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Conserving AC is a breeze.
Dear Reader,
A couple of years ago, Bluedot contributor Darcy Rhyno decided to take a deep look at two wind projects in his home province of Nova Scotia. One had successfully moved forward. Another had failed due to vocal public opposition. Examining the criticisms of wind energy, Darcy concluded that “Based on my experience, I’ve learned three things. First, others do not share my reverence for today’s windmills, and the public opposition can become shrill, even belligerent, the further it drifts from the science; second, these machines present challenges that fuel this opposition; and third, while some claims against them are legitimate, most are based on conjecture, fear and misinformation, and are exaggerated or false.”
Excluding blatant misinformation, Darcy considered the claims against wind energy. He noted that wind energy plays a valuable role in moving us away from fossil-fuel based energy sources. But with opposition to wind energy gaining steam (a group in the U.S., spearheaded by Dot’s first Climate Villain, currently has its sights on Michigan), it’s worth looking at the arguments against wind to determine whether they have any merit. So, in the interest of brevity, let’s examine the top two (for a deeper dive, please read Darcy’s whole story).
Noise: Much sturm und drang has been made about the noise of wind turbines. However, to date, a number of respected and peer-reviewed studies indicate that there is no evidence that the noise of wind turbines is associated with negative health effects.
Turbines kill birds/bats/whales: Wind turbines are responsible for about a million bird deaths in the U.S. each year, which, to this bird lover, feels like about a million too many. However, Dot’s favorite data nerd, Hannah Ritchie at Our World in Data, tells us that cats are single-pawedly responsible for killing about a billion birds each year in the U.S. alone. Cars, buildings, and pesticides kill tens of millions of birds each. Early studies focused on the impact of turbines on bird and bat deaths and, consequently, turbines are now situated outside of migratory flyways. As for whales, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reports that there are no links between offshore wind farms and whale deaths and that, in fact, this distracts from the real causes of whale mortality.
Wind energy provides clean, affordable energy at a time when climate change poses an existential threat and people are struggling to pay their utility bills. As Darcy put it, “How valuable is wind generation in the fight against pollution and climate change? According to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, ‘Wind energy produces around 11 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour (g CO2/kWh) of electricity generated.’ Meanwhile the carbon footprints of coal and natural gas are almost 90 times and 40 times larger than that of wind energy, respectively.”
Windily,
Dot
P.S. While Dot is happy to continue mythbusting (send your queries to deardot@bluedotliving.com), I’m shifting gears next week to Just One Thing, a weekly feature that will suggest just one thing we can do in our day-to-day lives to boost enjoyment, decrease harm to our planet, and even save money. Stay tuned.
For more Bluedot Climate Quick Tips, click here.
