Boy Turbines are a hot political topic on both sides of the border. If you drive on Highway 11 in Upstate NY it looks like a bit of a Stanley Kubrick movie as these massive turbines gently turn in the wind.
L I N K Here in Ontario the government has embraced them as an energy source of the future, but there seems to be a lot of resistance to them. ( MPP CALLS FOR MORITORIUM) Is it just politics? Is it a NIMBY issue? What do you think Cornwall?
The US Corn Crop 
is on pace for a record yield which should be good for everyone from the Bio Fuel industry to those cereal and soft drink makers. L I N K
“The latest USDA production report pegs the expected average yield at a record 164.2 bushels based on conditions on Oct. 1.
That would result in the second highest corn production ever, 13.0 billion bushels, USDA says. That forecast is slightly higher than last month’s outlook and would be an 8% increase over 2008.”
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There are two sides to an inconvenient truth…
After all, how is a CFL light bulb made in a nation like China where there is no regard for pollution, no regard for workers, scant care for consumer safety, then shipped across the ocean on super tankers, and trucked across our continent by truck — and this light bulb is constructed using materials that include toxic mercury — how is this an improvement for us or our environment?
And here in Canada where the days are long and warm in summer, electric lighting is at a minimum. In the winter when we do use it more, any extra heat given off from a regular, simple, made in Canada incandescent bulb simply makes it 100% efficient (not to mention that CFL’s are quite useless on your front porch any time but summer).
But crowds are ready to jump on any bandwagon to feel good and feel part of something… these folks are not doing us or the environment a favour.
And as for underwater turbines… 3 turbine blades rotating at 32 revolutions a minute is 96 blade passes per minute (1 and a half slices every second). If the blades are even 3 metres long, each blade tip will reach a speed over 600 metres a minute (approximately 36 kph). It would have to be a very quick fish or turtle to keep from getting chopped to bits. And our river bottoms are to be lined with these, so that someone’s pockets are lined with cash?
Now for windmills…. these aren’t the stuff of quaint Holland landscapes; they’re eyesores. They are monsters built on an industrial scale with next to no cost benefit, and their effect on the environment is deplorable. They require hazardous cooling and lubricating liquids (and they leak), they attract lightning, they shed coatings and occasionally blades, and their sub and infrasonic emissions are a menace to the health of humans and wildlife alike. Even their construction — from manufacturing plant and materials, to installation and site preparation — is incompatible with nature or conservation.
Why not just turf the leaf blowers, or get out of the damn car for a coffee… But I’m not going to go on and itemize poor behaviour. Let’s just stop the activities that deplete our resources and foul the air, earth, and water.
The cause is consumerism, and the cure isn’t to consume something new.
Woohoo! Lets hear it for biofuels! Nothing like subsidizing Monsanto and ConAgra while at the same time starving the third world!
As for the Windmills… they are awesome! Too bad petty bureaucrats and environazis have to stick their noses into the private business of other people in order to protect their own opinion of what constitutes a “nice view”. I’m glad the farmers on route 11 are able to enjoy the fruits of their land while earning money on its rental as well.
The cause of pollution is not consumerism, it is the tragedy of the commons and the failure to protect property rights of individuals. Akwesasne was polluted by GM and yet the American tax payer got the bill and GM got a bailout. Way to go government.