GDES3003 Ian Cotterill Green Design: Task 01 – ‘Age Of Stupid’ Item Notes

Wind Farms

During the film, some footage was shown depicting an environment group attempting to get their local council to approve the construction of wind farms to help the environment. Their efforts ultimately fail, due to protest from local inhabitants against potential wind turbines ruining their view of the countryside. The film seems to depict these protestors as being violently aggressive and unwilling to accept the problem of Global Warming.

However, while I was watching the film, I did think that it was very single-minded in its attitude and unfairly negative in some respects towards anyone that in its view was hindering any actions to stop Global Warming. The Wind farms were a prime example, cause I could actually appreciate the problems with constructing wind turbines and how they ruin the view. I myself get annoyed when I’m walking along the coast for example, and when I look at the sea, I have loads of wind turbines in the middle of the water, ruining the scenery. The turbines could remove the beauty of a natural scene, and if too many are produced, they could damage the planet as surely as global warming could.

In addition, they are not a completely reliable source of energy, because the way they work depends on much wind is blowing around them. The weather can be very unpredictable, and if there is no wind currently around, the turbines would not work. In addition, they can be very expensive to build and can also disturb the local wildlife, such as birds.

That does not mean I cannot see the value in Wind Farms, as they are a useful source of renewable energy that does not add to global warming. I just think that there has to be a balance made that would satisfy both sides of the debate. One possible solution could be to make the turbines shorter in length and limit the number of them as a group. For example, I recently saw a local farm that used only one turbine that was just a little taller than an average house. In addition, it would be best to have an additional source of power, since I’ve explained that wind turbine efficiency depends on the weather itself.