It’s written by Suzanna Jones, described as “an off-the-grid
farmer living in Walden.” She does not object to local power – but disagrees
with McKibben about the trend towards industrial scale renewables. It is, she
says, part of the mainstreaming of the environmental movement.
“In his 2008 book “Deep Economy,” Bill McKibben concludes
that economic growth is the source of the ecological crises we face today. He
explains that when the economy grows larger than necessary to meet our basic
needs – when it grows for the sake of growth, automatically striving for “more”
– its social and environmental costs greatly outweigh any benefits it may
provide.
Unfortunately, McKibben seems to have forgotten what he so
passionately argued just five years ago. Today he is an advocate of industrial
wind turbines on our ridgelines: He wants to industrialize our last wild spaces
to feed the very economy he fingered as the source of our environmental
problems.
His key assumption is that industrial wind power displaces
the use of coal and oil, and therefore helps limit climate change. But since
2000, wind facilities with a total capacity equivalent to 350 coal-fired power
plants have been installed worldwide, and today there are more – not fewer –
coal-fired power plants operating.
(In Vermont, the sale of renewable energy credits to
out-of-state utilities enables them to avoid mandates to reduce their fossil
fuel dependency, meaning that there is no net reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions.)
At best, industrial wind simply adds more energy to the
global supply. And what for? More! More energy than the grid can carry, more
idiotic water parks, more snowmaking, more electronic gadgets, more money for
corporations.
Why should we spend millions of dollars to destroy wildlife
habitat, kill bats and eagles, pollute our headwaters, fill valuable wetlands,
polarize our communities, make people sick, mine rare-earth metals – just to
ensure that we can consume as much or more next year than we did this year?
The costs of industrial wind far outweigh the benefits –
unless you are a wind developer. Federal production tax credits and other
subsidies have fostered a gold rush mentality among wind developers, who have
been abetted by political and environmental leaders who want to appear “green”
without challenging the underlying causes of our crises.
Meanwhile, average Vermonters find themselves without any
ability to protect their communities or the ecosystems of which they are a
part. The goal of an industrial wind moratorium is to stop the gold rush so we
can have an honest discussion on these issues.
Why does this frighten proponents of big wind? Because once
carefully examined, industrial wind will be exposed for the scam that it is.
McKibben’s current attitude toward the environment has been
adopted by politicians, corporations, and the big environmental organizations.
Environmentalism has been successfully mainstreamed, at the cost of its soul.
This co-opted version isn’t about protecting the land base
from the ever-expanding empire of humans. It’s about sustaining the comfort
levels we feel entitled to without exhausting the resources required. It is
entirely human-centered and hollow, and it serves corporate capitalism well.
In “Deep Economy,” McKibben points out that the additional
“stuff” provided by an ever-growing economy doesn’t leave people happier;
instead, the source of authentic happiness is a healthy connection to nature
and community. As Vermonters have already discovered, industrial wind destroys
both.
SOURCE OF STORY: http://www.topix.com/forum/business/THMT7M2B8PR84QNNT
