BTW: I will take back the Hansen comment as it appears that it was his colleague Rasool using a computer program of Hansen’s from a study of Venus that predicted 50 years of cooling on Earth, that could trigger an Ice Age.

James Hansen did not yell “The ice age is coming” or anything like this. You cite the common Global Warming Denier myth that there was a consensus among climate scientists in the 1970s that the globe was likely to cool. This is utterly false. In fact, there was no consensus at the time, but the general belief was “we sort of think the climate will warm, but we really have no idea.” More details at http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/01/the-global-cooling-myth/ The myth you site is standard Global Warming Denier trope, based on a stupid Newsweek article and some other stuff in the popular press.

The Altamont wind farm is, of course, one of the oldest wind farms in the country. It was built before they knew what they were doing. It kills almost as many birds as all other windfarms put together (i.e., about as many in a year as housecats kill every minute). Modern windfarms kill far fewer. Again, cars and buildings are much *much* larger sources of killing birds than wind farms.

Its nice to see you admit that it all comes down to property values.

That’s why I think you should change your group’s name to “Destroy Our Seashore But Save Our Property Values.” The policies you promote will destroy your seashore (and most others around the world), lead to extinctions of a sizeable fraction of all species, and cause unheard of problems for humanity. But they’ll keep your property values a bit higher for the next decade or so.

(Maybe. Its also possible that lower taxes would increase your property values. Or that people will come to appreciate the beauty of wind turbines, just as they appreciate the beauty of many other forms of technolgy.)

Your personal attacks against me are unfounded. Yes, I have plenty of self-doubt, and yes I read a wide variety of sources. And although there are probably less than half a dozen climate scientists who are unconcerned about Global Warming, I’ve sought out and read as many as I can (e.g., Lindzen, Pielke, Gray). I’ve also sought out and read the right-wingers who blog on the subject, but their blogs and reasoning are generally of such poor quality that its a really bad way to get info on the subject. Most of my information comes from reading what scientists say to each other (i.e., the journals), with some of it coming from popular communication from scientists. If you really care about reality, I’d recommend you do the same, instead of reading just non-scientific sources, right-wing blogs, etc.

I admire your skeptical approach to any study that concludes something that you don’t want to here (e.g., that cats kill as many birds every 10 minutes all American wind turbines kill in a year) and your absolute certainty about statements which no one has ever studied (e.g., that this wind turbine will kill birds, your belief that scientists are motivated by money).

Yes, I of course favor conservation. But– obviously– there is no dichotomy and we can and should do both.

I am fascinated by your suggestion of nuclear power, and would love to see you advocate more for this. Will you be proposing building a nuclear power plant on the seashore? What will this do to your property vaues? Or in someone else’s backyard? What will this do to their property values? Please do elaborate on this.

Remember our best scientists only 30 years ago screamed global cooling. Today they scream global warming. Does anyone know for certain? I don’t claim to. I do know they love the money and attention that comes with yelling you have figured out our climate. I however value open space and parks! I also know that current wind technology is expensive and quite imperfect. It require major over hauls every 6-8 years. Land based wind have an extremely low capacity factor. Wellfleet’s planned turbines happen to be in one of the least windy spots in the town. They require huge amounts of open space. And kills wind life!

Did you read the post where for roughly $300,000 you could replace some light bulbs in Wellfleet and realize at least as much savings in electricity as a $6000000 wind turbine. Is conservation something acceptable to you? Is it ok to be smart with our money? Or are wind turbines and solar arrays the only accepted solution for you?

Should we continue to study our climate as you have indicated that no doubt is accepted and further study is useless. I am concerned when I read about places like East Anglia where they forced people out of peer reviewed journals or use “tricks” to manipulate data to hid declines and won’t release the underlying formulas and data to backup their claims. I am concerned when people like James E. Hansen yell “THE ICE AGE IS COMING” in 1970 and then in 2000 yells “GLOBAL WARMING”! Do I know what is going to happen for the next thousand years? No. Do I think we can reduce the resources we use sure. Do I believe a “measured” approach to should be taken so our technology can save us….YES.

Do I use critical thinking about statements such as a billion birds are killed other ways, to defend erecting wind turbines in a major migratory path such as Cape Cod….you bet I do. The Energy Department which put out that bird study also put out a study saying that wind turbines have no effect on house prices…though they used houses from 10 miles away to smooth the data? What do you think, if you have a house 1000 feet from a 400 foot tall industrial turbine…any effect? Could it be that lobbyist from the wind energy are passing these documents to sympathetic parts of the energy department? I can’t say I have ever seen a house cat kill an eagle or falcon. With the numbers they supply I should be seeing birds littering the streets and around houses. I have seen a few dead birds on occasion but no where in number they site. I do know that a peregrine falcon along with some other raptors killed in NJ by only 5 wind turbines. Peregrine falcons are endangered and I am concerned if 10’s thousand turbines are built, I don’t suspect the remaining 30-40 peregrine falcons or other raptors would stand a chance. You are aware that they are finding in Altamont, CA that the larger and newer wind turbines are killing even more large raptors? The wind industry doesn’t understand really why and the only solution currently used is to shut them down even though the wind lobby regular says that newer turbines don’t kill birds…unfortunately the data points otherwise. Have you read about the slaughter of Sea Eagles in Norway? Should we just blindly build 100,000’s of the current wind turbines? Do you feel we need to understand our impact on the environment or should we just go with what we know today? So you accept that wind turbines, solar arrays and forest clearing for BIOMASS are perfectly acceptable on National Park land? Correct?

Yes, its true that wind turbines kill thousands of birds per year. Its also true that well over one billion (i.e., 1,000,000,000) birds die from other, manmade causes. (If you use this thing called “google” you can find out statistics like this in a minute or two.) So wind turbines are responsible for about one in a million bird deaths. In fact, there are four causes (houses, cars, cats, towers) that *each* kill over ten thousand times as many birds as wind turbines do. So if you actually cared about bird deaths, you could start a campaign to, I dunno, keep house cats in doors for an extra 30 seconds per day. That would save more bird-lives than removing all the wind turbines in the country.

Of course, Climate Change will be worse for the birds than even housecats. Birds ranges are already shifting north as the climate warms. If their prey does not shift north as well– or if life cycles go out of synch– than whole species of birds will die off. In fact, that is what is expected to happen. And your organization is helping it happen– congratulations!

Its interesting to see that you are– apparently– a global warming Denier. You get several basic facts wrong. In fact, we have had global warming in the last decade by *all* temperature measurements. The 2000s were the hottest decade ever, and 2010 is already almost certain to the hottest year ever by *any measure*. Try reading something written by scientists (either peer-reviewed literature or a popular book) instead of anti-science, anti-envirenmentalist right-wing web sites.

There are numerous lifecycle studies about wind which shows that it is by far the least CO2 intensive way to produce energy, and intermittency isn’t much of a problem on the levels we’re talking about (again, look at Denmark).

As for nuclear power, I personally have no objection to it, but do you really expect me to believe that a group that opposes 3 wind turbines wants *nuclear power plant* in your backyard? Really? Or maybe you just want it in someone else’s back yard?

But above all its sad– really, really sad– to see you invoking natural beauty in your promotion of fossil fuels– which will accelerate the destruction of the beaches and habitats you claim to love.

I wish you would take some time to learn about global warming– you know, read a book by a scientist, read some peer-reviewed literature, or attend some talks. If you did, I am sure you would stop your campaign to accelerate the destruction of Wellfleet’s beaches and wildlife.

And as much as I admire your concern for local environmental issues, have you ever thought seriously about the environmental impact of your current sources of electricity? What is the impact of burning coal (and oil)? Not just globally (Global Warming is expected to lead to *extinction* of a third to a half of all species), but locally– the extra pollution in the air, the loss of lives in mining accidents, the oil spills.

So I think you should really name your group:
Destroy All Our Seashores and Pollute Our Air and Kill Miners and Destroy Seabirds but Protect Our Property Values.
Its a bit long to be catchy as is the acronym (DAOSPOAKIMDSPOPV), but I think you can work with it.

1. Freedom Windmills Myth or Fact
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVFzueV5CuE&feature=related

2. Freedom Windmills Shadow Flicker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XCA0_W9Qxs

3. 1000 feet from the turbine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEaDH_Nbpc8&feature=related

4. Freedom Windmills Sound Level Windy Night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VvD_SX37Kw&feature=related

5. Freedom Windmills dBa Levels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeioZrKnnMY&feature=related

I also draw your attention to an article Phil wrote for the Bangor Daily News entitled “What it’s like to live near a wind turbine” (http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/114410.html).

I’m sure that if Guglielmo Marconi were alive today, I’d be opposed to his constructing four 210-foot wooden towers in a 200-foot square pattern inside the Cape Cod National Seashore. But, just as enlightened legislators back in 1961 courageously voted to protect in perpetuity the great Outer Beach, our generation must stand up and prevent development on the swath of the Cape designated as a National Seashore. I’m no more in favor of a 400-foot wind turbine going atop the dunes of Wellfleet than I would be the building of an offshore oil platform in plain view of our pristine beaches.