At the turn of the decade, the anti-wind lobby escalated its campaign of exaggeration, cherry-picking, and scare tactics. Just five years later, community members from regional Victoria are saying enough is enough.
Ballarat local Xander Gray calls out those who perpetuate the scare campaign claiming wind turbines are a public health risk. The following letter to the editor was published by The Courier:
I REFER to Melissa Ware’s letter from May 5, 2015, in which she laments the level of ignorance on wind farm technology. I share her concerns about this ignorance.
Ignorance has led a small number of individuals to believe there is something unique, or even magical, about wind turbines and, subsequently, that they might negatively impact on human health.
To put it bluntly, to believe that wind turbines are somehow responsible for an undocumented epidemic of farm desertions, community disintegrations, yolkless eggs or aborted lambs is completely fanciful.
They are machines. They are magnets rotating around metal discs, making electricity.
That is all.
As a point of comparison, most of us drive cars on a daily basis, or even a tractor.
These machines see us immersed in mechanical noise (audible and sub-audible), as well as physical vibration, generated by an engine which contains several thousand fuel explosions every minute.
However, I have yet to hear of ‘Car Syndrome’, or ‘Diesel Motor Syndrome’, even though these machines have existed for almost a century more than modern wind turbines.
The ignorance I am truly concerned about is the ignorance that compels people to believe that they have somehow become victims of a ‘sinister plot’ to generate electricity on someone else’s land from a free and abundant fuel source.
There is a plethora of actual issues in our world to get wound up about – although they are usually further away from an unfulfilling home life, and a good hobby is sometimes hard to find.
Meanwhile, if someone has an abandoned property next to a wind farm to sell, call me, as I can’t seem to find one.
XANDER GRAY Black Hill
Opposition to wind energy technology comes from the political fringe. And Senator John Madigan’s wind energy inquiry (witch-hunt) is just the current manifestation of this dynamic.
Fringe politicians who where elected on preference deals and only managed a a trickle of primary votes — such as Sen. Madigan, Sen. Bob Day (Family First), and Sen. David Leyonhjelm (Lib Dems) — are over-represented on the wind energy inquiry.
On Sunday May 24, the radical libertarian Senator David Leyonhjelm called for government to monitor wind turbine sound. The Senator’s call was criticised for being antithetical to his “small government” views. Sen Leyonhjelm’s call went over like a lead balloon.
To ensure that the pro-renewable energy viewpoint of mainstream Australia is heard, we’re calling on people to sign our petition calling for a fair wind inquiry.
TAKE ACTION:
- Sign our petition calling for Senator Madigan to run a fair wind energy inquiry.
- Support our campaign by getting involved or making a donation.
- Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
yes2renewables.org 
Both the writer of the above article and the writer of the letter in the article, are the ones displaying the most ignorance!
The problems with wind turbines are not only related to this country, they are world wide.
If wind turbines did not cause any noise problems, why is it deemed necessary to hold a world wide conference on wind turbine noise, biennially, the most recent one being held in Glasgow in April of this year?
http://windturbinenoise.eu/?page_id=121
Leigh Ewbank might be fooling the people of Victoria, but he is not fooling anyone else!
TCW.
Well I’ll be damned! There’s a biennial conference on wind turbine noise so therefore the scoundrels must be hiding something! But then again methinks if they were hiding something they wouldn’t be having a biennial conference and advertising it on the internet!
But using the same twisted logic I believe we should be aware of the dangers of noise from the Ocean! Look! There was even a conference on Ocean noise conducted recently! “If oceans did not cause any noise problems, why is it deemed necessary to hold a world wide conference on ocean noise?”
http://oceanoise2015.com/
Or look there’s an Automotive Noise conference! “If cars did not cause any noise problems, why is it deemed necessary to hold a world wide conference on car noise?”
http://www.autoneum.com/acoustic-thermal-management/automotive-acoustics-conference-2015/
I will be moving to Alice Springs as soon as possible! That way my backyard will be far away from wind turbines and the ocean!?And I suppose I should walk….
Wow! I thought this issue was done and dusted. How many times does public money need to be wasted before we can just get on with the business of quickly converting to renewable energy and reducing our carbon emissions?? Scientists have shown urgent action is needed, the general public is supportive, studies have been completed, VCAT have reviewed the evidence…. Surely we should expect scaremongers to be silent by now. Let’s just move rapidly away from usage of fossil fuels for the sake of all. Time to catch up to the rest of the world.
The only scaremongers in this world are those promoting the global warming/climate change scam and are telling us that wind turbines are the answer to controlling this.
Whether you accept it or not, wind turbines are causing noise and health related issues to some people, otherwise, there would be no need for an International Conference on Wind Turbines.
Building more wind farms in their present form, without tighter controls, is wasting public money, if they are so efficient and reliable,why won’t the wind industry build wind farms without a guaranteed RET, no one is stopping it?
Of course we would all like to have clean renewable energy and in time we may well have it, but it will not be wind and solar alone.
Perhaps Victoria can be the leader, shut down the coal fired power stations, close the interconnectors with the other states and rely on wind and solar power alone, to show the rest of us how well it works.
TCW.
Poor old TCW, or is it Tanya? You still think you know better than tens of thousands of researchers who have been studying the climate for decades? You’re a fruitcake.
Wind turbines are safe, people like you are not. You’re a danger to the community and to yourself.
Worse, you disregard evidence right before your eyes. Wind turbines pay for themselves in around 12 months and are not a danger to humanity or the environment, unlike coal mines and coal-fired power stations – but of course you don’t care about people becoming sick from mercury poisoning, exhaust gases and airborne particulates coming from coal mines. You’re only interested in yourself and you can’t bring yourself to consider the generations to come after us.
You’re either not very bright or you’re intentionally misleading people, that global conference is an anti-wind “conference” for cockroaches like yourself and other denialists of reality to get all indignant and precious to justify your inability to learn or to accept the facts.
Don’t pretend that you want clean renewable energy when you spend your entire time fighting against two of the most easily deployed generators of it. You are as transparent as a bit of window glass.
Evidently you don’t know that Victoria actually buys electricity from South Australia when essays producing more power than it needs? You just continue to demonstrate that you never let the facts get in the way of your particular prejudices. Time you grew up and moved on. Wind energy and solar will be major energy generators in the future. You really need to get used to that idea.
Blair, you really should not post here after you have been drinking!
TCW.
Even if I was drinking I would make more sense than you. In any case, I don’t take advice from cowards like you, the cowardly whinger.