Looking for the "right" answer?
They can't find one properly documented case of a grumpy old guy who gets wind mills installed close to his lawn and ended up with an increase in blood pressure?
Health boffins say wind turbines don't make you sick
The twentieth review of the impact of wind turbines on human health in Australia since 2003 has found the same thing that the previous 19 found: there's no evidence that wind turbines have any impact on human health. The review (PDF), by the National Health and Medical Research Council, was requested by the incoming government …
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Tuesday 25th February 2014 08:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
common sense failure
“There is some consistent but poor quality evidence that proximity to wind farms is associated with annoyance and, less consistently, with sleep disturbance and poorer quality of life. However, it is unknown whether these effects are caused by the wind turbines themselves, or by other related factors.”
I can't help being reminded of the continued denial by the tobacco manufacturers that there was no proven link between cigarettes and cancer.
I'm sure if I had a windmill running 24/7 at the bottom of my garden, I have no doubt I would be annoyed, my sleep would be disturbed and the quality of my life would be poorer. But if these things did happen, could I categorically prove they were caused by the windmill? The above quote sounds like a complete common sense failure and therefore I question their impartiality.
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Tuesday 25th February 2014 17:12 GMT Intractable Potsherd
Re: common sense failure
Maybe that is so, but to argue that means that you have give the phone-mast and electric pylon loons a good argument: "I'm sure if I had a phone-mast/pylon running 24/7 at the bottom of my garden, I have no doubt I would be annoyed, my sleep would be disturbed and the quality of my life would be poorer. But if these things did happen, could I categorically prove they were caused by the phone-mast/pylon?"
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Thursday 27th February 2014 00:47 GMT Clunking Fist
Re: common sense failure
In the UK and Japan they are waking up to the reality of the issue of Excess Amplitude Modulation.
http://bankssolutions.co.uk/powys/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/OBJ772-NOISE-POE-WELLER-SSA-C.pdf
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/12/6/windfarm-noise-state-of-play.html
https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/ioa-good-practice-guide-excess-amplitude-modulation-and-the-failure-of-wind-farm-noise-controls/
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Tuesday 25th February 2014 09:20 GMT druck
Plenty of ill affects
Maybe in the vast empty expanse of Austria they couldn't find anyone affected, but in the UK with the damn things springing up everywhere, there are thousands of people affected by the horrific noise they make, and many epilepsy suffers triggered by the flickering when the sun is low.
Then there are in the indirect effects, every wind turbine should come with an attached memorial plaque to a dead pensioner, who froze to death after not being able to pay energy bills pushed up by the huge subsidies paid to renewables.
And lastly there is my blood pressure pushed up by thinking of the sheer stupidity of wind power economics, with highly efficient gas plant being switched off when the wind blows and back on when it stops, which does of CO2 emissions exactly what start/stop driving does for your car's mpg.
It is an obscene green con, which we are all having to pay for through our energy bills.
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Tuesday 25th February 2014 16:42 GMT NomNomNom
Re: Plenty of ill affects
Wind has been generating over 10% of UK electricity demand for the last week. It works and offsets generation that would otherwise produce carbon emissions.
If you are concerned at pensioners freezing perhaps we should call for a tax increase so the government can subsidize their heating bills further?
In the longterm a reliance on fossil fuels will be ever costly. At least with wind (and solar) we can peg the maximum cost early and drive it down with improvements in technology.
We can afford the Olympics, wars in Iraq and a high speed rail link. But not an overhaul of our energy infrastructure from a dinosaur fossil fuel platform?
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Thursday 27th February 2014 00:55 GMT Clunking Fist
Re: Plenty of ill affects
"Wind has been generating over 10% of UK electricity demand for the last week. It works and offsets generation that would otherwise produce carbon emissions"
Could you please add up the total cost of the installed wind farm capacity in the UK. Now see if any other source of 10% of our leccy production comes anywhere near that in terms of cost.
Now factor in the amount of co2 expended in producing the concrete foundations, the indigenous folk displaced and the pollution for the rare earth mineral mining and processing, the birds minced by blades, the eye-sore factor, the access roads that criss-cross what was beautiful unspoilt countryside, the co2 from the stand-by gas power plants that are running, the disturbances on the grid, the cost of taking the grid to a low density power source often located out in the boons.
Now look at the inexplicable hiatus in warming that has gone on for 17 years, in spite of increasing co2 levels. Do you REALLY think wind mills are a good idea?
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
