Testimony of a Wind Turbine Sufferer…

April 22, 2016 / 1957chev / 1 Comment

It is finally time

Fred McCorkle – April 21, 2016

This very sad, but now all too common letter discussing wind turbine impacts is published here with the permission of the author.

After being awakened for the ump-teenth time by these grinding, screeching, humming, squealing, house vibrating, jet sounding, phone interrupting, television disturbing, internet interfering, shadow flickering, environmental impacting, property value lowering, aesthetic degrading, red light blaring obtrusive monsters, known as Industrial wind turbines, (IWT), thrust upon us without our permission.

It is finally time to thank the uninformed, seemingly uncaring, self-serving, publicly elected officials, for having the audacity to vote in favor of a project that they knew so little about which would forever change the lives of so many people that they are supposed to work to protect, all because a smooth tongued, representative from a less than ethical company, (which person admitted he would not live near turbines), was able to pull the wool over their eyes by making promises of untold booty with undoubtedly, falsified studies of sound, resident acceptance and environmental impact.

I would hope that these publicly elected officials are realizing how their actions have affected the residents of northeastern Tipton County, IN. Thanks to them our lives have changed forever, not for the better but for a lifetime of interruptions, inconveniences not only in the daytime but 24 hours a day. This is not an issue that you can spend an hour or two or a day in the area and comprehend the negative impact it is having upon our lives.

You have to be here for extended periods of time because there will be instances that the wind doesn’t blow yet the humming and screeching will continue as the IWTs search for wind. It was stated that residents would adjust, getting used to these monsters but alas this is not happening when you are awakened at two or three AM by something that sounds as if it is in your house and upon investigating you find that it is an IWT. It has been suggested that we move, however finding anyone to purchase our property for the true value it had before the IWTs were present is impossible.

As I realize this will serve no purpose to alleviate the situation in Tipton County, IN

I would hope it could inform others of the irritating intrusions of IWTs, these monsters have absolutely no place in a community as populated as Tipton County.

Also hoping it would lead elected officials to better investigative procedures before signing on the dotted line.

Although I have not read nor have I seen it, I understand that one of those responsible officials has written some form of apology or regret about their actions. This would show the great character and respect of that person to the citizenry, however it does nothing to alleviate the intrusions.

Respectfully,
Fred McCorkle
Windfall, IN

Environmentalists Finally Catching on to the Windscam!

April 22, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

German Greens Turn Against Wind Power Too

April 22, 2016 by stopthesethings

****

German opposition to these things grows by the day. And, just like everywhere else, criminals, shysters and chancers cloak themselves in groovy ‘green’ credentials and help themselves to $billions in subsidies filched from power consumers and/or taxpayers: all for the ‘good of the planet’ – or, perhaps, not.

Corruption, lies treachery and deceit are the benchmark for the wind industry and Germany is no different.

Now, the less gullible among Germany’s Greens have worked out that wind power is the greatest economic and environmental fraud of all time.

Spiegel Puts Spotlight On Germany’s “Green Sleaze” … Wind Industry’s “Corruption Of Greens, Environmental Groups, Local Pols…”
No Tricks Zone
Pierre Gosselin
7 April 2016

The latest hardcopy issue of flagship news magazine Der Spiegel reports how Germany’s green energy revolution has bitterly divided the country’s environmental movement.

Enoch zu Guttenberg, one of Germany’s most prolific environmentalists has become an outspoken critic of wind energy in Germany, and believes children in the future will be able to see Germany’s idyllic landscape only in paintings as developers clear hill-top forests to make way for skyscraper-size industrial wind turbines.

Guttenberg, a symphony conductor, told Spiegel the movement against wind turbines has exploded over the past months and years and that his speeches against wind turbines are attracting ever larger crowds: “When I started 60 or 70 would come, now there are more than 1000.”

Moreover Guttenberg talks of “hundreds of local citizens’ initiatives” that are now mobilizing against wind projects. Spiegel writes of a whole “new quality” of resistance that governments now need to confront as many traditional environmentalists now rail against what they view as a “corruption of green party members, environmental groups, local politicians and city councils“.

So divided the environmentalists have become that Germany’s powerful BUND (Friends of the Erath Germany) launched a slander lawsuit against Guttenberg after he accused the organization of having “merged” with the Wind Lobby. BUND later dropped the suit.

Since then Guttenberg has compared the BUND directors to Judas and accused them of having sold out the environmental philosophy for a “dish of lentil”. Leading environmental activists today are now saying: “The color of sleaze is no longer black, rather it is green.”

The environmental movement has become so disunified, Spiegel writes, that once diehard nuclear energy opponents have now switched to protesting wind turbines, as many planning boards ignore concerns of the citizens and attempt to steamroll projects through against the public will.

Often the projects are politically explosive, involving a good old boys network. A typical pattern, Spiegel writes:

Town mayor, local pols, city directors, who at the same time happen to be the managing directors of wind parks and whoPROFIT from them. A dubious mesh of community and electricity interests.”

This is how it works at many communities, Spiegel describes. Often the nearby residents and citizens pay heftily through lost property values, health issues from infrasound, and high electricity prices. Invariably only very fewBENEFIT at all.

Planners often shoot back and claim nothing is illegal about the business deals. But the public is not having it. Spiegel adds:

Indeed in the meantime resistance is growing. ‘The mood has flipped because people are noticing that it is all about business,’ says anti-wind activist [Manfred] Knake”

At the end of the article Guttenberg, Spiegel writes, calls it the “capitialistic injustice of the Energiewende“.

TheMONEY of the little guy, who has to pay billions for renewables, is diverted into the pockets of some large property owners.”

No Tricks Zone

Wind Turbine Projects, a Breach of Human Rights!

April 21, 2016 / 1957chev / 1 Comment

March 2016Australia

Human Rights and Wind Energy Projects

It identifies and considers a number of potential breaches of varying impact and of differing ease or difficulty of establishing. In this context the rights to health, safe working conditions and property may be the simplest to establish whether breaches have or have not occurred.

Readers of this document need to understand that it is not in any way a legal argument and that whilst all reasonable steps have been taken in its construction the author makes no representation that the information is complete nor that the analysis and conclusions are correct.

Those interested in the subject should obtain their own advice before proceeding with a formal complaint.

Prepared by:
Peter R Mitchell AM, BChe
March 2016

Index

Summary
Introduction
The Relevant Facts
Has the Wind IndustryPROVEN Its Machines Are Safe?
Level of Disturbance
Human Rights Legislation
Major Breaches of Human Rights
1. Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment
2. Discrimination
3. Arbitrary Interference
4. Working Conditions
5. Family
6. Children
7. Physical and Mental Health
8. Homes and Other Assets
Obligations of Civil Servants

Appendices

Each Appendix repeats relevant articles from the Declaration and Convenants with comments in italics on their applicability to the problems discussed in the memorandum.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
Covenant on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)

A. Summary

IndustrySPIN and uncritical but determined admirers of wind energy have encouraged the political and public view of the wind industry as beyond criticism and critical analysis. In contrast people living in the vicinity of Wind Energy Projects (WEPs) have been suffering both mentally and physically since turbines have appeared in their previously quiet, peaceful and healthy environments.

Some high quality work by US scientistsi in the 1980s uncovered a wind turbine sound profile (signature) that included infrasound and low frequency sound (ILFN). This signature was unlike that of any other source of sound. ILFN at very low and specific frequencies was identified as the cause of health problems in humans. The industry and their favoured acousticians “forgot” this work; but recent field workii in Australia has confirmed the unique sound profile and the cause and effect. Advances in instrumentation are allowing more work to be undertaken in victims’ homes by privately funded acousticians independent of the wind industry.

Characteristically the victims have no funds to seek legal relief or advice but that may become easier as the findings are repeated. Meanwhile the victims continue to endure what they claim are intolerable bodily impacts with their personal sensitivity increasing with timeiii.

Whilst the industry currently feels secure against court action, it has occurred to some that the industry and government regulatory authorities are quite possibly causing major breaches of certain of the victims’ human rights; and that this is an avenue that should, and can, be diligently pursued with a minimum outlay of scarce funds.

Matching of thePROVEN impacts with defined and accepted human rights is the purpose of this document.

Matching shows that rights involving:

Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment
Discrimination
Arbitrary Interference
Working Conditions
Family
Children
Physical and Mental Health
Homes and Other Assets

are seemingly being both ignored, and breached.

It is not necessary that every one of the above identified rights is breached. One alleged breach against one person at one wind project is enough to trigger the obligations of the Human Rights Commission.

B. Introduction

The Clean Energy Council website states that: “Australia had 1866 wind turbines spread across 71 wind farms at the end of 2014. Three wind farms with a combined power generation capacity of 566.7 megawatts (MW) were completed in 2014 and a further five wind farms remained in progress early in 2015 and are expected to be completed in 2015”.

Individual turbine size (rated capacity) ranges from less than 1MW to about 3.3MW.

Changes to the Renewable Energy Target will require additional renewable energy capacity to be built, most of which can be expected to be wind derived.

There are a variety of problems with wind energy that are unlikely to be rectified soon. This document is concerned solely with the physiological and psychological impact on families and farm workers living within 10km of a WEP.

The purpose of WEPs is to produce power from a sustainable source without producing carbon dioxide. It may or may not be that the planet is facing disastrous global warming; it may or not be that carbon dioxide produced from fossil fuels is a, or perhaps the, major cause. Many believe (but may not actually know) the answers to the above options are in the affirmative. Political parties and members of State and Federal parliaments have, with some exceptions, accepted the affirmative view. The Commonwealth, through the Renewable Energy Act, has directed that power consumers pay large subsidies for renewable energy in order for wind energy and some other renewable energies to become viable. Thus the wind industry operates with aGUARANTEED PROFIT at a level which is very attractive to some investors who increasingly are foreign.

The wind industry’s interest is to protect and enhance its cash flows. Capitalism has a poor record if its product or service is damaging to the public and the environment. In these circumstances it commonly does not seek to change its product but to defend its continuation. Unfortunately this reaction includes tactics of denial and dissembling, refusing to undertake sufficient research on its own products, delaying research by others and attacking those who see problems with the product and are prepared to say so. An expensive campaign of denial andSPINis progressively developed and practised.

Those convinced of the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions see wind energy as a win-win solution (both sustainable and reducing carbon dioxide). However, in the matter of its more carefully defined purpose, that being the net reduction of carbon dioxide per unit of power produced, it is a failure.iv This is mentioned here so that readers may realise that wind energy is not the saviour first thought, and that there is no question of “wind power or we perish”.

However this document does not make the argument about wind being not fit for purpose. Others have done and continue doing that. The purpose here is to consider whetherPROVEN impacts on residents constitute transgression of their human rights.

The following facts relating to the generation of power from wind are drawn from published research and unpublished field work, much of which is available on websites such as the Waubra Foundation, National Wind Watch, etc. website. These are discovered and researched facts, not unfounded assertions nor the output of “post modern” science.

Matching of these facts with defined and accepted human rights is the purpose of this document.

C. The Relevant Facts

An understanding of the nature of the sound pressure wavesv emitted by turbines and the impacts of that energy upon neighbours is essential to any assessment of the possible breaching of human rights. Facts vital to this evaluation follow.

Wind turbines produce sound (airborne pressure waves) across the infrasound, low frequency and audible ranges.
Sound in the very low frequency spectrum (0.1 hertz to 20 hertz) characterised as infrasound, as well as excessive low frequency noise (20 to 200 Hz) causes serious physiological and psychological impacts on some or all of the residents in a significant number of houses up to at least 10 km from the nearest turbine.
Residents do not become accustomed to these pressure waves, but become sensitised, so that the impact becomes increasingly damaging with ongoing exposure.(See Endnote ii)
A major impact of these sound waves is chronic sleep deprivationvi often associated with waking suddenly and regularly in a panicked state; but other primary or secondary health problems such as tinnitus, vertigo and balance problems, tachycardia, nausea, migraine, exacerbation of chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, and concentration problems, as well as physiological and psychological stress are also common.(See Endnote ii) Chronic sleep deprivation is classified by the World Health Organisation as a contributor to diseasevii.
Many residents find their formerly peaceful homes are rendered sonically toxic and ultimately uninhabitable and, on full disclosure to possibly interested buyers, unsaleable.
Young children are unable to understand or express their discomfort, which is often extreme, old people are unable to move for various reasons including financial; and all ages suffer declining health and cognitive power and are increasingly at risk in operating farm machinery, fixed machines and even cars and trucks.

D. Has the Wind Industry Proven Its Machines Are Safe?

The information to support the above facts is readily available and mounting. Whilst the wind industry and its variously motivated supporters deny any evidence exists, and discredit the motives and background of the whistleblowers, the industry has never been inclined or required to prove that their ever larger turbines are safe, or to prove another source that has any scientific credibility for the health impacts that arise around wind turbineINSTALLATIONS.

E. Level of Disturbance

Please read on

Wind Projects Destroy Farming Communities!

April 20, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Want Hate-Filled Communities? Then Just Add Wind Farms

April 20, 2016 by stopthesethings

The wind industry, its parasites and spruikers keep telling us that rural communities are falling over themselves to get in on some wind farm action. However, as usual, theirSPIN and the reality on the ground are miles apart.

Nancy Tips details how wind farms destroy the trust and faith that make vibrant and prosperous rural communities tick.

Lessons about community from Windham
Burlington Free Press
Nancy Tips
7 April 2016

It has become a cliche to say, towns targeted for industrial wind installations are torn apart by the experience. If it’s an experience you haven’t had, you might well wonder what’s behind the cliche. If you really want to understand, you might start by asking the question, what is the nature of the bonds that hold a community together in the first place?

I don’t know about your small town, but in ours, neighborly bonds tend to be of the feel-good type: I do you a kindness and we both benefit. You break your leg? I plow your drive. Your weed whacker is in the shop? I lend you mine. Your brother dies? I go to the funeral, even if I didn’t know him. What a dandy fellow I am, and everyone knows it.

These small acts of kindness do indeed build a sense of community. But as with other relationships, you don’t really know your community until the chips are down.

You don’t know what “for better or for worse” means until you get to the “worse” part. You quickly find out, when a wind developer comes knocking on your community door.

It’s very bad times, at least for some people. And the fact that people are differently affected depending on where they live is, it turns out, at the heart of what you learn about “community.”

You learn when the friend from over the way regards you with a steely gaze when you tell him, “My home, and my family’s home, are a half mile from five 500-foot tall wind turbines.” “I feel for you,” says your friend, quickly changing the subject.

You learn when you try to explain that your fear and sadness are keeping you awake. “All my family’s wealth is in our family farm, which would lie less than 3,000 feet from five 40-story wind turbines. We won’t be able to live here, and the land owner and developer have said they wouldn’t compensate anyone for lost use of their property.” “Please,” chuckles your friend, “it won’t be that bad.”

You learn when you look at the people who are fighting as hard as you are to stop the wind turbine project and realize that the project will probably not affect them so personally, but that they care about their neighbors who will be harmed. And you know they will be next to you, blocking the road, if the day comes when the unimaginably huge trucks arrive with wind turbine parts.

In our little town, we’ve spent nearly four years watching the company reps of the wind developer, an immense multi-national, mosey about on our ridgeline, trying to answer their precious question, is the “wind resource” on your pristine ridgeline enough for us to make lots of money by putting turbines here?

But we have a question too, and although we’ve looked equally hard for the answer, we can’t find it.

Our question is, what will happen to us, as individuals and as a community, if the developer does decide we’re good enough to “host” their project? Who will care for our tattered community, and our damaged lives?

That there is no answer to, or even interest in, our question does not feel good – it feels abusive, unjust. It feels vicious, violent. It feels as if Vermont, my entire family’s beloved adopted home, were the most dangerous place in the world for me and my family to live.

So the days go on, lessons abounding. I learn about mercy, for instance, when I hear my husband on the phone with a “friend,” explaining that turbine noise at a distance of less than half a mile stands a good chance of affecting the development of my infant grandson’s brain. Then I hear my husband, suddenly fierce, say, “I’m not asking you to feel sorry for me!”

Well you know what, my friend? I am asking you to feel sorry for me. I am asking you, god forbid, to have pity on me. I am asking for your mercy. Your answer will tell me something very important about “community.”
Burlington Free Press

More Evidence of Harm From Wind Turbine Noise

April 11, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Tonic tensor tympani syndrome (TTTS)

Tensor tympani muscle — *Tensor tympani and stapedius muscles contract reflexively in response to loud sounds to prevent damage to the hearing receptors.*

Noise & HealthApril 9, 2013Australia

Tonic tensor tympani syndrome in tinnitus and hyperacusis patients: a multi-clinic prevalence study

Myriam Westcott et alter

Abstract

Tonic tensor tympani syndrome (TTTS) is an involuntary, anxiety-based condition where the reflex threshold for tensor tympani muscle activity is reduced, causing a frequent spasm. This can trigger aural symptoms from tympanic membrane tension, middle ear ventilation alterations and trigeminal nerve irritability. TTTS is considered to cause the distinctive symptoms of acoustic shock (AS), which can develop after exposure to an unexpected loud sound perceived as highly threatening. Hyperacusis is a dominant AS symptom. Aural pain/blockage without underlying pathology has been noted in tinnitus and hyperacusis patients, without wide acknowledgment.

This multiclinic study investigated the prevalence of TTTS symptoms and AS in tinnitus and hyperacusis patients. This study included consecutive patients with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis seen in multiple clinics. Data collected: Symptoms consistent with TTTS (pain/numbness/burning in and around the ear; aural “blockage”; mild vertigo/nausea; “muffled” hearing; tympanic flutter; headache); onset or exacerbation from exposure to loud/intolerable sounds; tinnitus/hyperacusis severity. All patients were medically cleared of underlying pathology, which could cause these symptoms. 60.0% of the total sample (345 patients), 40.6% of tinnitus only patients, 81.1% of hyperacusis patients had ≥1 symptoms (P < 0.001). 68% of severe tinnitus patients, 91.3% of severe hyperacusis patients had ≥1 symptoms (P < 0.001). 19.7% (68/345) of patients in the total sample had AS. 83.8% of AS patients had hyperacusis, 41.2% of non-AS patients had hyperacusis (P < 0.001). The high prevalence of TTTS symptoms suggests they readily develop in tinnitus patients, more particularly with hyperacusis. Along with AS, they should be routinely investigated in history-taking.

Introduction

The tensor tympani reflex is a startle reflex, which is exaggerated by high stress levels. The tensor tympani muscle contracts immediately preceding the sounds produced during self-vocalisation, suggesting it has an established protective function to loud sounds, assists in the discrimination of low frequency sounds, and is involved in velopharyngeal movements.

Tonic tensor tympani syndrome (TTTS) was originally described by Dr. I. Klockhoff. TTTS is an involuntary condition where the centrally mediated reflex threshold for tensor tympani muscle activity becomes reduced, so it is continually and rhythmically contracting and relaxing. This appears to initiate physiological reactions in and around the ear without objectively measurable dysfunction or pathology. Symptoms consistent with TTTS can include: tinnitus; rhythmic aural sensations such as clicks and tympanic membrane flutter; alterations in ventilation of the middle ear cavity leading to a sense of aural blockage or fullness, a frequent aural “popping” sensation and mild vertigo; minor alterations in middle ear impedance leading to fluctuating symptoms of “muffled” and/or “distorted” hearing; irritation of the trigeminal nerve innervating the tensor tympani muscle, leading to pain, numbness and burning sensations in and around the ear, along the cheek, neck and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) area.

The specific and consistent cluster of physiological symptoms of acoustic shock (AS) is consistent with TTTS, without underlying aural or TMJ pathology. AS can occur involuntarily after exposure to a sudden unexpected loud sound perceived as highly threatening (acoustic incident). AS becomes an acoustic shock disorder (ASD) if symptoms persist. AS was originally identified in call center staff, who arevulnerable to AS because of the increased likelihood of exposure near the ear(s) to an acoustic incident transmitted via a telephone headset. The research on AS has focused on this cohort, however acoustic incidents can occur anywhere.

Symptoms such as aural pain and a sensation of aural blockage/fullness, with no underlying aural or TMJ pathology, have been observed in tinnitus and hyperacusis patients. These symptoms have been linked to TTTS by Jastreboff and Hazell and Westcott. However, these symptoms have not been widely acknowledged or investigated in this patient population. TTTS has been more intensively investigated in temporomandibular disorder (TMD) research, with TTTS considered to be a secondary consequence of TMD and/or TMJ dysfunction, predominantly responsible for referred tinnitus, ear pain and other symptoms in and around the ear.

This multiclinic study aimed to investigate in a sample of tinnitus and hyperacusis patients the prevalence of:

Symptoms consistent with TTTS
Symptoms consistent with TTTS developing or being exacerbated by intolerable sound exposure
AS aetiology triggering the onset of their tinnitus and/or hyperacusis.

[…]

Conclusion

The high prevalence of symptoms consistent with TTTS in this sample suggests they can readily develop as a primary phenomenon in patients with tinnitus, and more particularly in those with hyperacusis. These results support a central relationship between tinnitus, hyperacusis and TTTS, with further research indicated to explore this relationship and the efferent pathway triggering TTTS.

TTTS offers an explanation for the aural pain reported by many hyperacusis patients, often triggered or aggravated by intolerable sound exposure. Symptoms consistent with TTTS are subjective and can cause high levels of anxiety. This can lead to tinnitus escalation, the development and escalation of hyperacusis, and limit the efficacy of tinnitus/hyperacusis therapy. These symptoms should be routinely evaluated in history taking, de-mystified to patients to provide reassurance, and treated accordingly.

These results indicate that AS is a world-wide phenomenon, with significant clinical, medico-legal and military diagnostic/rehabilitation implications. It is recommended that evaluation of an acoustic incident at the time of tinnitus/hyperacusis onset is routinely carried out in history taking with tinnitus and hyperacusis patients.

→ Please read on

Energy Poverty Killing Thousands in Europe…

April 10, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Europe’s Wind Power Suicide Pact Killing 40,000 a Year

April 10, 2016 by stopthesethings

Green Europe is killing 40,000 poor a year
Breitbart
Jame Delingpole
30 March 2016

Europe’s suicidal green energy policies are killing at least 40,000 people a year.

That’s just the number estimated to have died in the winter of 2014 because they were unable to afford fuel bills driven artificially high by renewable energy tariffs.

But the real death toll will certainly be much higher when you take into account the air pollution caused when Germany decided to abandon nuclear power after Fukushima and ramp up its coal-burning instead; and also when you consider the massive increase in diesel pollution – the result of EU-driven anti-CO2 policies – which may be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year.

But even that 40,000 figure is disgraceful enough, given that greenies are always trying to take the moral high ground and tell us that people who oppose their policies are uncaring and selfish.

It comes from an article in the German online magazine FOCUS aboutEnergiewende (Energy Transition) – the disastrous policy I mentioned earlier this week whereby Germany is committed to abandoning cheap, effective fossil fuel power and converting its economy to expensive, inefficient renewables (aka unreliables) instead.

According to FOCUS around ten percent of the European population are now living in ‘energy poverty’ because electricity prices have risen, on average, by 42 percent in the last eight years. In Germany alone this amounts to seven million households.

The article is titled: The grand electricity lie: why electricity is becoming a luxury.

The reason, of course, is that green energy policies have made it that way. Many of these have emanated from the European Union, which in turn has taken its cue from the most Green-infested nation in Europe – Germany.

Germany has long been obsessed with all things environmental. Besides having invented the dodgy ‘science’ of ecology in the 1880s it was also, of course, between 1933 and 1945 the home of Europe’s official “Greenest government ever” – the first to ban smoking on public transport, an enthusiastic supporter of organic food, national parks and population control.

The Greens have also since the early Eighties been arguably the most influential party in Germany. Though their percentage of the vote has rarely risen above the 10 percent mark, they have punched above their weight either as a coalition partner in government or as a pressure group outside it.

For example, the reason that after Fukushima, Chancellor Angela Merkel completely changed Germany’s policy on nuclear power was her terror of the Greens who were suddenly polling 25 percent of the national vote.

It was the Greens too who were responsible for Energiewende – the policy which is turning Germany into the opposite of what most of us imagine it to be: not the economic powerhouse we’ve been taught to admire all these years, but a gibbering basket case.

This becomes clear in an investigation by the German newspaperHandelsblatt, which reports the horrendous industrial decline brought about by green energy policies.

Hit hardest, of course, are the traditional utilities. After all, the energy transition was designed to seal their coffin. Once the proverbial investment for widows and orphans because their revenue streams were considered rock-solid — these companies have been nothing short of decimated. With 77 nuclear and fossil-fuel power plants taken off the grid in recent years, Germany’s four big utilities — E.ON, RWE, Vattenfall and EnBW — have had to write off a total of €46.2 billion since 2011.

RWE and E.ON alone have debt piles of €28.2 billion and €25.8 billion, respectively, according to the latest company data. Losses at Düsseldorf-based E.ON rose to €6.1 billion for the first three quarters of 2015. Both companies have slashed the dividends on their shares, which have lost up to 76 percent of their value. Regional municipalities, which hold 24 percent of RWE’s shares, are scrambling to plug the holes left in their budgets by the missing dividends.

Thousands of workers have already been let go, disproportionately hitting communities in Germany‘s rust belt that are already struggling with blight. RWE has cut 7,000 jobs since 2011. At E.ON, the work force has shrunk by a third, a loss of over 25,000 jobs. Just as banks spun off their toxic assets and unprofitable operations into “bad banks” during the financial crisis, Germany’s utilities are reorganizing to cut their losses.

Why are the Germans enacting such lunacy? Aren’t they supposed to be the sensible ones?

Well yes, up to a point.

As a seasoned German-watcher explains to me, it’s with good reason that one of Germany’s greatest contributions to the world’s vocabulary is the word Angst.

The Germans are absolutely riddled with it – always have been – and it explains the two otherwise inexplicable policies with which Germany is currently destroying itself.

One, of course, is Energiewende caused by a misplaced, but deeply-held neurosis about stuff like diminishing scarce resources and “global warming” and the evils of Atomkraft (Nuclear power).

The other are its similarly insane immigration policies – the result of the neurosis that if it doesn’t replace its declining population with a supposedly healthy influx of immigrant workers, then it will wither and cease to be the great force it was under people like Frederick the Great, Bismarck and that chap in the 1930s and that no one will know or care where Germany is any more.

Ironically, though, if national decline is what the Germans most fear then the two policies they are pursuing to avoid it happening to be the ones most likely to hasten it.

This is sad. Sad for Germany which, for all its faults, has produced some pretty impressive things over the years: Beethoven; Kraftwerk; Goethe; Porsche; autobahns; those two girls on Deutschland 83.

And even sadder for those of us who, through absolutely no fault of our own happen to be shackled politically and economically to a socialistic superstate called the European Union, most of whose rules are decided by Germans over whom we have no democratic control.

Oh and by the way, Greenies: as I never tire of reminding you, you insufferable tossers, not a single one of the “future generations” you constantly cite in your mantras as justification for your disgusting, immoral and anti-free-market environmental policies actually exists.

But the people you’re killing now as a result of those environmental policies DO exist.

Or rather they did, till you choked or froze them to death, you vile, evil, eco-Nazi scumbags.
Breitbart

Definition of “Wind Turbines”….from an “Honest Encyclopedia”

April 8, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Wind turbine:

Wind turbine is the modern day windmill which is marketed as a clean energy solution to replace power from fossil fuel plants. The addition of multiple wind turbines in the same geographical location is referred to as a wind farm. The sales pitch…wind turbines power millions of homes with wonderful “free” energy. The truth is a much different story. “The wind power industry claims switching from conventional power to wind power will save consumers money and spur the economy. However, data from the top 10 wind power states show just the opposite.” ^[1]

Cost breakdown

Wind energy from turbines are power generating losers when compared to other technologies such as coal, hydro, gas and nuclear. One giant downside is no wind, no power generation. Sources say you need at least 10MPH wind speed to generate power and speeds in excess of 50MPH will shut down turbines to prevent damage. ^[2] Industry promoters often paint a rosy picture of the benefits of wind power when other sources claim as little as 8% of usable generation.

Not widely known but wind turbines actually use electricity from the grid (coal/gas/hydro/nuclear) to power their hydraulic systems that keep the blades facing in the same direction as the wind. In freezing weather conditions, electricity from the grid is used to keep the bladesspinning at low speeds as a method of de-icing.

The misconception is that youinstall a wind turbine and it will pay itself off within a decade. From that point out, it is a net energy gain at a fraction of a cost. Nothing can be further from the truth. Constant costs are involved to maintain these mechanical structures; Overheating bearings, plastic that melts, gallons of brake oil leaking, gallons of hydraulic fluid leaking, ^[3] blades that fall off, towers that collapse, replacement of yaw gear drives, bearings, gearboxes, and generators. The cost to put out wind turbine fires, some self-extinguish themselves out but others need fire departments to extinguish turbines and put out the brush fires below.

The cost to manufacture wind turbines prevents any offset gained transitioning to a ‘clean’ energy environment. ^[4]

“

A two-megawatt windmill contains 260 tonnes of steel requiring 170 tonnes of coking coal and 300 tonnes of iron ore, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons.

”

Landscape, seascape wildlife costs are a major downside to power from wind. Eagles, bats, birds of all kinds are killed in the thousands by wind blades. Their rotting carcasses litter the ground below. Estimates place the number of birds killed by wind turbines at 30 million per year. ^[5]

In Ontario Canada, every turbine destroys 3 acres of land, roughly 21,000 acres of farmland. ^[6]

Wind Turbine Syndrome

Many people living within 2 km (1.25 miles) of thesespinning giants get sick says a peer-reviewed study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. ^[7] Low frequency noise and infrasound appear to be the chief disease-causing culprit according to Dr. Nina Pierpont. In Wisconsin, a study showed noise emanating from the turbines was detectable inside homes within a 6.2-mile radius of the industrial wind plant and declared wind turbines a health hazard. ^[8]

Government Subsidies and Crony Capitalists

Billions of taxpayer dollars are being shoveled into this inefficient scheme in order to promote Global Warming agendas at the expense of real power sources and the tens of thousands of jobs they replace. Government subsidies keep the growth of wind turbine construction alive and keep this technology running afterinstalled. Without government financial involvement, wind turbines become to costly to operate, go idle and start rusting the landscape. Without government funding, investors sell theirinvestments and shelve plans to expand.^[9] The UK’s Labour party insists that wind turbines can’tmake a profit without subsidies. ^[10] Tax credits are given to companies that manufacture, to companies thatinstall/maintain, to municipalities that own the property. The IRS is giving away $13 Billion per year in wind energy subsidies.^[11]

The world’s biggest billion dollar corporations, such as General Electric and Siemens, are reaping the investments made in subsidized wind turbine construction. The U.S. government has laid the groundwork for an endless welfare system devoted to big wind companies. ^[12]

External links

References

Report the Harm Caused by Wind Turbines…

April 8, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

The Wind Industry’s Malicious & Unjustified Harm to Public Health

April 8, 2016 by stopthesethings

Wind power is a public health problem
Cape Cod Times
Lilli-Ann Green
7 March 2016

Wind turbine projects have previously been rejected in Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Harwich, Dennis, Brewster, Barnstable and Bourne. Health concerns have been a major issue.

A Superior Court judge, hearing neighbor’ complaints that wind turbine noise constituted an intolerable “nuisance” that was causing “irreparable harm,” issued an injunction to curtail operations.

The “Falmouth experience” is not unique. Residents in at least 21 communities in Massachusetts (and hundreds of locations all over the world) have reported significant health problems as the result of living too close to wind turbines. Those problems include sleep disruption and deprivation, headaches, ear pressure, dizziness, nausea, problems with concentration and memory, fast heart rate, high blood pressure and panic episodes.

In a 2011 peer-reviewed journal article, Harvard-trained epidemiologist Carl Phillips wrote, “There is overwhelming evidence that wind turbines cause serious health problems in nearby residents … at a nontrivial rate. The bulk of the evidence takes the form of thousands of adverse event reports. … The attempts to deny the evidence cannot be seen as honest scientific disagreement, and represent either gross incompetence or intentional bias.”

Ambrose and Rand’s 2011 peer-reviewed journal article, presented at the InterNoise international conference, concluded there was “a strong correlation with wind speed, power output and health symptoms.” Research was conducted at one homeowner’s dream home in Falmouth, which was abandoned after wind turbines became operational nearby and cause health problems.

There is plenty of additional scientific and medical evidence of harm caused by wind turbines globally. This is not a “he said, she said” issue. The health impacts are real, and people report they become worse over time. It’s a dose response.

Affected people report not experiencing symptoms before wind turbines started operating near their home. The symptoms go away when they leave their homes. The conclusion is that wind turbines are causing their problems.

Many people living in the proximity of wind turbines are not informed about the potential health impacts of wind turbines by wind developers. Some people report they don’t start experiencing the symptoms until much after wind turbines begin operating. They don’t connect the symptoms they started to experience with wind turbines nearby, perhaps because of the dose response.

Approximately 13 wind turbines operate on Cape Cod and the Islands where people living nearby (over 1.25 miles away in several cases) have reported health problems.

What steps can one take?

It is important for those affected to report and create a record of the problem with their town health board and with Wind Wise Massachusetts (email lgreen@windwisema.org). Town health boards have the responsibility to residents and their families and to take action if there is a health problem in town.

Certainly most Barnstable County citizens don’t want to directly or indirectly cause harm to others. Furthermore, common sense dictates it shouldn’t be legally proper for one town to approve an industrial machine at its border with another town while knowing there is a potential to harm the health of residents of that town nearby.

The Cape’s state legislators have filed several bills to study health problems, educate health care providers and the public and to help people who have been adversely affected by wind turbines. It would be helpful if readers and local media supported the passage of these bills. Honest and unbiased research is needed so we can understand how to do no harm to people in the proximity of wind turbines by determining how close is too close. Only then could a regional comprehensive energy plan that does not harm the health and safety of people living and working nearby be drafted.
Cape Cod Times

Lili-Ann Green’s evidence to the Australian Senate Inquiry is available here: Lilli-Anne Green – no ‘Green’ Dupe – tells Senate: Wind Farm Health Impacts ‘Universal’

The Fightin’ Irish are Defending Their Home Turf!

April 2, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Ireland’s Battle Against Wind Farm Rollout Escalates: Vestas Workers Receive Death Threats

April 2, 2016 by stopthesethings

On the Centenary of the 1916 Easter Uprising – its causes and consequences – soon became the hot topic in Ireland: for the Irish, deliberating and celebrating its underdog status (whether at arms, through its history, or trade) is almost a National pastime.

Underdogs or not, let there be no doubt about it: the Irish know how to fight. And their fighting spirit is no more evident when the threat faced is one to Irish homes and hearts.

True it is that hard-working, decent, rural people throughout the world are fighting back – to obtain sensible energy policies that support growth, development and vibrant, prosperous rural communities – against an industry with all the natural respect for property rights of Genghis Khan; and the moral fibre of Judas Iscariot.

Outfits like struggling Danish turbine maker, Vestas have ridden roughshod over communities across the globe. While Vestas might be able to bully and placate Danes on their home turf (thanks to theinstitutional corruption it conjured up for its own mercenary benefit), the Irish are a different mark. From the tactics employed, it’s clear that the Irish play for keeps.

A while back we covered the story of how a group of (probably) IRA Volunteers put the frighteners on a wind farm developer in Ulster, whose workers quickly responded to the message and fled: Irish Gunmen Raise Arms & Kill Off Threatened Ulster Wind Farm

While that event might have been seen as an aberration, it seems that Irish ‘Volunteers’ have no intention of bowing down to an industry as selfish and vindictive as any distant or internal political tyrant. In that vein, the stakes in terms of freedom from oppression, and autonomy of action, are not so different from what went before during the Irish ‘Troubles’.

With just as much fury and passion, the boys from Fermanagh have delivered a stern message to Vestas & Co: leave or be prepared for a bullet.

Denmark raises issue of death threats at ex-Quinn windfarm
The Independent
Gavin McLoughlin
27 March 2016

The Danish Ambassador to Ireland is set to meet Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald following the receipt of death threats against workers in Vestas, a Danish company operating a windfarm formerly owned by the Quinn Group.

The meeting between Carsten Sondergaard, the Danish Ambassador, Vestas and the Department of Justice officials is scheduled for Thursday.

Ms Fitzgerald, who is expected to attend the crisis meeting, had already sought a report on the matter, which has seen workers receive three bullets and a threatening letter, warning them to stay away from the Slieve Rushen windfarm.

Vestas told the Sunday Independent that the purpose of the meeting was to raise concerns and discuss possible solutions.

Representatives of Mantlin, which owns the windfarm and whose parent company is Europeaninvestment firm Platina Partners, will also attend.

Mantlin has said it is very concerned about the message the incidents have been sending out aboutinvestment in Co Fermanagh.

Senior executives at Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), the company that bought the old Quinn packaging and building businesses, have also faced threats.

QIH has said the incidents will not “distract us from our drive to ensure that the company continues the strong growth which we have demonstrated”.

Sean Quinn Snr, who formerly led the Quinn Group, and who was appointed as a consultant to QIH in late 2014, has repeatedly spoken out against acts of intimidation in the region.
The Independent

When your entire business ‘model’ is to treat rural people with haughty disdain and merciless contempt, being presented with an ultimatum of the kind delivered in Fermanagh should come as no surprise.

Windpushers Bury the Truth About Health Effects from Wind Turbines!

March 26, 2016 / 1957chev / Leave a comment

Health repercussions due to windmills being kept under wraps…

C. TORDESILLAS

Update Date: Mar 21, 2016

Leaving near wind mills can cause migraine and other health problems

(Photo : Photo: Flickr/vrot01)

An ex-health director of Brown County in Wisconsin is among the latest who have reported health problems related to wind power.

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According to a USA Today report, Chua Xiong claimed in an email that she gets migraine headaches when she visits Duke Energy’s Shirley Wind Farm. Her revelation came just as developers are eyeing more high-profile wind farm projects in Wisconsin. Xiong has since retired.

Brown County Citizens for Responsible Wind Energy (BCCRWE) claims that the email, sent by Xiong to an intern on Nov. 21, is further proof that the low-frequency sound from wind turbines caused some residents to suffer from health problems.

However, Xiong later stated the following month that there isn’t sufficient evidence to link the turbines to the migraine. That caused the BCCRWE to claim that Xiong made the statement in order to avoid litigation with Duke Energy, and that her inaction will result in the prolonged daily suffering of Brown County residents.

There are a long line of reports that wind turbines are causing health problems to those who live nearby.

In an article published by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) entitled “Adverse health effects of industrial wind turbines”, it was reported that people who live or work near industrial wind turbines have experienced decreased quality of life, annoyance, stress, sleep disturbance, headache, anxiety, depression, and cognitive dysfunction. Suggested causes of symptoms include a combination of wind turbine noise, infrasound, dirty electricity, ground current, and shadow flicker.

In a 2009 article by The Telegraph, a New York paediatrician, Dr Nina Pierpont, identified about 12 different health problems associated with WTS that range from tachycardia [abnormal heart beat], sleep disturbance, headaches, tinnitus, nausea, visual blurring, panic attacks with sensations of internal quivering to more general irritability.

She said that the vibration and noise emitted by wind turbines can produce a range of symptoms which she has named “Wind Turbine Syndrome” or WTS.

Pierpont observed that the illnesses associated with WTS would disappear when the person moves away from the wind turbines.

She said she expected that the wind industry would try to discredit and disparage her for the statements.

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