Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Energy, Environment, Junk Science, Statism | Tags: A Killer Winter, Author James Delingpole, Wind Farms Are Obsolete
James Delingpole, writer, journalist, novelist, who is right about everything, blogs at The Telegraph in Britain. Yesterday he called to our attention “the best article on wind farms you will ever read” by Kevin Myers in the Irish Independent. Here is a sampling, but you will want to read the whole thing.
Russia’s main gas-company, Gazprom, was unable to meet demand last weekend as blizzards swept across Europe, and over three hundred people died. Did anyone even think of deploying our wind turbines to make good the energy shortfall from Russia?
Of course not. We all know that windmills are a self-indulgent and sanctimonious luxury whose purpose is to make us feel good. Had Europe genuinely depended on green energy on Friday, by Sunday thousands would be dead from frostbite and exposure, and the EU would have suffered an economic body blow to match that of Japan’s tsunami a year ago. No electricity means no water, no trams, no trains, no airports, no traffic lights, no phone systems, no sewerage, no factories, no service stations, no office lifts, no central heating and even no hospitals, once their generators run out of fuel.
Modern cities are incredibly fragile organisms, which tremble on the edge of disaster the entire time. During a severe blizzard, it is electricity alone that prevents a midwinter urban holocaust. We saw what adverse weather can do, when 15,000 people died in the heatwave that hit France in August 2003. But those deaths were spread over a month. Last weekend’s weather, without energy, could have caused many tens of thousands of deaths over a couple of days.
Why does the entire green spectrum, which now incorporates most conventional parties across Europe, deny the most obvious of truths? To play lethal games with our energy systems in order to honour the whimsical god of climate change is as intelligent and scientific as the Aztec sacrifice of their young. Actually, it is far more frivolous, because at least the Aztecs knew how many people they were sacrificing: no one has the least idea of the loss of life that might result from the EU embracing “green” energy policies.
Delingpole goes on:
Of all the miserable specimens on this planet, no category repels me quite so much as those parasites involved with the great renewables boondoggle.
Mr. Delingpole is enthusiastically opinionated, delightfully cranky, and thoroughly enjoyable. A man after my own heart. Here he is on Uncommon Knowledge:
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American Elephants 
Of all the miserable specimens on this planet, no category repels me quite so much as those parasites involved with the great renewables boondoggle.
There is much to respect in those words. Indeed, we should embrace all technologies, but to adhere to the religious green is inexcusable.
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Comment by pino February 9, 2012 @ 4:26 pmDelingpole is opinionated about everything. I always enjoy him.
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Comment by The Elephant's Child February 10, 2012 @ 1:40 amCertainly wind turbines are contributing to electricity supply during the European cold wave, but for the moment their energy is not enough to make a big difference. Meanwhile, Germany continues to keep a significant number of its nukes off-line.
I have no doubt that wind turbines will continue to be built (eventually), even if the current hefty subsidies and feed-in tariffs are withdrawn — albeit at a reduced pace of expansion.
What is refreshing is to see that even some of the early wind-power enthusiasts are starting to take the objections of local (mainly rural) residents seriously. I encourage everyone to read this (unusual for Renewable Energy World) very thoughtful piece on the new book, Windfall: Wind Energy in America Today, by historian Robert Righter. Here is an excerpt from the article:
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Comment by Subsidy Eye February 10, 2012 @ 4:13 am