in the interests of the numerous competing energy businesses to sell us more and more. But is it in our interests to consume more and more?

Labels: Energy and Renewable Energy Resources

Posted by John Tuesday, January 04, 2005
 
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2 Comments:

Offshore windfarms pose little risk to seabirds

By  Anonymous, at 12 June, 2005 12:37  

Could whoever posted the reference above, give more information please. It's a link to a site, not to a paper. Many thanks

By  John, at 13 June, 2005 08:56  

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