With all the detrimental effects of wind farms, how on Earth are they being approved?
Hamsters on wheels could generate more power!
TESS LAWRIE, MBBCh, PhD
I recently returned from Wales where once pristine green hills are now littered with (often stationary) giant wind turbines, in the name of saving the planet. On a farm near Llangollen, I met with a group of locals who are deeply concerned about the rampant escalation of these ugly, noisy, lethal and futile installations.
Farmer Tim Smith explained the issues to me in detail which I hope I’ve covered adequately below so that you too can grasp what is at stake, and see that wind turbines are yet another big lie to support the biggest lie of all – climate change.
For communities, it’s incredibly difficult to challenge decisions made by developers or government officials. Once more, in the case of this area of outstanding natural beauty, it seems that government has prioritised corporate interests over the health, wellbeing and the livelihoods of ordinary people. With increasingly more wind farm planned for the area, the group expressed feeling angry, frustrated and powerless to defend themselves from these metal monsters.
“The system is set up to protect big business, not the little guy,” Tim said.
Climate change or climate hoax?
There is growing scepticism about the climate change narrative that drives many renewable energy policies. Living in the UK, there is no doubt the weather is doing strange things – it’s been a miserably cloudy and cold year with hardly any sunshine whatsoever. But is this climate change or part of a climate hoax?
Devastating floods in Spain as well as the fires in Greece have raised questions about whether these events were genuinely natural or potentially orchestrated. This possibility only reinforces the need to critically examine policies that push for widespread wind farm developments, which are so obviously visual and noise pollutants. So why are they allowed?
Wind energy as a ‘solution’ to climate change
Wind energy is presented as a solution to ‘climate change’, yet its long-term effects on health, ecosystems, and local communities are devastating and these effects are completely overlooked.
Tim, who has started a UK branch of the international Motvind advocacy group to raise awareness of the dangers of the wind energy agenda, explained that once turbines are installed there is no oversight at all. One of the groups most pressing concerns is the health risks associated with wind farm noise, particularly the low-frequency infrasound emitted by turbines. This sound, often imperceptible to the human ear, can lead to a range of health issues, including sleep disturbances, chronic stress, and even motion-sickness-like symptoms. Some members of the group had experienced these symptoms. According to Tim, developers have refused to release the records of the infrasound data relevant to their local installations. In addition to infrasound, the turbines make audible sounds that also lead to increased stress, can drive people mad, or cause them to re-locate.
The current regulations, such as the ETSU R97 guidelines, do not adequately address these risks. Although independent reports have been prepared by the Independent Noise Working Group to protect the public, these are simply ignored by the government and corporations alike. Thus, communities living near wind farms are left vulnerable to these health effects, with no sufficient protections in place.
De-naturing the land
Genius Nikola Tesla said: if you want to know the secrets to the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. Integral to wind turbines are harsh frequencies and vibrations that are not natural. Wildlife is much more overtly sensitive to frequency and vibrations than we domesticated humans who have forgotten that we are part of nature too.
Wind turbines have a detrimental effect on local fauna, particularly birds, bats, and insects on land, as well as dolphins and whales at sea. Developers downplay these consequences. Tim recounted a visit to a particular wind farm where he observed that the local ecosystem had become a “desert” in terms of wildlife. However, I learned that worms are particularly sensitive to turbine vibrations and rapidly vacate land with wind turbines; thus farmers who choose to farm turbines and not food leave a legacy of incomparable destruction for the land itself. Even if the turbines were to be removed in due course, which given their size and non-biodegradable materials would be extremely difficult, it would take generations to restore the land to productivity.
Farmer Tim also related some unusual disturbances among his farm animals – such as an alpaca going berserk and attacking another animal, and chickens egg shells being so thick that the chicks can’t hatch out – for which there is no ready explanation.
Wind turbines are not green! In addition to having short life spans and being made with unrecyclable materials, it may be news to you that the blades are coated in plastic, which needs replacing regularly as the plastic breaks down through wear and tear, and is released as microplastics into the surrounding environment. These plastics called PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) are complex synthetic chemical substances that do not degrade easily in the environment. Thus, undegradable PFAS microplastic contamination affects not only the farmland on which the turbines are placed, but contaminates the air for untold miles, adjacent farms, and waterways.
With turbines nearby the location at which we were conversing, instead of breathing in Welsh country fresh air, I may well have been breathing in PFAS. Yet another unregulated industry, PFAS may well be the new asbestos.
A community divided
One of the most poignant parts of our conversation was about the social division caused by wind farm developments. Many farmers in the area rely on tourism to supplement their farming income, with city dwellers long valuing the peace and quiet of the rolling Welsh hills to restore their wellbeing. Some of the farmers expressed concerns that proposed new developments will result in a loss of income due to the disruptive influence of the turbines. Other farmers expressed concerns about infertility among their livestock.
Tim shared a personal story about how his relationship with his neighbour, who was also his best friend, was destroyed when the neighbour sold access rights to wind turbine developers. “My best friend has sold me down the river for access rights,” Tim said, reflecting the emotional toll these projects can have on communities.
Easy money…
The financial incentives—ranging from £50,000 to £70,000 per turbine per year—are also dividing communities, creating tensions between landowners who benefit financially and those who bear the costs. Farmers are lucky to make £100 a lamb at market, so a farmer simply cannot make anywhere near the same level of income from sheep farming. The turbine corporations and governments are thus “making millionaires” out of certain farmers and landowners at the price of friendships, social inequality, physical and emotional harm, and environmental destruction.
Divide and rule, again and again.
Remember the Aberfan disaster?
The Welsh government has a history of overlooking public concerns in favour of corporate interests. In 1966, despite safety concerns expressed by locals, a town called Aberfan experienced a devastating coal tip landslide that killed 120 children in a school simultaneously. These days, the government seems to have conveniently forgotten the Aberfan disaster and is planning turbines for nearby land. Tim has written to the relevant officials explaining that, with new wind turbines being planned on top of silt tips, vibrating the earth, another disaster like Aberfan could occur. Nevertheless, the government seems to be proceeding with the plan, dismissing the potential danger posed by turbine vibrations.
On hamster wheels…
I realise that in spite of the title, I haven’t even gone into the fact that these wind turbines are stationary most of the time, need electricity to run and require back up for when they are are still – thus they are an incredibly unreliable source of energy and make an incredibly small contribution to the national energy requirements overall. A hamster wind farm would be more productive in my opinion, and much better for the environment!
Despite the extremely concerning issues faced by this rural community and many others like it, my conversation with Tim has left me feeling somewhat optimistic. Chances are we will be able to take action together before it is too late, and prevent total destruction by those who would destroy all creatures and the earth for the sake of money.
Having been duped (temporarily) into believing that what the government doesn’t tell us can’t exist, if feels to me that the living men and women of this world are finally waking up! Thus, I can see an end to the nonsense, when we all stand together and say we will tolerate the destruction of our natural resources and the violation of our liberty no more.
Don Quixote was right all along!
I’m pleased to note, four hundred years on, that Don Quixote was right about windmills after all. They are giants that together with their corporate masters will kill us if we don’t take action. It’s time to get together our trusty steeds, companions and our swords, and smite them!
More reading
I realise I have only scratched the surface of this topic. Read how the people in the village of Gilfach Goch live in fear of these local giants. How did this ever get approved?
This article (Wind farms and the Climate Hoax:) is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Tess Lawrie, MBBCh, PhD
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