This week 300 protesters traveled to Queen's Park to voice their concerns over industrial wind projects. These people were dismissed as Not-In-My-Back-Yarders... maybe crazy. Because who in their right mind would say wind turbines are not green? It's a given... isn't it?
Lately, I have been attending kitchen-table meetings in regards to industrial wind turbines and I'm no longer convinced that wind turbines are "green" bullet we've been waiting for.
First, who is getting rich off these projects? Dirty tar sand companies are the driving force and p developers of industrial wind farms. This is because they receive carbon credits. Additionally, natural gas companies are also promoting wind farms. This is because wind energy requires a back up energy source because it's unreliable and only works 30% of the time. Nuclear power plants were not designed to compensate for dramatic unplanned fluctuations created by wind turbines. Natural gas, on the other hand, is able to be turned off and on at the flick of a switch and therefore is the most suitable source of back-up energy. It should noted that Germany underwent wind farm development as a means to shut down coal power plants - not a single plant was closed. In fact, new coal plants were built.
Second, what is at stake? There are hundreds of health reports filed in Ontario alone in regards to wind turbines. Many people were compelled to move after having a turbine erected on their property or close to their property. There are also impacts on our environment. A Guelph study found the bodies of dead bats in fields surrounding wind turbines. Based on autopsies, they believe the low frequency emitted by the turbines caused the blood vessels in the bat's lungs to burst forcing them to drawn on their own blood. The wind turbines request giant holes to be dung in the ground and filled with 30 trucks of cement. That leaves us with the question of how this impacts the water shed.
These are all very important questions that I believe need answers too before we plow full steam ahead with industrial wind farm development. In today's society everything and everything is marketed as green. Dirty oil companies making money off of "green" technology is always a red flag for me.