Wind energy is clean, safe and an effective and economically sound source of electricity. Roughly 240,000 wind turbines have been built world wide as a result and with fewer negative side effects than any other source of electricity.
Yet some people and organizations persist in spreading disinformation about wind energy. Much of the disinformation is spread by astroturf organizations funded by mid-sized, undiversified, fossil fuel companies and their billionaire owners. Some is spread by sincere but misguided advocates for health, similar to anti-vaccination campaigners. Some is spread by global warming deniers. And much of it is spread by people who just don’t want their rural area to change; often these are wealthy urbanites with a second home in the country.
This blog is devoted to assessing major myths, gathering all of the available resources on each subject and showing clearly that wind energy is almost entirely benign. It will branch out occasionally into related topics such as smart grids and other renewables.
Here are a few things you can do if you have a handful of spare minutes to make a difference.
Follow barnard on wind on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/barnardonwind for regular updates and news on wind energy.
Image courtesy of the City of Ann Arbour.
Moderation Policy:
Be nice, be respectful, be relevant.
Disagreement and corrections which are stated politely and with quality references will be accepted; I expect that I have made minor errors in places and welcome corrections. Anti-wind blogs and global warming denialist sites are not quality references; if they make a point and reference a peer-reviewed study or industry document, reference the study or document directly. All caps yelling, profanity, pejorative attacks, ad hominem attacks and many other staples of internet comment threads will not be accepted.
The moderation is set as a default to allow anyone whose comment has been accepted once to comment again without awaiting moderation. If comments from a particular person devolve into trying to score points or argue on trivia as if it is consequential, they will be put in the permanent moderation bucket and if they continue, they will be shifted to the spam bucket. This site is not a forum for anti-wind advocates to expose their pet gotchas to the world or to try to explain to them at length why they are wrong when they aren’t interested in listening.
