Dear Editor,
As a new resident of the Meaford area I have been reading, with interest, the ongoing debate about the issue of wind turbines in this fair municipality. As in many communities across the province it seems that the alarmist, change-averse element is trying to co-opt the process of installing turbines by putting out the well-used and highly inaccurate arguments against wind generated power used by many other groups. While claiming not to be pushing a 'NIMBY' agenda, they clearly don't want turbines in their 'back yard' or anywhere else near them. In order to try and not look like ostriches with their heads in the sand, they throw out all kids of gobbledegook about health effects, land values...blah, blah, blah.
Folks, change can be difficult to handle sometimes. However, without it we would still be in the dark ages.....hey, wait a minute, they used wind power back then....they were called windmills! If we look back to the development of hydro-electricity in Canada, this development caused a lot of change. Prime 'scenic' real estate was flooded. People were displaced from their homes - sometimes whole communities were relocated.
Enormous amounts of tax dollars were spent to construct these projects. I'm sure there were birds, animals, insects effected. However, without this change we would be carrying around candles at night and pumping our water by hand out here in the hinterland of Meaford. Are any of you protesting hydro-electric power?
I lived near the Nanticoke coal fired plant for years. It was always comforting to look out towards Lake Erie and see a long, brown cloud of sludgy-looking emission hanging over about 50 miles of the landscape there. Talk about an interruption of a beautiful view! Are any of you protesting that? Of course not....you're firing up your computers, watching your big screen TV's, flushing your toilets and drying your clothes just like the rest of us. If that's not a 'NIMBY' attitude, I don't know what is.
The arguments against wind power are some of the weakest I have seen against any shift in technology. There is no conclusive evidence that wind turbines cause negative health effects - psychosomatic effects, yes - real health effects, the evidence (other than anecdotal) is just not there. Yet the anti-wind crowd would like you to believe otherwise. Europe has had wind energy for years in a land mass much smaller than ours and has enjoyed the benefits of this clean energy source while producing only a few two-headed calves (which I believe were Photoshopped by the European National Enquirer). Of course the anti-wind folks would say we need more time to ensure we're not all going suffer death by vibration. I'm not 'a-scared' of that myself.
People need to realize that the hand of (a) god is not going to come down and provide us energy without any sacrifice. Wouldn't that be nice? However, naysayers, the world does not work that way. Wind, while still a developing technology, is a great source of clean, low impact power (notice I did not say 'no-impact') - especially when you compare it to the alternatives we have now. So my advice is this: Unless you want to go off the grid, turn off your appliances, TV's, computers, iphone chargers, use an outhouse, ride a bicycle, etc, etc., suck it up and take some responsibility for generating some of the power you use instead of letting the other people in the country generate it for you and have it all in their back yards. Find something else to protest and let change for the greater good happen so we can all move ahead instead of staying put or moving backward.
Sincerely,
Bill Wier, Meaford
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