Monday, November 30, 2009
Clinical study of health effects of large wind turbines published
Rowe, Mass., Nov. 28, 2009 -- Dr. Nina Pierpont, a pediatrician and population biologist in Malone, New York, has announced the publication of her book-length study: Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment. 
In interviews with 10 families living 1,000-4,900 feet away from recently built industrial-size wind turbines, a "cluster" of symptoms was revealed: from sleep disturbance, which affected almost everyone, to headache to tinnitus, vertigo, nausea, irritability, memory and concentration problems, and panic episodes. Industrial wind turbines have a total height of 300-400 feet or more, with blades of 125-150 feet that sweep 1.5-2 acres of vertical airspace.
The book includes supportive reviews and notices by several noted physicians in related disciplines. Although primarily directed towards medical professionals, it includes an informative and often poetic version for the lay audience.
The individuals affected by Wind Turbine Syndrome noticed that they developed symptoms after the turbines near their homes started turning. Symptoms were relieved when they left the area and resumed on their return. Eight of the ten families eventually moved away from their homes because of the severity of the symptoms.
Although not everyone living near turbines is subject to these symptoms, the data Pierpont presents are a concern, considering the current political drive to construct more and ever larger industrial wind turbines close to people's homes, as well as in the habitats of other
equally or more sensitive animals.
Pierpont's sample size was large enough to show that individuals with pre-existing migraines, motion sensitivity, or inner ear damage are particularly vulnerable. People with anxiety or other mental health problems are not particularly susceptible, she says, contradicting the
common claim of industry developers that "it's all in their head".
"This report is a public health wake-up call that our elected officials and administrators need to take very seriously", said Eric Rosenbloom, president of National Wind Watch, a clearinghouse for information about the adverse effects of industrial wind energy development.
Pierpont and other health and noise experts agree that at a minimum, large wind turbines should be 2 kilometers (1-1/4 miles) from any residence. 
According to Pierpont, low-frequency noise or vibration from the wind turbines acts on the balance organs of the inner ear to make the body think it is moving. And this misperception of motion affects other brain functions, including physical reflexes, spatial processing and memory,
and physiological fear responses (such as pounding heart and nausea).
For more about the book: See www.windturbinesyndrome.com
Thanks to National Wind Watch for sending us this Press Release.
Please visit their website for more information: www.wind-watch.org/ww-noise-health.php
Sunday, November 29, 2009
"In the calculus of beauty, I would pit the hills of Cumbria, the coast of Devon and Cornwall, the Pennine uplands and the mountains of Wales against any Constable, Gainsborough or Stubbs. .." read more here
The programme "Why Beauty matters", presented by philosopher Roger Scruton, is described on the BBC iplayer website as a "a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives."
It is indeed an interesting and thought provoking programme, and relevant in so many ways to everything that we stand for. It is fascinating therefore to find that at about three minutes into the programme, after Roger Scruton says (quote) "Our world has turned its back on beauty, and because of that, we find ourselves surrounded by ugliness and alienation...." there on the screen we see a giant industrial wind turbine.
The programme is available on iplayer until 5th December.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
This website includes links to articles by Nina Pierpoint as well as Peer Reviews of her book, including comments from such eminent scientists and clinicians as Lord May, who was President of the Royal Society (2000-2005) and Chief Scientific Advisor (1995-2000) to the UK government, and F. Owen Black, MD, FACS, Senior Scientist and Director of Neuro-Otology Research, Legacy Health System, Portland, Oregon.
Also on the website are some excellent videos, as well as diaries and reports from people who live near wind turbines.
Wind wars in the hills of Donegal
www.wind-watch.org is worth a daily visit for all the latest news, today's page also includes pieces from New Zealand, the USA, Canada and Wales ; several of these are about noise related problems.
Also found: this article:
Wind means more CO2
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
A TERRIBLE COST TO THE LANDSCAPE
Closing speeches were made in Tiverton on Tuesday in the Public Inquiry into the Three Moors and Bickham wind farms proposed close to each other on the edge of Exmoor. Airtricity’s application to erect nine 105m turbines around Knowstone had been turned down by the North Devon District Council and Coronation Power was appealing against Mid Devon’s rejection of a proposal for four nearby, but sited in Mid Devon. With another application for nine turbines at Batsworthy Cross, opposite the Three Moors site, waiting in the wings, the Inspector was invited to consider the cumulative effect.
David Cocks QC appeared for the Rural Exmoor Alliance, an opposition group formed by the Exmoor Society, the CPRE and the Two Moors group of local protestors. Summarising the evidence heard over six weeks he said that the admittedly minute contribution that these two wind farms would make to the global warming issue was not a reason in itself for refusing planning permission. However the extraordinary inaccuracy of the developers’ claims certainly did need to be taken into account. The emissions savings from each had been shown to have been exaggerated by nearly three times. The amount of electricity to be produced had also been exaggerated; it would not apparently be more than 25% of the turbines’ capacity, or even less according to the type of turbine used.
Such uncertainties were characteristic of most of the developers’ evidence.
All the landscape experts had agreed that the Exmoor Fringe and moorland countryside of the sites were of high quality and value, open, remote and tranquil. All had agreed that the effects of the turbines on the views, from and towards the Exmoor National Park, would be significant and in many cases major. Yet the developers’ experts had then tried to argue, for instance, that only within 3 km of a turbine would this matter, or that the landscape “could absorb” them. The Bickham report had ignored the issue of tranquillity altogether.
The Inquiry spent much time on the extent to which the noise from turbines can be predicted. The science is inexact and government guidelines on limits were drawn up when turbines were half the height of those proposed. Wind speeds are different at 100 m from those at ground level and the distance between the turbines themselves can also affect the noise produced. Background noise has to be measured to calculate the impact of the noise being added. Cross examination of the developers’ experts showed defective data in all these areas; the implication, said Mr Cocks, was a massive non-compliance with government limits.
On tourism, the developers had argued there would be no adverse effects. This was based on a survey of businesses, conducted by telephone. No visuals of the sites had been shown to the interviewees and no record kept of what was said. More astonishing was the absence of any information on the size of the 55 businesses interviewed; did this represent 55 jobs or 550? Not a single tourist had been asked their opinion. On ecology, one bat survey had been based on the wrong turbine lay out and none had covered the whole year.
Finally, Mr Cocks suggested, a new pattern is emerging in policy on renewable energy and carbon emissions. On shore wind farms like these are looking less fashionable, and the huge subsidies they require from consumers will inevitably be redirected towards more effective technologies. The evidence called by the developers throughout the Inquiry had shown how difficult it is to support a misguided and fading technology. The small benefit that would be gained would be a terrible cost to the landscape, and both appeals should be refused.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Closing statements were made today at Tiverton Town Hall (see photograph above) for the Bickham Moor and Three Moors Public Inquiry . The Council Chamber was crowded with members of the Two Moors Campaign Group as well as others who oppose these windfarms on the edge of Exmoor.
Read more about these applications on the Two Moors Campaign website, and there will be more information to follow.
Monday, November 23, 2009
As he says: "Something else Farming Today neglected to mention was the title of Dr Etherington's book, The Wind Farm Scam."
Why didn't they?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
One of our favourite quotes comes from John Muir, the founder of the National Parks Movement. He was born in Scotland but emigrated to America, where he devoted his life to protecting the wilderness. He said:
"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken over-civilised people are beginning to find that wilderness is a necessity and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life."
Like Marion Chapman in Australia, Tom Hutton in Mid Wales, Karl Pipes in Argyll, to name a few of our artists who have been highlighted recently, here is another artist fighting to preserve a wilderness from the depredations of an industry that dares to call itself "Green". Do look at the above website, with photographs of some wonderful mountain ranges - and make a special point if you can of looking at this page which gives examples of habitat destruction following the building of a wind farm.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Inspector rejects plan for 13 turbines in Denbighshire, North Wales
Friday, November 20, 2009
Red Kangaroo, one of the photographs from the Barrier Ranges sent to us by Marion Chapman.
Karl Pipes is one of the contributors to the Artists against wind farms website, and he sent us this text of a letter he wrote to the Editor of an Australian newspaper in the Barrier Ranges area.
We are showing Karl's letter on the blog, here below, just to remind anyone how ridiculous it is to call us Nimbys.
I have just read of the proposal to impose almost 600 wind turbines on the iconic and historic Australian landscape of the Silverton and Barrier range. I hope that I may be forgiven for interjecting in the discussion from so far away, but I (and many others over here) know full well what the effect of such plans can have on rural communities. This week we have learned that a plan to build one locally has been turned down by the Scottish Government. Much was our joy!
It is sad that in the cold light of day the proposers, far removed from the scene of their actions, are willing to desecrate an area which many people hold close to their hearts. I am told that solar power would be a much better product? We all know that installing turbines will kill or drive away our birdlife and bats, also wreck the local environment and therefore biodiversity. I know by personal experience how proposers will twist facts, tell half truths and sometimes untruths to forward these impositions onto communities. It is also sad that some community members will fall for the stories! Just to quote one instance, forestry planted areas can be described as 'semi industrialised landscape'. I enclose a photograph of the area that we have just saved from such a development. The claim then, is to say that they want to build a windfarm in an 'industrial landscape'! Well, a green forested area does not make a resonating thrumming noise that soaks into your sleep, or flap it's flickering arms at you from high above! I could go on, but I'm sure that the down side of these installations is well know to the authorities dealing with the proposal. I only hope that they have the moral fibre to accept that it will be the wrong place to build such an unacceptable imposition. If not, I can only deeply sympathise with those residents and visitors who will lose their beloved landscape to infernal machinery. Who will gain by it? I do know that the stress caused to residents can make some people quite ill!
Karl Pipes, Scotland, UK."
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Read this very funny sketch by Simon Hoggart - especially the ending, that begins with this excerpt (about Ed Miliband):
"He actually came close to admitting that turbines, with their "intermittent wind" (this sounded like a much-loved but elderly dog that lies in front of the fire turning the air in the sitting room foul) were a waste of time and money."
There's more... go to the above link to read it in full.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
There was a chance to hear Dr John Etherington, author of The Wind Farm Scam, speaking on the Farming Today programme already, you can Listen Again at this link - only 4 days left - 0r download it as a podcast. (available a little longer)
Monday, November 16, 2009
Do read this article, and spread the word!
Back in August we mentioned that the Tax Payers Alliance had highlighted the extent of government funded lobbying by groups such as the Sustainable Development Commission and Friends of the Earth (all of them could as easily be called Friends of Wind Turbines)
Remembering those EU targets for renewables that Tony Blair signed us up for just before he left office, we recommend another visit to their website, www.taxpayersalliance.com where you can see their new cinema advert about the costs of the EU to all of us in Britain.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
We also like their use of language in a more recent post:
"The Media Lens message board went
You can find it here:
Kay Armstrong in Ontario has written about the effects that a wind farm has had not just on local people, but on the wildlife nearby, including birds and frogs. Read the article on www.wind-watch.org
Earlier this year the BBC reported that a farmer in Taiwan lost more than 400 goats after eight giant turbines were erected close to his land. Their deaths appear to have been caused by lack of sleep.
Animals suffer in silence, we need to consider them too.
This is important when it comes to whales, and dolphins too. How much research is done into the effects offshore wind turbines will have upon their well-being?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du at sunset, from Cefn Cwm Lwch, Brecon Beacons, by Tom Hutton
Following the protest this June at Nant-y-Moch Reservoir, we were approached by Tom Hutton, an award winning photographer who lives in Mid Wales and has given us his support.
You can learn more about him from his website www.tomhutton.co.uk, which includes an extensive biography. His passions include climbing, skiing, and cycling, and of course a love of nature itself, and he contributes to magazines such as Mountain Bike Rider, Country Walking and Trail, for example.
We now have a new page on the artistsagainstwindfarms.com website highlighting his work, and we are proud to display the statement he has written for us, which begins:
“The rolling uplands of the Cambrian Mountains are the closest Wales gets to true wilderness – a huge swathe on the map that isn’t crisscrossed with roads and car parks and towns and villages. It feels almost timeless even if it isn’t, and anything that compromises the skyline or the tranquility of this area would be nothing short of vandalism. ..." Do go to his page to read more.
His words are even more relevant now as we hear that the government has chosen Nant-y-Moch as one of the windfarms to be pushed through the planning process by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission - read more at this link to the Cambrian-News
Finally here is a link to photographs and videos from the protest walk at Nant-y-Moch organised by the Cambrian Mountains Society, which was led by David Bellamy and Christine Lovelock.
Monday, November 9, 2009
The rare orange bellied parrot (by Marion Chapman)
Following the wonderful BBC series, Life, focusing last night (note: this posting was made Tuesday 10th November, not as dated above) on Birds, it is good to both praise the programme makers for their inspirational documentaries, and at the same time remind readers about the risk that turbines cause to birds.
As well as looking at Marion Chapman's pages featuring the Bald Hills Wetland Reserve (home of the rare orange bellied parrot) and the Barrier Ranges, we recommend that you go to EPAW (the European Platform Against Windfarms) for a dramatic video of a vulture struck by a wind turbine.
And finally a bird lovers blog that we like to recommend is Jupiter Birding.
His Dream of Hunting in the Kelp Forest
Artist Kathryn Logan from Kintyre, whose work can be seen on the artists againstwindfarms website, sent us this posting (not about windfarms this time, but about another environmental concern):
"It horrifies me that a migratory fish, the salmon, is trapped in cages, its migratory instinct thwarted [I have read that farmed salmon go mad and become frighteningly aggressive]. They are kept in such over-crowded conditions that they have to be pumped full of chemicals to survive [like battery hens]. These fish farms cause serious environmental pollution and create a danger to wild fish. At the moment we are fighting, not a wind farm this time, but a proposed salmon fish farm in Kilbrannan Sound, north of Carradale, on the east coast of Kintyre. This is more than the industrialisation of a completely unspoiled area with its wonderful views across Kilbrannan Sound to the peaks of Arran, this is an environmental time bomb: evidence shows that salmon farms are a source of danger to the survival of wild fish stocks and should not be sited close to wild salmon river systems.
Yet this area, chosen by Lakeland Marine for their proposed salmon fish farm, is on the migratory route of wild salmon to their natal rivers further north in Loch Fyne, and is close to a number of rivers where wild salmon stocks are so low that measures are actually being taken to protect them. Salmon farming endangers wild fish through the transfer of parasitic sea lice, causing many wild fish to die; escapees interbreed with wild salmon, diluting gene banks; pharmaceutical chemicals and waste products used in the rearing of farmed salmon pollute the marine environment and contaminate shellfish, which, if eaten, can cause human disease.
She also asks us to include this information below:
The End of the Line for Open Net Cage Salmon Farming?
New film premieres around the world during next week’s Global Week of Action
A new short documentary produced by Canadian film-maker Damien Gillis lifts the lid on the problems caused by open net cage salmon farms worldwide. “Farmed Salmon Exposed: The Global Reach of the Norwegian Salmon Farming Industry” reveals the pervasive nature of the issues plaguing salmon aquaculture and features testimonials by witnesses discussing the environmental and socio-economic damage caused by poorly managed salmon farms.
The film features ghillie Brian Fraser from Scotland; John Mulcahy from Save The Swilly in Ireland; Orri Vigfusson from the North Atlantic Salmon Fund in Iceland; Alexandra Morton and Dr Daniel Pauly from British Columbia; Dr Matthias Gorny from Oceana in Chile as well as Sven Helge Pedersen, King Harald and Vegard Heggem in Norway.
Premieres will take place in Edinburgh (9th), Dundonnell (10th) and Oban (11th) in Scotland; Dublin (12th) in Ireland; Santiago (11th) in Chile; Washington DC (12th) in the United States; Vancouver (12th) in Canada; and Oslo (13th) and Bergen (16th) in Norway. Further screenings in Orkney, Shetland, Arran , London , Las Vegas , Santa Cruz , Puerto Varas, Ancud and on Vancouver Island are planned later in November.
A 3 minute excerpt is online now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eggrGn0V0fg
Sunday, November 8, 2009
We photographed this inscription on the outer walls of the Scottish Parliament while up in Scotland some time ago, giving support to anti-wind farm campaigners.
Scottish film maker David Graham Scott has had a film about life in a remote Scottish valley banned by the BBC, because of its" lack of impartiality" on the the issue of wind farms. Yet he has produced other controversial films that the BBC was happy to show.
You can read more about this here (Scotland on Sunday) including a quote from campaigner Bob Graham, who says that the BBC is itself biased in favour of wind farms.
The Biased BBC website also raises this topic today, and shows a clip of another of David Graham Scott's films that - presumably - was seen as completely impartial in the eyes of the BBC. This film about a Scottish republican campaigner was made as part of a series called The New Ten Commandments which was broadcast last year. It apparently passed the BBC's impartiality guidelines despite the fact that it shows only one point of view, but a film that showed opposition to wind farms, by the same documentary maker, did not.
This is a hole for a turbine base in what was once a peaceful Welsh Mountain. Wind turbines create environmental degradation (go to www.cefn-croes to see more)
Chris Smith is Chairman of the Environment Agency and he is quoted in the Sunday Times today as saying "“I want wind power all over the countryside."
Isn't the Environment Agency supposed to look after the environment?
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Do go to windmillsblow.blogspot.com/2009/07/guerilla-sculpture.html where you can see photographs of this sculpture/installation that some brave artist installed right under the shadow of the turbines.
Also found, in the comments below the windmillsblow blog, a link to another blog, www.mywinddiary.blogspot.com about the health effects felt after turbines were erected in Blenheim, Ontario...
Thursday, November 5, 2009
According to the article, under current EU law, German wind turbines do not help to reduce CO2 emissions - they simply allow Eastern European countries to pollute more.
Thanks to Beryl Pipes from Argyll for sending us this watercolour, titled "Eredine Sheep Fank (ruin), Loch Awe."
We have added it to the www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com gallery, and it is linked to Beryl's page with more details about the painting and the threatened area around Loch Awe.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
`Awe Winter, ' photograph by Karl Pipes
Looking NE over Loch Awe from Keppochan,
Artists against wind farms welcomes new contributors Karl and Beryl Pipes from Argyll, in Scotland. Karl sent us this photograph of the stunning landscape around Loch Awe, and more of his work will be seen on the new photographers web-page to be launched later this week, when we feature the work of photographer Tom Hutton, who lives not far from Nant-y-Moch in Mid Wales.
Karl's beautiful photograph, and Beryl's watercolour of the same landscape (to be shown later today) come just as we hear ominous news from Scotland that Ministers are going to grant new powers to Forestry Commission Scotland to negotiate with the private sector to build wind farms on its land.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Go to the website of Stop Bickerton Wind Turbines to learn more about this proposal to build five 125m-high wind turbines on farmland at the foot of Bickerton Hill, in Cheshire, not far from Cholmondeley Castle.
Local MP Stephen O'Brien is also supporting the campaign.
Appleton Wiske, Deighton, East Rounton, Great Smeaton, Hornby, Little Smeaton, Picton, Welbury, West Rounton and our countryside.
They have an informative and interesting website, and they have recently set up a petition on the Downing Street Website, as follows:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to set up an independent working party of acousticians and medical experts to fully explore the problems of wind turbine noise and the health consequences as ETSU-R-97, the measurement presently used, is invalid and does not protect our communities from unbearable noise pollution."
Having met property owners whose lives have been made intolerable by wind turbine noise, I am happy to endorse this. I am also pleased to see another MP, William Hague, has shown his support for this group.
Monday, November 2, 2009
How many people have realised that these new planning rules give the IPC huge powers? It can - according to the article - "grant not just planning permission but also the power to compulsorily seize private property, close roads and footpaths and extinguish Green Belt protection."
And even more chilling, quoting again from the article:
"Indeed, if a developer is eyeing up your land for some new scheme, the IPC can grant that developer access to it – even allow him to dig “exploratory” holes in it – before planning permission has even been applied for, let alone given. "
It was Andrew Gilligan who exposed the Government over its briefing on weapons of mass destruction, and was named Journalist of the year in 2008. He asks now whether these new and undemocratic planning laws are "the new poll tax"?
Here is a link to the Mynydd LLansadwrn Action Group website.
And Artistsagainstwindfarms webpage and Cambrian Mountains Society website about Nant-y-Moch, also threatened (more to come) by the IPC.