However they weren’t talking about the benefits but the adverse effects and then had a few locals on objecting to the wind turbines. Professor David Bellamy was also sticking his two penneth worth in, saying “that a wind turbine only produces energy when the wind blows and only saves half the Carbon dioxide a jumbo jet uses”. A jumbo jet doesn’t use Carbon Dioxide!

But the majority of the people who where objecting where the “Not in my back garden” posse. The local people who are more worried about the wind turbines spoiling the view from their back garden or the residual values of their houses.

Now call me fickle but I am sick to the back teeth of environmentalists banging on about “Coal powered this” and “Polluting power stations that” What do these people want? You either want the wind turbines (as long as there not in your back garden) or you want to stick with the traditional methods - Fossil fuel power stations. One non-polluting and the other pumping tonnes of pollutants in to the air every week)

If the local council is trying to make wind power a viable alternative to coal powered power stations then surely there should be a move to support this. What would you rather have, a few hundred wind turbines (the Saddleworth plan is for 7!) which produce nearly zero pollution or a dirty great coal or oil powered power station pumping out tonnes of pollutants night and day? I know that wind turbines aren’t super energy efficient but coal and oil power only converts between 30-50% to electricity.

I’m sure that a few people sat reading this will be saying “You’re so ill informed” I don’t care about all the niggly little facts about the lives of little birds and bats! I’m an average Joe and to me a few hundred wind turbines make more sense than a dirty fossil fuel power station. Or even the ultimate environmental hazard a nuclear power station.

I know that the wind doesn’t blow all the time, but surely this is a start to producing our electricity from a more renewable source than fossil fuels.

In a recent poll most residents where happy with the proposals to go ahead and again its a small minority who are trying to prevent this development which will potentially benefit the greater population.

Also the “Saddleworth moor is a beautiful place” argument doesn’t wear with me either, it’s a bleak desolate, wind swept, a moor land desert. I know I used to live smack bang on the Saddleworth border. I can see the attraction as a wind farm location.

Okay, we should be trying to reduce the amount of energy we absorb in our homes, or perhaps the manufacturers of the products we use should be doing more to make there appliances more energy efficient and some already have. Even making our homes themselves more energy efficient through insulation and better building techniques. However we also need to break our reliance on fossil fuels to produce power and the first step in this process is surely to start with wind power.

When they announced plans a few weeks ago for a wind farm off the cost of Wales, there where a few people jumping through the “there unsightly” hoop! Its 10 miles off the coast, you can’t see it, so stop complaining!

Make your decision. What do you actually want? Or are you not bothered as long as it’s not on your doorstep?

Page created on: 07/01/2004 / Last Updated: 22/12/2006 23:47:12

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