March against wind farms at Mont Saint Michel

Got to this website for video footage of the march on Saturday.

Geoengineering

From the New Scientist :

Read more as well here about the Royal Society's review of geoengineering

Adam Smith Institute

An important article by Dr Fred Hansen highlighting the vast amounts of land that would be needed to meet renewable energy targets

Send a postcard!

The painting on this postcard is by Marion Chapman, our Featured Artist from Australia. If you love Australia's wild places, look at her paintings and read what she has to say about the Bald Hills Wetland Reserve.

Wherever you live, if you care about saving the world from the wind turbine blight, send a Postcard to the address on the sosmontsaintmichel website (scroll down and click for English version) before the weekend, to add to the garland of postcards that will be presented to President Sarkozy.
Read what he said about wind turbines back in 2007 . Let us keep reminding him of that fact.

Such drastic climate therapy could make things worse

A timely warning from my father this Sunday - read it at this link (Guardian online)

A greener world

There is some food for thought in this New Scientist article, and not just about food...

Brentor and Mont-Saint-Michel

Saved from turbines, the church of St. Michael de Rupe at Brentor near Dartmoor is under a threat of a different kind now. You can read more about this in the Western Morning News

Until I did my "Walk round Devon's Wind Farm Sites" I hadn't noticed the fact that Churches named after St. Michael are often built on the tops of hills. This has left them especially vulnerable to the wind farm menace.

As mentioned earlier, September 26th is the date for the International Protest March against the numerous turbine projects that threaten world famous Mont Saint Michel.
Read more about it at these links:

Information in English on the EPAW website
S.O.S. Mont-Saint-Michel

Saving the Prairie - it's all about the grass

This link to Tulsa World has just been to us from Protect the Flint Hills, the group, who fight endlessly to save the last remnant of America's Tallgrass Prairie. Do read the comments as well.

The photograph above of the wild mustangs that live on the Flint Hills, is by Phil Epp, our Kansas Featured artist. His new book Flint Hill Mustangs was mentioned earlier on this blog.

Another Flint Hills artist to send us work is Ann Gagel - her powerful images and poetry can be seen on this page

Jon Boone

This painting, American Goldfinch, is by Jon Boone. You can see more of his bird paintings on this page of the artistsagainstwindfarms website.
Jon Boone also has his own website, and he has his own website, www.stopillwind.org which is well worth a visit.

Just a reminder here about Jupiter Birding. This blog came to our attention following their posting in March about windfarms. If you love birds, and wild-life in general, do add it to your list of favourite blogs.

Cartoonist Lynda Barry

Just seen on today's www.wind-watch.org a link to an article titled "The War over Wind; critics say green groups are too tight with industry." Many of us here in Britain also worry that Green groups are too ready to excuse any environmental damage caused by the wind industry, so the whole article is important reading, but of special interest to this blog is the fact that Lynda Barry, who lives in Wisconsin, is an author, playwright and cartoonist.

Lynda has been visiting Wisconsin households located near wind-power projects, and spent many nights at various houses. Click here for a larger version of her cartoon (on the www.wind-watch website) titled "Life in an 86-turbine wind farm after one year, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin"

"Windmills killing our birds" by Robert Bryce

Thanks to a friend from America for a link to this article in the Wall Street Journal. Robert Bryce highlights the fact that while many energy producers are prosecuted for causing the deaths of birds, wind farm owners are able to carry on causing bird kills with impunity.

Do read this article if you care about birds.

Alan Duncan MP

Alan Duncan may have been in the news lately for other reasons, but we are pleased to hear that he has added his voice to a protest against a wind farm with eight 100m turbines in the Vale of Belvoir.
You can read more at this link to the Melton Times

North Devon Coast under yet more threat

This is the North Devon Coast near Ilfracombe, not very far from the proposed site at Greater Shelfin Farm (close to Mullacott Cross) near Ilfracombe..
There is more news in Monday's Western Morning News about BT's plan to put three 125m high turbines on land near Mullacott Cross. As several people have noted in the comments: if you are thinking of using BT services, now is the time to make your protest, and "vote with your feet.".
Isn't the Fullabrook Down Wind Farm vandalism enough?

Go this map on the www.artistsagainstwindfarms website to see the location of both Mullacott Cross and Fullabrook Down (you may need to scroll up to see Ilfracombe)

Another good article

Windfarms? We might as well use hamsters on treadmills said Peter Hitchens in the Daily Mail on September 5th.

The article is illustrated with that famously shocking photograph of Stirling Castle, as it looks now that the Braes of Doune have been desecrated with giant turbines. As he says, there is now no major party that speaks for common sense, unfortunately.

"Green zealots and muddled ministers are leading Britain to blackouts "

Read the article by Christopher Booker in today's Mail online.

Man in the news

Nigel Farage is in the news today, and so it is appropriate to show this photo again of him when he came to North Devon earlier this year. You can read more about how he showed his support for the Bickleton Against Turbines group here.

Marche du Mont Saint Michel le 26 Septembre 2009

Nowhere, nowhere in the world - no matter how beautiful, no matter how precious, no matter how unique - is safe from the wind menace.
Now the Mont-Saint-Michel, known all around the world and classified as a Unesco World Heritage site is threatened.

Go to the sos-montstmichel.info website to learn more about the organisation of the international march to be held on September 26th in protest against this desecration.

If, like me, your French is not good, use Babel Fish - type the website address into "Translate a webpage."
Go also to the Unesco site for more about Mont Saint Michel and other World Heritage Sites.

Scotland

We have heard recently from Neil McKinnon, who lives in Scotland, about yet another proposed wind farm development, this one in the Standingfauld, Muthill area of Perth and Kinross.

This is a link to a map of Scotland from the website viewsofscotland.org - the map has a 2005 date. An up to date map would look much worse.

Here also is a link to a map of the general area, I believe the proposed wind farm (6 x 100m turbines?) would be between the A822 and A823 roads.

More on the energy shortfall

Jonathan Isaby on the Tory Diary section of the Conservativehome blog has more to say on this subject. There are some good comments, including one by John Webley, from Kent, with a link to his earlier contribution on the blog.

Blackout Britain

For anyone who remembers the 70's, and the days when you had to fill a thermos in the morning because your power was about to be turned off, the latest headlines about future power shortages in Britain such as this one in the Daily Mail will be rather worrying.
And for anyone who says wind is the answer, just remember how still and calm it can be during an extended period of high pressure in the cold mid-winter.