Comments on: Big Wind

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Julian, thanks. You remind us that it’s a world problem with world solutions. In Greece, at least you can use marble columns for the towers and Olympian breath to turn the blades. Loved the link, thanks.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:41:15 +0000

Thanks, Doug–mindful living. The Buddhists always have it right. You know, you could cut simple waste and save huge amounts of power, but you could also cut lots of usage just teaching mindfulness. Mindful we’re not while cruising the Internet. Except Bill and Dave’s. Mindful we’re not while watching TV. Except football.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:37:57 +0000

I know–I have a real fondness for machinery of all kinds. But power’s always going to be the problem, until all problems are erased. Conservation is such a good source of power in a busy country like ours. I’ve seen some estimates that simply eliminating wasted power in the U.S. would cut consumption 50%.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:35:11 +0000

Thanks Valerie–I’ll have to write some more!

By: Julian Hoffman

Julian Hoffman — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:30:04 +0000

This really resonated with me, Bill. For the last couple of years I’ve been bird monitoring on a wonderfully rich and biologically diverse limestone plateau here in Greece. The reason: collecting data as part of an environmental assessment regarding a wind farm proposal which will see many dozens of turbines grace this place which, until now, has been home only to a variety of eagles and hawks, meadow birds, clouds of butterflies, rare plants, and shepherds moving their sheep and cows across the landscape. Here is a look at the place being considered for a wind farm http://www.terrain.org/place/27/

I’m under no illusion that the data we collect will mitigate against the plan in this age of energy hunger. And what concerns me is this: all along we talk of solar and wind as “alternative energies,” as though the use of conventional energy sources will be suspended when they become operational. But I’m beginning to think that these “alternative energies” will simply get thrown into the mix of nuclear, coal, oil, natural gas etc. as we feed the economic system in the hope of growth. Unless conservation is part and parcel of the alternative option, then it’s more likely that “alternative” will become “auxillary.”

Like you I love the look of wind turbines, graceful and clean across a ridge. But as I walk the limestone plateau knowing that the place is about to change irrevocably I wonder what cost will be paid by the birds, the silence and emptiness, the landscape, and the wild. Thanks for a fine piece of writing.

By: Douglas Campbell

Douglas Campbell — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:30:04 +0000

So well done, Bill, a good tour of the issues and a reminder that everything’s complicated, no easy answers. Conservation, however, sounds like a pretty easy answer to me. Why is that concept so hard for us to grasp? I suppose electricity is still too cheap, though it comes dear when you reckon the hidden costs. Saving four percent would be simple for most Americans, ten, fifteen percent a little tougher, but doable with a little diligence, while causing negligible inconvenience, or what some will claim is inconvenience. Our whole mindset needs revision. It’s not an inconvenience to conserve electricity; it’s simply mindful living.

By: Peter Peteet

Peter Peteet — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:00:29 +0000

Desuetude, what an interesting word and concept .Wikipedia tells me it was responsible for the 1825 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision not “to enforce the traditional punishment of ducking for women convicted as common scolds”-a sort of quiet repeal of law by simple non-enforcement. A revolution accomplished by degrees and common consent rather than upheavals and manifestos.
Laws ,machines, whole structures do become obsolete and yet remain as companions; useful only to those who try to find threads whereby they can weave the chaotic remnants into a meaningful tapestry of history.
Windmills make me think first of Don Quixote, a caution against the power of letting an eccentric narrative hold sway over all observations and interactions ,the blindness of single vision .I’ve seen them topping the ridges in Costa Rica, parts traveling the highways swaddled in packing atop huge Semi trailers.
I must confess I simply love them-in spite of the loss of wilderness, unaltered views, unroaded places.I forgive them all these things because they hold out a tiny possibility of resisting obsolescence .As someone who has learned many skills which have become steadily more obsolete (darkroom technician, fireworks tech ,and now an automobile tech)I am acutely aware of how short the lifespan of most technological objects are and I see in windmills a possibility of use stretching into many generations-as I don’t see humanity needing less electrons pushed .As fossil fuels wane and many replacements are introduced with fanfare only to disappoint the lowly windmill keeps spinning-driving now more complex generators and on a scale unimagined but still dependent only on the wind,control and the maintenance of greased bearings-as it was when it only pumped water.I see no reason that windmills can’t be maintained and made more efficient with future technologies. Perhaps technologies can be devised to even eliminate transmission lines and roads-or at least bury the lines or stop the aerial herbicide use. There will be a cost in birds ,views ,erosion , and emptiness yet the benefits of being electrified without fossil fuel ,mercury and particulate emissions- added to the possibility of having infrastructure which could last well beyond a generation ,makes the whistle of those big blades music to my ears.
And yes music is ephemeral, but it’s also eternal-and windwheels exist both in Heron’s 1st century drawings for a windpowered organ,prayer wheels from 4th century Tibet and the failed incarnations which you have mentioned-and for all we know they may be eternal also ,as you may be, and as my wandering comment appears to be-so I’ll stop but say thanks for the hike story.

By: Valerie Lane

Valerie Lane — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 20:25:18 +0000

Wonderful Bill. Your writing is so good it makes me want to read more of it!