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Global Warning - May 20, 2005 - Printable Version
- An Ugly Wind
by Robin Buckallew
A couple of weeks ago, one of our writers printed an article about the wind turbines recently installed in his community. In the due course of time, predictably, a visitor to the guestbook brought up the now inevitable question - did he think they were an eyesore? Our writer, to his credit, answered thoughtfully that he felt the clean energy produced by the wind turbines was worth the trade off. Now, I think it's time to take the discussion just a little further. For centuries, human beings have been collecting energy from wind. Visitors to Holland marvel at the magnificent windmills that Holland is very justly quite proud of. Farmers in the early days of settlement of the United States often built windmills to power their pumps and to furnish other power needs before the grid was installed. Then, wind was superseded by fossil fuels, and many windmills across the western landscape were abandoned in favor of oil. Today, the bulk of the power needs in this country are provided by oil, coal, and a number of large hydroelectric dams that have turned many of our flowing rivers into giant lakes for the purpose of producing power. Within the past decade, in the wake of concerns over global warming, air pollution and dwindling reserves of petroleum, interest in wind as an energy source has been driven to the forefront of our conversation. The share of the energy market that has been captured by wind is small, but the annual growth in that sector is jaw-dropping. Wind turbines are being installed across the country. The amount of wind blowing across the Midwest, especially in Oklahoma and Texas (hey, it's not all just our politicians - some of it is actually real wind), is probably sufficient to meet the power needs of the entire country. This power source is clean, and we don't deplete it by using it. On the surface, it seems very hard to argue against tapping into such a source. Ah, but you underestimate the strength of the American will to argue. So, what's the skinny on wind? It seems the turbines are "ugly". An "eyesore". They blot the landscape and block the view. Oh, and they kill birds. I can't tell you where this refrain began, who first spoke those discouraging words. What I can tell you is that the refrain has been picked up and repeated, passed from mouth to mouth and mind to mind in a rapid fire progression that makes the head spin. In fact, a quick Google search linking the words "wind turbine" with "eyesore" yielded over 50,000 hits. The facts that wind turbines are ugly, and that they kill birds, have now entered the common lexicon as received wisdom. But are they true?
Let's look first at the allegation that wind turbines kill birds. This is easy to assess scientifically, and therefore is more easy to say yes or no to. In fact, studies have been done on this very subject. The studies have been, at best, inconclusive. While there is some scanty evidence that some birds may indeed fly into wind turbines and be killed, it appears that this number is small. For the most part, birds, in spite of being by nature birdbrains, are able to see and avoid the turbines. The number of birds killed by the turbines is merely a shadow of those killed on our roads by the speeding automobiles that are much harder to avoid. It is also a mere fraction of the amount of birds killed every day by the pet cats and dogs that we treasure. Many bird-loving cat owners have gone to the trouble and expense of putting a bell on their cat, so that they might continue to enjoy the backyard birds without giving up their purring pet. A similar solution is possible for turbines. It would be relatively easy and inexpensive to devise a system that would provide a warning for those birds who were not able to see the turbines, thereby reducing the number of tragic deaths to nearly nothing - in effect, belling the cat.
Now, are wind turbines ugly? Well, that question really can't be answered scientifically. After all, beauty is not a characteristic that you can easily quantify, since it depends so much on perspective and subjective analysis. If you perceive something as ugly, there is no amount of scientific experimentation or statistical analysis that can demonstrate otherwise. I won't even try such a frustrating and futile exercise. Instead, I am going to look at the use of this argument in its historical perspective - the generation of power itself.
Throughout the world, economies and societies run on power. Fortunately, there is a wealth of power in the world. Unfortunately, none of it is in particularly usable form as it is. It must be harvested, processed, transported, stored and otherwise manipulated before it comes out the light socket when we flip the switch. Most of us don't spend much time thinking about the power we use. If it is there when we need it, we never stop to think how it got there. If it isn't there, we are more concerned with restoring it than with worrying about where it came from in the first place. But there are many individuals who do spend a great deal of their time worrying about just this thing. There are massive power plants spread across the world, dedicated to the task of bringing you power (usually for a price). These power plants generate electricity by utilizing one of several tried and true methods. Some of them combust petroleum or natural gas, others convert coal to electricity. Some are run by water, others by a nuclear fission reaction. A handful convert solar energy to electricity, and an increasing number utilize wind. No matter what the raw material used, the end product is what is truly in demand by the consumer. Power. Power to run our refrigerators, our microwaves, our televisions, or our electric toothbrushes. Another thing all of these raw materials have in common - they come with a trade off. We are being told by many that, with wind, the trade off is too great. It is too much ugliness across the countryside. We can't tolerate that sort of invasion of the view. But again, I ask, is it true? Is wind a uniquely, spectacularly ugly power source that must be avoided at all costs?
Most of my life, I grew up in the shadow of oil wells. Great, giant monster heads that bobbed up and down all day and all night. I didn't think too much about them, they were simply a part of the countryside where I grew up. I didn't stop to think about if they were ugly, or pretty. They just were. I never heard anyone complain about the blight of the oil wells on the countryside. On the contrary, most people locally were proud of them, pleased at these hyperactive monsters that belched money. I hardly ever heard anyone complain about the smell. After all, it was reasoned, that smell isn't nasty - it's the smell of money. We worked around them, played around them, lived around them all our years. Giant machines ripped up fields and pastures, forests and streams, in the endless search for more available liquid hydrocarbon. Nobody ever said to me, "But they're so UGLY!" We sort of knew they were. But that wasn't what they were for. They were functional, utilitarian. They weren't meant to be aesthetically pleasing. They were meant to remove as much oil from the ground as possible in the most efficient, cost-effective manner. And that is what they did. We drove our cars, we turned on our lights, we stocked our refrigerators and didn't worry too much about where the power was coming from. We could see the monsters from our backyards, and somehow found it comforting, because we knew the power would just keep on showing up when we wanted it. Just out of curiosity, I ran a Google search linking the words "oil rig" and "eyesore". I got only slightly over 500 hits. Scientifically, this could lead one to conclude that wind turbines are 100 times uglier than oil rigs.
Another popular source of power throughout the industrial age has been coal. Coal has been mined from great big gaping holes in the ground for centuries, and now whole mountaintops are being carved off and dropped into streams to get at the coal more quickly and cheaply. Underground mining plays havoc with human health, as miners drop dead in large numbers from Black Lung. Open pit mining, while much less hazardous to the health of the miner, leaves great open scars on the landscape, and generates tons of air pollutants that cause respiratory problems in the surrounding communities. A killer smog hit Appalachia in the 1940s, caused by all the coal mining and processing. An infamous killer smog in London in the 1950s killed hundreds, and caused health problems for hundreds more Londoners. Health concerns surrounding the generation of power through the burning of coal have led to strict standards on the quality and sulfur content of the coal, and have generated additional expense for power companies to meet the regulatory standards if they are using coal. In spite of the strict regulations, coal power plants continue to generate large amounts of smoke and air pollutants every year. Black soot is a way of life for coal-burning communities. In addition, further problems arise from the side effects of coal mining. Huge piles of debris, known as "tailings piles" dot the landscape. These piles are often considered an eyesore by the local communities, who often plant vegetation on the giant piles in hopes that they will at least be able to hide the ugly remains. It is quite difficult to get vegetation to establish on these piles, as they often contain high concentrations of minerals that are not healthy for most plants. In addition, there is acid mine drainage. If you have never had the opportunity to view acid mine drainage in person, take my word for it. It's ugly. Truly ugly. I once visited a site in southeastern Oklahoma where the University of Oklahoma is attempting reclamation of a site inflicted with acid mine drainage from all the coal mining in the region. The drainage seeps into local area reservoirs, which can have a negative impact on the local drinking water supplies. It also seeps into the groundwater. What I saw that day was surface acid seeps. The vegetation was sparse, as few plants could tolerate the levels of acidity. Those plants that were growing there were smaller than normal for the species, and appeared less than optimally healthy. The water was a rich, deep red from the dissolved iron. One of our traveling companions that day was a playful Labrador Retriever. He decided while we were there to take a swim. This beautiful, glossy black dog came out of the water looking like he was rusted. Believe me, coal mining and its left over debris is an eyesore. A Google search of "coal mine" and "eyesore" generated approximately 6,000 hits. So apparently wind turbines are only 10 times as ugly as coal mining.
After all this musing over the history of power generation, my thoughts turned back to wind turbines. Why is it that so many people, even those who are prominent in the environmental community, are so concerned about the aesthetic impact of these seemingly rather benign machines? Why is the refrain being repeated, passed from mind to mind, until it has reached the status of conventional wisdom? Although I cannot establish the beginning of the dogma, it isn't too hard to figure out who benefits from it now. Look at it this way - nobody owns the wind. Even if someone owns the land that the wind is blowing across, they can do nothing to stop it from leaving their property and blowing across your field next. At this point, the field of wind power is wide open. Many independent companies are taking advantage of the growing interest in wind power, and setting up turbines. For centuries, farmers have generated a portion of their own electricity through the use of wind. There is absolutely no conceivable way for any one individual, company or country to establish a monopoly on wind power. Wind has the potential to not only reduce our energy dependence on foreign suppliers, but to reduce our energy dependence on domestic suppliers, as well. In time, as technology advances, it is possible that individuals will be able to generate and store their own electrical power totally independent of the grid, without worry of interruption when the wind isn't blowing. The consumer could become producer, enjoying the fruits of his own production without having to hook up to the large power companies. At the current time, the power companies enjoy an inordinate amount of power and influence, and make an enormous amount of money, by keeping us dependent on them for all our power needs. In recent years, events in California have shown us just how much risk there is in that approach. In addition, brown outs in the Midwest have put us all on edge about when it is going to happen to us. Few of us are equipped to keep our daily lives running well without some sort of electrical power. Most of us are totally dependent on a small handful of mammoth power companies that will continue to put their bottom line ahead of our best interests. For these companies, the idea that small power companies could compete on an equal playing field is the stuff horror movies are made of. Even more horrifying is the possibility that at some time in the future, their captive customer base could cut the umbilical cord and grow up into total independence in meeting their energy needs. They can't buy the wind, they can't patent the wind, and they can't control the wind. The only thing they have the hope to control is the hearts and minds of the American consumer. It is time we stop allowing the naysayers to set the dialogue. We need to take control for ourselves of the language and the images that we use in the discussions on energy and power.
In conclusion, I am afraid I cannot come up with a scientifically defensible answer to the question of whether or not wind generation is ugly. I can't cite facts and figures to prove to you that it isn't an eyesore. I can, however, come up with a view of the aesthetics of wind that is 100% emotionally defensible. I think it's beautiful. When anyone asks me if I think it's ugly, I will just look them in the eye, stand tall and proud, and tell them "I grew up in the shadow of oil wells. Hell, no, I don't think it's ugly.
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