The Counter Cape Wind Blog

This should come as an unpleasant surprise to Cape Wind advocates. The following news story from the Copenhagen Post reveals a poll of 1,508 citizens has found wind turbine NIMBYism exists even in Denmark.



"Windmills: Not in my Backyard"

The Copenhagen Post
Feb. 4, 2006

"A majority of people support building more electricity generating windmills- just not in their neighbourhood. "

"Windmills enjoy a near universal acceptance as a source of green power and jobs in Denmark, according to an AC Nielsen poll for the Danish Wind Industry Association."

"Some 96 percent of those taking the poll said they supported the wind industry - which is estimated to have created 20,000 jobs in Denmark and is projected to supply upwards of 25 percent of the electricity supply by 2008. "

"Support for construction of the 80m tall towers, however, is suffering from the not-in-my-backyard effect. While 90 percent of all Danes say more mills should be built, municipalities looking to erect new ones often meet with stiff resistance from residents."

"Most people accept - and are proud of - the economic and environmental benefits associated with windmills, but people living near them complain that the mills spoil their view or that the constant drum of three 27m blades is similar to living next to a motorway."

"Local resistance aside, wind industry representatives saw the results of the survey as a sign that the country had a hospitable attitude toward windmills."

"'At a time when the EU is working towards a goal that 15 percent of energy supplies need to come from renewables by 2015, the opportunities in Denmark are enormous,' said association president Bjarne Lundager Jensen to daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende."

Or is this more global warming hysteria?


The radical environmental organization Greenpeace now claims polar bears are quickly disappearing from the Arctic Circle on account of global warming and thinning sea ice. Study the new Greenpeace polar bear propaganda here, and then read the letter below printed in the May 1st, Toronto Star newspaper. It's actually entertaining in a way to learn that Greenpeace believes wind power will help save "Ursus maritimus" from extinction.

From Greenpeace's 'Save the Polar Bear'- Project Thin Ice web page;

"...the only way to protect polar bears from the disappearance of their sea ice habitat is by reducing emissions of global warming pollution and implementing cleaner forms of energy such as solar and wind."

TORONTO STAR

Letter to the Editor

May 1, 2006

[Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.]

"Tim Flannery is one of Australia's best-known scientists and authors. That doesn't mean what he says is correct or accurate. That was clearly demonstrated when he recently ventured into the subject of climate change and polar bears. Climate change is threatening to drive polar bears into extinction within 25 years, according to Flannery. That is a startling conclusion and certainly is a surprising revelation to the polar bear researchers who work here and to the people who live here. We really had no idea."

"The evidence for climate change effects on polar bears described by Flannery is incorrect. He says polar bears typically gave birth to triplets, but now they usually have just one cub. That is wrong."

"All research and traditional knowledge shows that triplets, though they do occur, are very infrequent and are by no means typical. Polar bears generally have two cubs — sometimes three and sometimes one. He says the bears' weaning time has risen to 18 months from 12. That is wrong. The weaning period has not changed. Polar bears worldwide have a three-year reproduction cycle, except for one part of Hudson Bay for a period in the mid-1980s when the cycle was shorter."

"One polar bear population (western Hudson Bay) has declined since the 1980s and the reproductive success of females in that area seems to have decreased. We are not certain why, but it appears that ecological conditions in the mid-1980s were exceptionally good."

"Climate change is having an effect on the west Hudson population of polar bears, but really, there is no need to panic. Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada, 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present."

"It is noteworthy that the neighbouring population of southern Hudson Bay does not appear to have declined, and another southern population (Davis Strait) may actually be over-abundant."

"I understand that people who do not live in the north generally have difficulty grasping the concept of too many polar bears in an area. People who live here have a pretty good grasp of what that is like to have too many polar bears around."

"This complexity is why so many people find the truth less entertaining than a good story. It is entirely appropriate to be concerned about climate change, but it is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years based on media-assisted hysteria."

Dr. Mitchell Taylor

Polar Bear Biologist,
Department of the Environment, Government of Nunavut, Igloolik, Nunavut
Northern Canada

The people at Cape Wind Associates believe it will. Their web site makes this rather bold claim;

"Cape Wind can help slow global warming."

I'm not expecting them to perform miracles. I also do not believe a dire problem- in need of a radical solution- exists, despite growing hysteria over the issue of global warming. Read what columnist George Will had to say about the on-going debate in this April 2nd essay, and then for a chuckle, study the cartoon.

[Artist unknown. Click the image for a larger view.]

"If renewable sources of energy are such a good thing, then why can't windpower get a break?"

By Cait Murphy, FORTUNE assistant managing editor.

[Excerpts- click headline for full story.]

"NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - All right-thinking people agree that reducing dependence on fossil fuels is a Good Thing. Shifting energy consumption toward renewables such as biomass, wind and solar helps make the world cleaner; and it would be awfully nice not to have to rely quite so much on a certain rather volatile region of the world..."

"But developments in the windpower business illustrate just why the renewables future is taking so long to arrive..."

"Over in Britain, The Independent - a newspaper entirely run by right-thinking people - reported that a conference in early April on wind energy in London was distinctly downbeat. "Offshore wind," the paper concluded, "is floundering" and larger projects needed more government support. Wind and other renewables will only take off when they can compete in the marketplace without subsidy. That day has not yet come..."

"And public support cannot necessarily be counted on either. A project to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound to generate electricity for Cape Cod and the islands looks likely to be scuttled..."

"The argument over the Cape Wind project is one on which reasonable people can disagree. But it does serve to illustrate that wind cannot live off a sense of virtue alone..."

"The U.S. goal is to increase windpower to 6 percent of consumption by 2020 - a goal that is modest enough to be plausible. The term "drop in the bucket" comes to mind..."

"...for all the talk about renewables, it's tempting to conclude that, for both economic and political reasons, we're talking about a little substance and more than a little hot air."