Christmas Card from Graham Lang

Thanks to Graham Lang for this contribution, sent to us from Fife in Scotland.
You can read about him on www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com at this page
and see also the www.cadeap.org website

David Hockney guest edits The Today Programme

This edition of Today has nothing to do with wind farms - we do not know what opinion David Hockney has on this subject - but this blog is about artists as well, and David Hockney is a very special artist.
You can Listen Again at this link, and hear him talk on several subjects, including the smoking ban which he is against ...
From our point of view, the most interesting section is perhaps at around 8.22 am: in it he takes Evan Davis for a drive, and talks about trees in the landscape. But do listen to the whole programme if you can, it makes a refreshing change!

A tree surgeon writes about David Hockney's trees

From Country Guardian

Greetings of the Season
to Wind Warriors Worldwide

www.countryguardian.net

Sheep in the snow

Sheep in the snow, Llwynhir, oil, by Diana Armfield RA, as seen on her page at www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com

Happy Christmas to all Wind Warriors

Alder in the snow, from an old bridge across Bradiford Water

Happy Christmas from Christine Lovelock (Devon)

Happy Christmas

Just received, this cartoon along with wishes for a Happy Christmas from David Bellamy and Jenny Keal.

This is their website: www.davidbellamy.co.uk
And you can see David speaking at the Nant-y-Moch protest at this link

Exmoor ,The Two Moors campaign and Oswaldtwistle Moor , Lancashire

News from the The Two Moors Campaign that their website has just been updated - do have a look for latest news about the campaign to protect the southern fringes of Exmoor. The website includes a summary of David Cocks QC's Closing Submission at the Three Moors and Bickham Moor Public Inquiry.

There is information about the Oswaldtwistle Moor wind Farm (see last night's posting, below) on the website run by Belthorne Village, in Lancashire, go to www.belthornvillage.co.uk and click on the windfarm link. More about artist Catherine Kaufman coming in a day or two.

More about Two Moors artists John Wary and Gill Cronk and the area on this page: www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com/walks/queens-exhibition/two-moors-folder/two-moors.html
This page (made in 2007, being updated soon) from Christine Lovelock's walk round Devon wind farm sites) includes walks around The Two Moors area, plus walks on the Two Moors way down to North Tawton.

Snow on the Moor

We had news in today about a planning application for twelve 120 metre high turbines on Oswaldtwistle Moor in Lancashire. This photograph of the Moor was sent to us by local Lancashire artist Catherine Kaufman.
You can read more about this in the Lancashire Telegraph. More information to come on the blog too (see next post)

Copenhagen Climate Conference

Some Final Links:

Fred Pearce in the New Scientist

The Times Leading article "Not just Hot air"

Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph

And finally, Ben Miller back on December 3rd in The Times, because he reminds us that it never was about saving the planet, just about saving our own skins:
Rebranding Gaia

There is nothing wrong, of course, in wanting to save humanity, but perhaps we should all be a little more humble about it.

On a more serious note:

Being Green doesn't have to be about talking big and throwing money away on grandiose schemes, it can be about making sensible decisions that help low income families and reduce emissions at the same time.

Two really important reports from the Tax Payers Alliance:

Ending the Green Rip Off

The economic cost of a 42 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020

The Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen

How much of it all is a lot of Hot Air and Humbug?
Go to Adrian Gamut's blog, www.hotairandhumbug.com for an all dancing all singing answer.

More on the Den Brook Decision, Freedom of Information and Wind Turbine Noise

Read this linked article in the Western Morning News:

The article says that Mike Hulme, of the Den Brook Judicial Review Group, submitted the request for information (regarding evidence about wind turbine noise) two-and-a-half years ago, when he was putting together the case against the nine 120-metre high turbines that will impact on views near and from Dartmoor in Mid Devon.

He finally received the documents the day after a government planning inspector gave the green light to the development.

Think about it...

And if you haven't read much about the health effects of wind turbine noise go to
http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/

and watch the videos on www.wind-watch.org.
There are many good ones, especially the ones from Tug Hill,
but for a short introduction, try this one and make sure you read the explanatory text above it.

Save the Whales (again)

At least five whales died when a pod of sperm whales were beached on the Italian coast.

According to the article in The Telegraph on Dec 12th, marine biologist Giuseppe Notarbartolo said noise from military exercises or surveys for underwater mineral deposits may have confused whales and interfered with their communication

Following an earlier posting on this subject, I would like to ask if anyone is doing any specific research to see if offshore wind turbines are causing problems to whales and porpoises? If not, and if someone did want to do this, would they get any funding? After what has come out yesterday about the way that concerns about the health effects of turbine noise on humans have been suppressed, what chance do the whales have?

Posted by Christine Lovelock

Government suppresses researchers recommendation about turbine noise

This photograph shows a blimp flying at the height of the turbines (there will be 9 of them)
The base of the turbines will be in the valley below the land in the foreground, from where the photograph was taken.


Almost at the same time as we learned that the Inspector had allowed the developer's appeal and granted planning permission for the Den Brook wind turbines close to Dartmoor, the news broke that officials in the Department of Energy and Climate Change had suppressed a recommendation by its own consultants to tighten current wind turbine noise regulations.

Why? According to this article, when researchers recommended that a revision of the night-time absolute noise criterion should be considered, a government official noted concern that this would impede wind farm development, and the final report removed any suggestions of cutting the noise limits. Read the article by Jonathan Leake and Harry Byford in The Sunday Times

You can read the full set of documents on www.denbrookvalley.co.uk - they are available for download here.

The Sunday Telegraph takes this up too: Wind turbine noise warnings were dismissed by civil servants

Vandalising the heart of Devon

No apologies for showing this photograph twice in a week. As the valiant defenders of the tiny town of North Tawton meet tonight to sing Carols at Nichols Nymet house, (see Tuesday's blog post) news comes that yet again an Inspector has allowed an appeal by the developers who want to build 9 giant turbines in this gentle rural countryside, close to Dartmoor.

Charlie Brooks and the Copenhagen Summit

Interesting article in The Telegraph today:

He highlights the fact that all Germany's subsidies for wind and solar power have cost colossal amounts of money "without much benefit to the environment or the country's energy security."

Mexico

Found on www.wind-watch.org, an interesting looking Spanish language video from Mexico, with Dutch sub-titles.
The Mexicans being interviewed do not look very happy, although without a translation we cannot know for sure. Whatever they may be saying, it is obvious that the turbines do not enhance the Mexican landscape.

A very special Christmas Concert

The view from Nichols Nymet House (photograph sent by Muriel Goodman)

The Exeter University Choir will be at Nichols Nymet House, just outside North Tawton in Mid Devon, on Friday 11 December for a Christmas Concert. Tickets are £10 which includes mulled wine and mince pies, and doors open at 7 for 7.30 pm.

Phone 01837 82626 for more details.

For more about the fight to stop 9 giant turbines being built close to North Tawton, go to the website: www.denbrookvalley.co.uk/

Japanese government to study effects of wind farms on health

Some interesting news from Japan, found on www.wind-watch.org...

Another school turbine hits the dust

Following on after news that we linked to recently about a turbine collapse at a school in Raasay, Scotland, the Daily Mail reported on another turbine accident at a school in Norfolk, England.
In these days of often hysterical fuss about Health and Safety, why are so many schools encouraged to put wind power generators on or near to school grounds?

If you want more information about turbine accidents, go to the Caithness Windfarm Information Forum website.

Sensible words

Good for David Davis, bringing some sense to the debate about energy policies. As he says, you don't need to wear a hair shirt and ruin beautiful countryside in order to be cost-effective, keep the lights on and reduce carbon emissions. Go to BBC News for more...

The Wind Farm Scam - now on Amazon

This book by Dr John Etherington - which is rapidly becoming a best seller - is now on Amazon. On amazon. co.uk, read the Reviews, especially one by artist Jenny Keal (see more about her on the website she shares with her husband David Bellamy). Jenny says that (quote) "The Wind Farm Scam answered all my questions, it laid out in clear, easy to follow tables and charts the reason why we should stop building wind turbines today."

There is also a link on the Amazon page to a Forum, with Discussion on the subject: Forget Climate Change, it's energy shortages we need to worry about.

This discussion is important because whatever your position on climate change might be, wind power is not the answer to the problem of what to do about it. As Jon Boone says in his review of the book on amazon.com (quote) "... wind technology mirrors the subprime mortgage scams that wreaked havoc with the American economy". Jon is another artist whose work can be seen on the www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com website

More on Wind Turbine Syndrome

Wind Turbine Syndrome
Clinical study of health effects of large wind turbines published


Rowe, Mass., Nov. 28, 2009 -- Dr. Nina Pierpont, a pediatrician and population biologist in Malone, New York, has announced the publication of her book-length study: Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Report on a Natural Experiment. [1]

In interviews with 10 families living 1,000-4,900 feet away from recently built industrial-size wind turbines, a "cluster" of symptoms was revealed: from sleep disturbance, which affected almost everyone, to headache to tinnitus, vertigo, nausea, irritability, memory and concentration problems, and panic episodes. Industrial wind turbines have a total height of 300-400 feet or more, with blades of 125-150 feet that sweep 1.5-2 acres of vertical airspace.

The book includes supportive reviews and notices by several noted physicians in related disciplines. Although primarily directed towards medical professionals, it includes an informative and often poetic version for the lay audience.

The individuals affected by Wind Turbine Syndrome noticed that they developed symptoms after the turbines near their homes started turning. Symptoms were relieved when they left the area and resumed on their return. Eight of the ten families eventually moved away from their homes because of the severity of the symptoms.

Although not everyone living near turbines is subject to these symptoms, the data Pierpont presents are a concern, considering the current political drive to construct more and ever larger industrial wind turbines close to people's homes, as well as in the habitats of other
equally or more sensitive animals.

Pierpont's sample size was large enough to show that individuals with pre-existing migraines, motion sensitivity, or inner ear damage are particularly vulnerable. People with anxiety or other mental health problems are not particularly susceptible, she says, contradicting the
common claim of industry developers that "it's all in their head".

"This report is a public health wake-up call that our elected officials and administrators need to take very seriously", said Eric Rosenbloom, president of National Wind Watch, a clearinghouse for information about the adverse effects of industrial wind energy development.

Pierpont and other health and noise experts agree that at a minimum, large wind turbines should be 2 kilometers (1-1/4 miles) from any residence. [2]

According to Pierpont, low-frequency noise or vibration from the wind turbines acts on the balance organs of the inner ear to make the body think it is moving. And this misperception of motion affects other brain functions, including physical reflexes, spatial processing and memory,
and physiological fear responses (such as pounding heart and nausea).

For more about the book: See www.windturbinesyndrome.com

Thanks to National Wind Watch for sending us this Press Release.
Please visit their website for more information: www.wind-watch.org/ww-noise-health.php

Why Beauty matters

The quote (below) comes from an article by Simon Jenkins that was one of the inspirations behind the Artists Against Wind Farms website:

"In the calculus of beauty, I would pit the hills of Cumbria, the coast of Devon and Cornwall, the Pennine uplands and the mountains of Wales against any Constable, Gainsborough or Stubbs. .." read more here

The programme "Why Beauty matters", presented by philosopher Roger Scruton, is described on the BBC iplayer website as a "a provocative essay on the importance of beauty in the arts and in our lives."

It is indeed an interesting and thought provoking programme, and relevant in so many ways to everything that we stand for. It is fascinating therefore to find that at about three minutes into the programme, after Roger Scruton says (quote) "Our world has turned its back on beauty, and because of that, we find ourselves surrounded by ugliness and alienation...." there on the screen we see a giant industrial wind turbine.

The programme is available on iplayer until 5th December.

Wind Turbine Syndrome, by Nina Pierpoint

This very important book is now available to buy on the Wind Turbine Syndrome website.

This website includes links to articles by Nina Pierpoint as well as Peer Reviews of her book, including comments from such eminent scientists and clinicians as Lord May, who was President of the Royal Society (2000-2005) and Chief Scientific Advisor (1995-2000) to the UK government, and F. Owen Black, MD, FACS, Senior Scientist and Director of Neuro-Otology Research, Legacy Health System, Portland, Oregon.

Also on the website are some excellent videos, as well as diaries and reports from people who live near wind turbines.

Donegal

Seen on today's www.wind-watch.org, news from Ireland:

Wind wars in the hills of Donegal

www.wind-watch.org is worth a daily visit for all the latest news, today's page also includes pieces from New Zealand, the USA, Canada and Wales ; several of these are about noise related problems.

Also found: this article:

Wind means more CO2

THE RURAL EXMOOR ALLIANCE

PRESS RELEASE - 24.11.09

A TERRIBLE COST TO THE LANDSCAPE

Closing speeches were made in Tiverton on Tuesday in the Public Inquiry into the Three Moors and Bickham wind farms proposed close to each other on the edge of Exmoor. Airtricity’s application to erect nine 105m turbines around Knowstone had been turned down by the North Devon District Council and Coronation Power was appealing against Mid Devon’s rejection of a proposal for four nearby, but sited in Mid Devon. With another application for nine turbines at Batsworthy Cross, opposite the Three Moors site, waiting in the wings, the Inspector was invited to consider the cumulative effect.

David Cocks QC appeared for the Rural Exmoor Alliance, an opposition group formed by the Exmoor Society, the CPRE and the Two Moors group of local protestors. Summarising the evidence heard over six weeks he said that the admittedly minute contribution that these two wind farms would make to the global warming issue was not a reason in itself for refusing planning permission. However the extraordinary inaccuracy of the developers’ claims certainly did need to be taken into account. The emissions savings from each had been shown to have been exaggerated by nearly three times. The amount of electricity to be produced had also been exaggerated; it would not apparently be more than 25% of the turbines’ capacity, or even less according to the type of turbine used.

Such uncertainties were characteristic of most of the developers’ evidence.

All the landscape experts had agreed that the Exmoor Fringe and moorland countryside of the sites were of high quality and value, open, remote and tranquil. All had agreed that the effects of the turbines on the views, from and towards the Exmoor National Park, would be significant and in many cases major. Yet the developers’ experts had then tried to argue, for instance, that only within 3 km of a turbine would this matter, or that the landscape “could absorb” them. The Bickham report had ignored the issue of tranquillity altogether.

The Inquiry spent much time on the extent to which the noise from turbines can be predicted. The science is inexact and government guidelines on limits were drawn up when turbines were half the height of those proposed. Wind speeds are different at 100 m from those at ground level and the distance between the turbines themselves can also affect the noise produced. Background noise has to be measured to calculate the impact of the noise being added. Cross examination of the developers’ experts showed defective data in all these areas; the implication, said Mr Cocks, was a massive non-compliance with government limits.

On tourism, the developers had argued there would be no adverse effects. This was based on a survey of businesses, conducted by telephone. No visuals of the sites had been shown to the interviewees and no record kept of what was said. More astonishing was the absence of any information on the size of the 55 businesses interviewed; did this represent 55 jobs or 550? Not a single tourist had been asked their opinion. On ecology, one bat survey had been based on the wrong turbine lay out and none had covered the whole year.

Finally, Mr Cocks suggested, a new pattern is emerging in policy on renewable energy and carbon emissions. On shore wind farms like these are looking less fashionable, and the huge subsidies they require from consumers will inevitably be redirected towards more effective technologies. The evidence called by the developers throughout the Inquiry had shown how difficult it is to support a misguided and fading technology. The small benefit that would be gained would be a terrible cost to the landscape, and both appeals should be refused.

Today at Tiverton Town Hall

Closing statements were made today at Tiverton Town Hall (see photograph above) for the Bickham Moor and Three Moors Public Inquiry . The Council Chamber was crowded with members of the Two Moors Campaign Group as well as others who oppose these windfarms on the edge of Exmoor.
Read more about these applications on the Two Moors Campaign website, and there will be more information to follow.

Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph

Christopher Booker, who always speaks up against the blight of windfarms in our countryside, gave a robust criticism of the recent Farming Today programme on Radio Four that we highlighted recently.
As he says: "Something else Farming Today neglected to mention was the title of Dr Etherington's book, The Wind Farm Scam."
Why didn't they?

Keepers of the Blue Ridge

We heard yesterday from an artist in Carolina, USA, who is part of the group who run www.keepersoftheblueridge.com. This website is about protecting the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina from the destruction caused by commercial wind development.(More about the artist to come)

One of our favourite quotes comes from John Muir, the founder of the National Parks Movement. He was born in Scotland but emigrated to America, where he devoted his life to protecting the wilderness. He said:

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken over-civilised people are beginning to find that wilderness is a necessity and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life."


Like Marion Chapman in Australia, Tom Hutton in Mid Wales, Karl Pipes in Argyll, to name a few of our artists who have been highlighted recently, here is another artist fighting to preserve a wilderness from the depredations of an industry that dares to call itself "Green". Do look at the above website, with photographs of some wonderful mountain ranges - and make a special point if you can of looking at this page which gives examples of habitat destruction following the building of a wind farm.

News items

Wind turbine collapses in school playground (also noise problems) Island of Raasay, Scotland

Inspector rejects plan for 13 turbines in Denbighshire, North Wales

"Wind Power will make Britain the dirty old man of Europe"

Read Charles Moore in today's Daily Telegraph!

Red Kangaroo, one of the photographs from the Barrier Ranges sent to us by Marion Chapman.

Karl Pipes is one of the contributors to the Artists against wind farms website, and he sent us this text of a letter he wrote to the Editor of an Australian newspaper in the Barrier Ranges area.
We are showing Karl's letter on the blog, here below, just to remind anyone how ridiculous it is to call us Nimbys.


"Dear Editor
I have just read of the proposal to impose almost 600 wind turbines on the iconic and historic Australian landscape of the Silverton and Barrier range. I hope that I may be forgiven for interjecting in the discussion from so far away, but I (and many others over here) know full well what the effect of such plans can have on rural communities. This week we have learned that a plan to build one locally has been turned down by the Scottish Government. Much was our joy!
It is sad that in the cold light of day the proposers, far removed from the scene of their actions, are willing to desecrate an area which many people hold close to their hearts. I am told that solar power would be a much better product? We all know that installing turbines will kill or drive away our birdlife and bats, also wreck the local environment and therefore biodiversity. I know by personal experience how proposers will twist facts, tell half truths and sometimes untruths to forward these impositions onto communities. It is also sad that some community members will fall for the stories! Just to quote one instance, forestry planted areas can be described as 'semi industrialised landscape'. I enclose a photograph of the area that we have just saved from such a development. The claim then, is to say that they want to build a windfarm in an 'industrial landscape'! Well, a green forested area does not make a resonating thrumming noise that soaks into your sleep, or flap it's flickering arms at you from high above! I could go on, but I'm sure that the down side of these installations is well know to the authorities dealing with the proposal. I only hope that they have the moral fibre to accept that it will be the wrong place to build such an unacceptable imposition. If not, I can only deeply sympathise with those residents and visitors who will lose their beloved landscape to infernal machinery. Who will gain by it? I do know that the stress caused to residents can make some people quite ill!
Yours sincerely,
Karl Pipes, Scotland, UK."

Simon Hoggart in The Guardian (November 10th)

Read this very funny sketch by Simon Hoggart - especially the ending, that begins with this excerpt (about Ed Miliband):

"He actually came close to admitting that turbines, with their "intermittent wind" (this sounded like a much-loved but elderly dog that lies in front of the fire turning the air in the sitting room foul) were a waste of time and money."

There's more... go to the above link to read it in full.

Dr John Etherington on Farming Today

There was a chance to hear Dr John Etherington, author of The Wind Farm Scam, speaking on the Farming Today programme already, you can Listen Again at this link - only 4 days left - 0r download it as a podcast. (available a little longer)

The truth is coming out - the real cost of wind power exposed.

An article in the Sunday Express yesterday by Eugene Henderson exposes the true cost of generating electricity by wind - at times it will cost 3,000 per cent more than conventional power! This information comes from an internal National Grid document, and vindicates much of what anti-wind farm campaigners have been saying for years.

Do read this article, and spread the word!

Back in August we mentioned that the Tax Payers Alliance had highlighted the extent of government funded lobbying by groups such as the Sustainable Development Commission and Friends of the Earth (all of them could as easily be called Friends of Wind Turbines)

Remembering those EU targets for renewables that Tony Blair signed us up for just before he left office, we recommend another visit to their website, www.taxpayersalliance.com where you can see their new cinema advert about the costs of the EU to all of us in Britain.

Biased BBC again

Thanks to Biased BBC for this post describing our cause as a "noble endeavour" last Monday:

We also like their use of language in a more recent post:

"The Media Lens message board went nuclear wind turbine over the issue. "

You can find it here:
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2009/11/climate-alert-hell-freezes-briefly.html#links

Animals cannot complain

Wind turbine noise isn't just a problem that affects humans.
Kay Armstrong in Ontario has written about the effects that a wind farm has had not just on local people, but on the wildlife nearby, including birds and frogs. Read the article on www.wind-watch.org

Earlier this year the BBC reported that a farmer in Taiwan lost more than 400 goats after eight giant turbines were erected close to his land. Their deaths appear to have been caused by lack of sleep.

Animals suffer in silence, we need to consider them too.
This is important when it comes to whales, and dolphins too. How much research is done into the effects offshore wind turbines will have upon their well-being?

Central Otago, New Zealand

Wonderful news from New Zealand:

Central Otago wind farm rejected.

More details

Article by New Zealand artist Grahame Sydney

Just a Theory

www.justatheory.co.uk has an interesting post about the relationships between the Italian Mafia and wind farms... all to do with money, of course.

Tom Hutton

Pen-y-Fan and Corn Du at sunset, from Cefn Cwm Lwch, Brecon Beacons, by Tom Hutton

Following the protest this June at Nant-y-Moch Reservoir, we were approached by Tom Hutton, an award winning photographer who lives in Mid Wales and has given us his support.

You can learn more about him from his website www.tomhutton.co.uk, which includes an extensive biography. His passions include climbing, skiing, and cycling, and of course a love of nature itself, and he contributes to magazines such as Mountain Bike Rider, Country Walking and Trail, for example.

We now have a new page on the artistsagainstwindfarms.com website highlighting his work, and we are proud to display the statement he has written for us, which begins:

“The rolling uplands of the Cambrian Mountains are the closest Wales gets to true wilderness – a huge swathe on the map that isn’t crisscrossed with roads and car parks and towns and villages. It feels almost timeless even if it isn’t, and anything that compromises the skyline or the tranquility of this area would be nothing short of vandalism. ..." Do go to his page to read more.


His words are even more relevant now as we hear that the government has chosen Nant-y-Moch as one of the windfarms to be pushed through the planning process by the new Infrastructure Planning Commission - read more at this link to the Cambrian-News

Finally here is a link to photographs and videos from the protest walk at Nant-y-Moch organised by the Cambrian Mountains Society, which was led by David Bellamy and Christine Lovelock.

World's largest commercial Wave Hub

Onshore construction begins next week for the Wave Hub to be sited 10 miles off the coast of Cornwall...

read more in today's Western Morning News

Birds

The rare orange bellied parrot (by Marion Chapman)

Following the wonderful BBC series, Life, focusing last night (note: this posting was made Tuesday 10th November, not as dated above) on Birds, it is good to both praise the programme makers for their inspirational documentaries, and at the same time remind readers about the risk that turbines cause to birds.

As well as looking at Marion Chapman's pages featuring the Bald Hills Wetland Reserve (home of the rare orange bellied parrot) and the Barrier Ranges, we recommend that you go to EPAW (the European Platform Against Windfarms) for a dramatic video of a vulture struck by a wind turbine.

And finally a bird lovers blog that we like to recommend is Jupiter Birding.

Post from another Scottish artist

Watercolour:
Bandit Cat
His Dream of Hunting in the Kelp Forest

Artist Kathryn Logan from Kintyre, whose work can be seen on the artists againstwindfarms website, sent us this posting (not about windfarms this time, but about another environmental concern):

"It horrifies me that a migratory fish, the salmon, is trapped in cages, its migratory instinct thwarted [I have read that farmed salmon go mad and become frighteningly aggressive]. They are kept in such over-crowded conditions that they have to be pumped full of chemicals to survive [like battery hens]. These fish farms cause serious environmental pollution and create a danger to wild fish.

At the moment we are fighting, not a wind farm this time, but a proposed salmon fish farm in Kilbrannan Sound, north of Carradale, on the east coast of Kintyre. This is more than the industrialisation of a completely unspoiled area with its wonderful views across Kilbrannan Sound to the peaks of Arran, this is an environmental time bomb: evidence shows that salmon farms are a source of danger to the survival of wild fish stocks and should not be sited close to wild salmon river systems.
Yet this area, chosen by Lakeland Marine for their proposed salmon fish farm, is on the migratory route of wild salmon to their natal rivers further north in Loch Fyne, and is close to a number of rivers where wild salmon stocks are so low that measures are actually being taken to protect them. Salmon farming endangers wild fish through the transfer of parasitic sea lice, causing many wild fish to die; escapees interbreed with wild salmon, diluting gene banks; pharmaceutical chemicals and waste products used in the rearing of farmed salmon pollute the marine environment and contaminate shellfish, which, if eaten, can cause human disease.

She also asks us to include this information below:

The End of the Line for Open Net Cage Salmon Farming?

New film premieres around the world during next week’s Global Week of Action

A new short documentary produced by Canadian film-maker Damien Gillis lifts the lid on the problems caused by open net cage salmon farms worldwide. “Farmed Salmon Exposed: The Global Reach of the Norwegian Salmon Farming Industry” reveals the pervasive nature of the issues plaguing salmon aquaculture and features testimonials by witnesses discussing the environmental and socio-economic damage caused by poorly managed salmon farms.

The film features ghillie Brian Fraser from Scotland; John Mulcahy from Save The Swilly in Ireland; Orri Vigfusson from the North Atlantic Salmon Fund in Iceland; Alexandra Morton and Dr Daniel Pauly from British Columbia; Dr Matthias Gorny from Oceana in Chile as well as Sven Helge Pedersen, King Harald and Vegard Heggem in Norway.

Premieres will take place in Edinburgh (9^th), Dundonnell (10^th) and Oban (11^th) in Scotland; Dublin (12^th) in Ireland; Santiago (11^th) in Chile; Washington DC (12^th) in the United States; Vancouver (12^th) in Canada; and Oslo (13^th) and Bergen (16^th) in Norway. Further screenings in Orkney, Shetland, Arran , London , Las Vegas , Santa Cruz , Puerto Varas, Ancud and on Vancouver Island are planned later in November.

A 3 minute excerpt is online now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eggrGn0V0fg

Unbelievable!

We photographed this inscription on the outer walls of the Scottish Parliament while up in Scotland some time ago, giving support to anti-wind farm campaigners.

Scottish film maker David Graham Scott has had a film about life in a remote Scottish valley banned by the BBC, because of its" lack of impartiality" on the the issue of wind farms. Yet he has produced other controversial films that the BBC was happy to show.

You can read more about this here (Scotland on Sunday) including a quote from campaigner Bob Graham, who says that the BBC is itself biased in favour of wind farms.

The Biased BBC website also raises this topic today, and shows a clip of another of David Graham Scott's films that - presumably - was seen as completely impartial in the eyes of the BBC. This film about a Scottish republican campaigner was made as part of a series called The New Ten Commandments which was broadcast last year. It apparently passed the BBC's impartiality guidelines despite the fact that it shows only one point of view, but a film that showed opposition to wind farms, by the same documentary maker, did not.

The Environment Agency

This is a hole for a turbine base in what was once a peaceful Welsh Mountain. Wind turbines create environmental degradation (go to www.cefn-croes to see more)

Chris Smith is Chairman of the Environment Agency and he is quoted in the Sunday Times today as saying "“I want wind power all over the countryside."

Isn't the Environment Agency supposed to look after the environment?

Wolfe Island, Ontario, Canada

Comments on an earlier posting alerted us to this blog about Wolfe Island in Canada, and some exciting "Guerrilla Sculpture"

Do go to windmillsblow.blogspot.com/2009/07/guerilla-sculpture.html where you can see photographs of this sculpture/installation that some brave artist installed right under the shadow of the turbines.

Also found, in the comments below the windmillsblow blog, a link to another blog, www.mywinddiary.blogspot.com about the health effects felt after turbines were erected in Blenheim, Ontario...

"Wind turbines in Europe do nothing for emissions reduction goals"

All our political parties (with the exception of UKIP) support wind power: perhaps they should take note of this report on Spiegelonline, by Ansell Walderman.

According to the article, under current EU law, German wind turbines do not help to reduce CO2 emissions - they simply allow Eastern European countries to pollute more.

Beryl Pipes from Argyll

Thanks to Beryl Pipes from Argyll for sending us this watercolour, titled "Eredine Sheep Fank (ruin), Loch Awe."

We have added it to the www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com gallery, and it is linked to Beryl's page with more details about the painting and the threatened area around Loch Awe.

New artists from Scotland

`Awe Winter, ' photograph by Karl Pipes
Looking NE over Loch Awe from Keppochan,


Artists against wind farms welcomes new contributors Karl and Beryl Pipes from Argyll, in Scotland. Karl sent us this photograph of the stunning landscape around Loch Awe, and more of his work will be seen on the new photographers web-page to be launched later this week, when we feature the work of photographer Tom Hutton, who lives not far from Nant-y-Moch in Mid Wales.

Karl's beautiful photograph, and Beryl's watercolour of the same landscape (to be shown later today) come just as we hear ominous news from Scotland that Ministers are going to grant new powers to Forestry Commission Scotland to negotiate with the private sector to build wind farms on its land.

MEP supports Bickerton Wind Farm objectors in Cheshire

UKIP MEP Paul Nuttall has backed campaigners in their fight against wind farm developers.. read more.

Go to the website of Stop Bickerton Wind Turbines to learn more about this proposal to build five 125m-high wind turbines on farmland at the foot of Bickerton Hill, in Cheshire, not far from Cholmondeley Castle.

Local MP Stephen O'Brien is also supporting the campaign.

North Hambleton Windfarm Action Group

We heard today from North Hambleton Wind Farm Group, in Yorkshire, set up to protect
Appleton Wiske, Deighton, East Rounton, Great Smeaton, Hornby, Little Smeaton, Picton, Welbury, West Rounton and our countryside.

They have an informative and interesting website, and they have recently set up a petition on the Downing Street Website, as follows:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to set up an independent working party of acousticians and medical experts to fully explore the problems of wind turbine noise and the health consequences as ETSU-R-97, the measurement presently used, is invalid and does not protect our communities from unbearable noise pollution."

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ETSU-R97Failings/

Having met property owners whose lives have been made intolerable by wind turbine noise, I am happy to endorse this. I am also pleased to see another MP, William Hague, has shown his support for this group.

Brechfa and Lanllwni

This important article by Andrew Gilligan in The Telegraph today highlights the plight of campaigners in these small villages near Carmarthen.

How many people have realised that these new planning rules give the IPC huge powers? It can - according to the article - "grant not just planning permission but also the power to compulsorily seize private property, close roads and footpaths and extinguish Green Belt protection."

And even more chilling, quoting again from the article:

"Indeed, if a developer is eyeing up your land for some new scheme, the IPC can grant that developer access to it – even allow him to dig “exploratory” holes in it – before planning permission has even been applied for, let alone given. "

It was Andrew Gilligan who exposed the Government over its briefing on weapons of mass destruction, and was named Journalist of the year in 2008. He asks now whether these new and undemocratic planning laws are "the new poll tax"?

Here is a link to the Mynydd LLansadwrn Action Group website.

And Artistsagainstwindfarms webpage and Cambrian Mountains Society website about Nant-y-Moch, also threatened (more to come) by the IPC.

Peter Luff MP

We do not have any artists from Worcestershire represented on the website yet, which is a shame as it is such a beautiful county, but this is a pastel I painted after staying near Broadway, which is not very far from the site of the Stop Lenchwick Wind Farm group.

Mid Worcestershire MP Peter Luff, will be introducing the “Onshore Wind Turbines (Proximity of Habitation) Bill” on November 3rd.

Read more on is website: www.peterluff.org.uk/

And here in the Birmingham Post

Posted by Christine Lovelock

Good news for the Flint Hills

Kansas Supreme Court upholds ban on commerical wind farms in the Flint Hills... read more

Just a reminder

"Seaweed Smorgasbord" by Marion Chapman

Just a reminder - while looking at the web-page about Broken Hill/Silverton and the Barrier Ranges (New South Wales)
don't forget to look at Marion Chapman's paintings as well, and her photographs of wildlife at the Bald Hills Wetland Reserve (Southern Australia)

Another photograph from Marion Chapman

This photograph was titled Dragon. It is one of many photographs that Marion has sent us from the Barrier Ranges in New South Wales, Australia.

We have set up an extra page on the artistsagainstwindfarms website to highlight the threat to this unique area. Here is the link:
www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com/australia/broken-hill.html

A German energy company wants to build a 282 turbine windpower station there, with an extra 316 turbines to be added later.

This area isn't only famous for its wildlife. You can read more about the city of Broken Hill, famous as a centre for artists, with its rich cultural heritage on wikipedia,

Here is another link with more information about the area:

www.travelpod.com

Latest news from our Featured Artist, Marion Chapman in Australia

These emus are in a part of Australia known as The Barrier Ranges. This is not only an important Australian Landscape but because of the unique character of the Silverton Broken Hill region it is one of international significance.

The German renewable energy company Epuron wants the Barrier Ranges to be home to a 282 turbine wind farm, with a further 316 to be added later. The site is public land and leaseholders are reminded of the arrangement in any dealings with the government. Opposition to the wind farm has been ignored, like everywhere else, and locals remain distressed about the impact on the direction their community has taken which relies heavily on tourism.

In the next few days we will have a link to a new page on the artistsagainstwindfarms website, with more photographs that Marion has sent us, and information about the special importance of this region from an artistic viewpoint.

Okehampton today

This photograph was taken today in Okehampton, while waiting for the 118 Beacon Bus back to Barnstaple, after a trip down to show support at the Public Inquiry concerning the proposal for nine turbines (about 400ft high) near the little town of North Tawton, in Devon.

You can read more about this on the denbrookvalley.co.uk website. If you care about rural Devon, and Dartmoor, and the issue of wind turbine noise, please go to this website.

Two Jags and the "Landed Gentry"

John Prescott descends to class-warfare (read the article in the Independent on Tuesday)- a sure sign that he is losing the argument.

Having traveled round many parts of Britain where people oppose wind farms, I can assure him that many of the people he talks about are very far from being "landed gentry". They come in all sorts: rich, poor and middling, young, middle-aged and old, country dwellers, and town dwellers who love the countryside too. One thing unites them, a love of the countryside and the natural environment, and a dislike of a government and political class that seeks to destroy our most precious heritage, for such little benefit.

And, as is pointed out in the "Comments" to the Independent article (do scroll down through them if you can), in some parts of Britain it is the "landed gentry" who want to impose wind farms on their neighbourhoods, against the wishes of their tenants and/or neighbours...

LabourList

Ed Miliband is at it again...

Read his latest piece on Labour List

There are some good comments... let us hope that he reads them.

Save the Whales

Man-made noise is blamed for driving whales to their deaths, according to an article in The Times by Frank Pope on October 12th

This includes - among other things - wind farm noise.

Back in 1970, before Greenpeace was founded, I led what may have been the first-ever Save The Whales Protest, outside the Japanese Embassy in London.

When - or if - our oceans are criss-crossed by wind turbines, what will happen to the whales?

A very important book

This is the book that everyone should read:

The Wind Farm Scam,
by John Etherington

The spectre of global warming and the political panic surrounding it has triggered a goldrush for renewable energy sources without an open discussion of the merits and drawbacks of each. In The Wind Farm Scam Dr Etherington argues that in the case of wind power the latter far outweigh the former. Wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what’s more wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate the saving of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the inefficacy of wind power there are ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the far-from-insignificant aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape, which wind turbines entail. Dr Etherington argues that wind power has been, and is being, excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have not been consulted, nor informed that this effective subsidy is being paid from their bills to support an industry that cannot be cost efficient or, ultimately, favour the cause it purports to support.

THE AUTHOR: John Etherington was a Reader in Ecology at the University of Wales, Cardiff. Since his retirement from the University in 1990, he has devoted himself to researching the implications of intermittently available renewable electricity generation, in particular wind power.
He is a Thomas Huxley Medallist at the Royal College of Science and a former co-editor of the International Journal of Ecology.

To find out more, and to buy the book, go to:

www.staceyinternational.co.uk

"Man-made monsters"

James Delingpole once wrote an article with a title something like... "Why I hate Cornwall." I apologise in advance if I misquote him, it was a few years ago and I can't find a copy of the article online, but it stayed in my mind because he made such a good point.

The reason he gave for being annoyed with Cornwall was that it was the place that had started the fashion for wind turbines, but because these turbines were such small ones, people who visited Cornwall had been lulled into the belief that turbines weren't so bad.

Well. this will no longer be the case. Cornwall Council's strategic planning committee has approved plans to build twenty 410 ft high wind turbines in Davidstow, near Camelford. The headline in the Western Morning News says it all... "Council backs `man-made monsters`"... read more here

Hot rocks

Reading this article in the Western Morning News this morning, reminds me of something my father, James Lovelock, told me once. Following his travels round various nuclear waste repositories with a Geiger counter, he found that the measurements of radioactivity he took while visiting places such as Sellafield were very similar to those he obtained from certain Cornish beaches.
Granite is a more radioactive rock than many others, but anti-nuclear campaigners, concerned about the dangers of radiation, have no more reason to be frightened of going on the beach at St.Ives than they have to be nervous of living next door to Hinckley Point. Let us hope they will be enthusiastic about this form of renewable energy, that relies on the heat generated beneath the surface of the earth.

Energy crisis postponed?

From today's Daily Telegraph...

Turbine blade breaks again

A blade has broken yet again on a wind turbine in Sheffield, close to the M1 Link Road. Read more about this at this link to The Telegraph story.

"The uglification of Devon..."

This is a link to a letter from Dave Griffin of Ilfracombe in this week's North Devon Gazette concerning BT's plan to put giant turbines on the hills behind Ilfracombe. As so many of us warned, Fullabrook is likely to be just the beginning...

Something good from the RSPB

There is an interesting article in The Independent today, concerning the worrying reduction in birds such as the cuckoo, which come to Britain in the summer to breed. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) have mounted a joint expedition to Africa, (in regions south of the Sahara) where these birds spend the winter. They hope to learn more about any pressures that the birds face in Africa during the winter months, which could be a reason for their declining numbers.

While we have grave doubts about the RSPB's support of some wind farms, this expedition is praiseworthy.

Britain must go nuclear

Professor David MacKay the government's chief scientific adviser on climate change has said that Britain must go nuclear to cut greenhouse emissions. He says renewable energy sources such as wind and tidal power will never provide more than a fraction of Britain's electricity needs...

Read more about this in this Sunday Times article

Yet more talk of Nimbyism

Farming Today... Charlotte Smith talks about Nimbyism...
Someone called Nick Keeble says that "everyone is in favour of wind power.."

Has he not heard of Professor Jack Steinberger, Professor Dieter Helm, James Lovelock, Professor David Bellamy, former President of France Valery Giscard D'Estaing, Simon Jenkins, just for a start...

And presumably he didn't read Leading Articles in The Times like this one, for example...

He also said something about the fact that you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, totally missing the point that wind farms provide very little benefit in the amount of electricity produced, compared to the large amount of environmental damage and misery that they cause. We are not Nimbys, we are NIAMBYS, which means not in anyone's back yard.

Countryfile

Go to bbc iplayer (Countryfile, about 20 minutes into the programme) to watch John Craven interview Jane and Julian Davis among others about opposition to the wind turbines in the countryside. It was good to hear Jane Davis speak so forcefully about turbine noise, but I found myself annoyed by the programme's focus on the idea (promulgated of course by the Wind Industry and Government representatives like Ed Miliband) that opposition to wind farms is a form of Nimbyism.

One of the best answers to this was in an article by Simon Jenkins, written back in 2003, in regard to the proposal to wind turbines at Whinash. This is an excerpt, and you can read the whole of the article here

"In the calculus of beauty, I would pit the hills of Cumbria, the coast of Devon and Cornwall, the Pennine uplands and the mountains of Wales against any Constable, Gainsborough or Stubbs. They are no less fragile, and currently far more vulnerable. I would not burn a Constable if I were told it might help to save fossil fuel, if only because the benefit would be vastly outweighed by the loss. Nor would I sacrifice the landscapes that Ms Hewitt plans to destroy for so trivial a donation to the cause of global cooling as a few hundred wind turbines.

The Government's thesis that the countryside of upland and coastal Britain is "worth sacrificing to save the planet" is an insult to science, economics and politics. But the greatest insult is to aesthetics. The trouble is that aesthetics has no way of answering back. "

Well, on the artistsagainstwindfarms website, we have done our best to make our answer.. but the other scientific, economic and political arguments are just as powerful, and the Countryfile programme could have given them more weight as well.