I have been keeping tabs on the events going on in neighboring towns centered around large wind turbines. The insanity that is going on out there is all based on false notions of "saving the planet". I blame Governor Patrick for starting this craze with his goal of 2,000 wind turbines across the state. In typical bureaucratic zeal, the Coastal Zone Management now wants to locate these whirling dervishes amongst lobster traps and recreational boaters as well as filling the view of beachgoers in Salisbury. With "Bigger is Better", consulting firms wax poetic that if the tower is just a little bigger, the performance will improve. Newbury is now trying to put them on Plum Island so vacationers can stare at these monsters.
The accepted reasoning has been that we will get all our energy from alternative sources, making us less dependent on oil and gas and we will reduce our carbon emissions. Europe has already taken that route and found that a profundity of wind turbines has only increased the use of oil and gas. Their solution? They’re going nuclear.
The reason is all based on pseudo-science. The firm belief that when a scientist theorizes, it automatically becomes a fact. These scientists concoct computer models and then try to persuade others that what they are predicting will come true. This is Scientism, the belief that science has all the answers to life’s problems.
The truth is the National Weather Service takes the paper printed with "computer models" and shreds them daily. We all know that even with all the science available today, weather predictions are hardly accurate for even a few days out. We’re told that computer models predict what is going to happen in the far-flung future. Wrong. Even the NY Times has finally come out that the Earth has been cooling for seven years straight contrary to the vaunted computer models.
Science is a soup mix of theory, counter-theory followed by testing and more testing and built-in assumptions like Uniformitarianism. When I was a kid, any scientist who contempated that catastrophes occurred in the Earth’s past was considered a religious nut and laughed out of scholarly institutions. The mediocre scientist who believed in the theory that continents drifted was mocked and ignored. Here is 2009, and all we hear now are ancient disasters and Plate Tectonics. And I am only in my fifties!
Worse, real facts are beginning to come out that wind turbines harm fish in the sea, harm and scare away wildlife and in particular bird life, have potential to affect our health through low-frequency noise and don’t even produce the electricty they claim. And they don’t operate all the time making their output unpredictable for the energy grid. The only solution is expensive dependence on toxic batteries which creates problems in themselves.
But even more dangerous are zealous fanatics who want to push these turbines on us without regard to facts or placement or testing. Their solution is that our quality of life must be sacrificed for the good of others. Let’s be miserable so the planet will be saved.
Scientism.
As I have stated, let us take out the extremism and use a combination of green methods and a mix of alternative energy to carefully move forward toward the goal of low-emissions and energy independence. We should proceed carefully, testing and measuring our performance so we end up where we want. Zeal without knowledge because we want to do good only causes more harm in the end.
-P. Preservationist
Brick and Tree 