[Moon-dæg] A Final Look at Wind Farms

Introduction
On Either Side
The Hazy Long View
Winding Down
Closing

{Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty giving a brusque, verging on covert, mid-response thumbs up to wind farms. Image from the Globe and Mail.com}

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Introduction

People's positions on wind farms are hard to change. But what really underlies the passion on either side of the debate?

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On Either Side

Resistance to and/or acceptance of change is certainly a major factor in the matter of wind farms, but just as deep is a concern for the future.

Those who are for wind power are those who believe that it truly is for the best, and that it really is just what needs to be done in order to help prevent global warming, to make power generation more sustainable, and to just plain make the future a more hospitable place for the generations that will have to live there.

On the other hand, those people who are against wind farms in rural Ontario are those who believe that wind farms are just the choice de jour of a government that wants to bully those with less power than citizens living in cities, or who believe that wind farms and wind power are some kind of elaborate sham - no more efficient than coal power, and certainly no more green.

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The Hazy Long View

Compelling evidence has been put forth on either side. Some research suggests that wind farms cause local warming, and other research suggests that wind farms are becoming cheaper and cheaper.

Although not nearly so charged as when debates involve things like the definition of life or when it starts, the place of wind farms in Ontario is definitely divisive.

However, taking the long view, wind farms seem beneficial. Are they expensive to consumers? Of course. Have they been forced on some municipalities by a government that some have decried as overly paternal? Sure.

Maybe it’s overly idealistic, but it seems that any transition into a new form of power generation is going to be painful - partly because of cost, partly because of inconvenience, and partly because of a perceived threat to the pastoral ideal, the old idea that any countryside is pristine and unblemished in every way possible - from its soil to its people to its skyline.

Perhaps a better question to ask than whether people should be for or against it is simply whether or not there will be any kind of benefit to it in the long run.

Bringing in wind farms with little negotiation might be a classically paternal move on the part of the McGuinty Liberals, or some stereotypical Liberal over-spending at the cost of bill-paying citizens, but in 50 to 100 years will it do as much harm as people are saying? or will wind farms have done some good - maybe making Ontario’s countryside more pristine than it was before?

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Winding Down

Perhaps this issue has sparked so much debate because the only way an answer can be firmly grasped is more by feeling than by thinking. The future that Ontario wind farms might positively or negatively effect is so far off that trying to forecast just what will happen involves too many variables.

There are immediate woes and victories, but do either matter as much as either side make them out to?

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Closing

On Wednesday check back here for an article on the newest news, and on Friday be sure to stop on by for a hunt for the good in London Boulevard.

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