Save the D-Day Beaches

Lord of the dance, a watercolour by Angela Kelly

Please sign the international petition:

NO to windfarms off the D-Day beaches - go to http://www.epaw.org/ to sign the petition, and add your comment if you can.



This is the comment that Angela Kelly, artist and Chairman of Country Guardian, left after she had signed the petition:

"I am 82 years old and knew young men who went to fight in France including some who did not return. My late husband, an architect, was in the Royal Engineers and fought in the Battle of Caen. He cared deeply for the environment and was committed to the battle against industrial wind farms till he died in1999. An electricity supply that imposes great damage on the environment and its ecology, needs a secure back-up supply, but doesn't produce power when you need it is worse than useless. Shame on the French government that they don't respect the memory of the thousands who gave their lives. I continue to campaign. www.countryguardian.net"

www.wind-watch.org

Don't forget to visit this website regularly:

Here is a link to an interesting article (by Peter Behr of ClimateWire, www.nytimes.com) found on their website:

http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/04/25/fickle-winds-intermittent-sunshine-start-to-stress-u-s-power-system/

Spring time in rural Devon

More to come on the website, but this was yesterday, taken from a small road near Middle Marwood. The turbines destroy all your sense of scale. Walking towards them earlier, from a different location, reminded me of walking towards mountains when crossing a desert... in the desert, you think the mountains are close but they may be fifty miles away. With these turbines, you think they are close by, but that is because they are so big in comparison with everything else in the landscape.

"New figures show the lights may go out sooner than we thought"

"Figures published last week reveal that the moment when Britain’s lights start going out may be much closer than previously predicted."...
A must-read article by Christopher Booker in today's Sunday Telegraph:

Priors Hardwick and Wormleighton

Earl Spencer plans to erect 13 giant wind turbines near two small and historic villages, against the wishes of many of his own tenants - read more about this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8335690/Earl-Spencers-plans-for-wind-farm-generate-fury-among-his-tenants.html

Roger Helmer's blog

Those who think that saying "offshore not onshore" is a good tactical ploy to use when opposing onshore wind power have not usually done much research on the subject. If you are of this persuasion, look at the photographs on these two links for the Tiree Array and Llandudno.

Roger Helmer, MEP, has spoken out before on the wind power issue. This article is a good one, and highlights many of the problems connected with offshore wind power:

http://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/meeting-the-main-man-of-areva%E2%80%99s-wind-energy-programme/

Here is one interesting quote from the article: "One large array in Denmark with a planned operating life of 25 years required all the turbines to be replaced or substantially repaired within eighteen months. "

Do read the full article - and the amusing Comment from Barking Spider, re the "Chris Huhne array"

More on the blimp

http://www.druimba-sayno.com/

Go to this website to see photos of the blimp flying, plus some really shocking images of the proposed turbines. How can anyone call themselves "Green" and support such devastation!

Please read their plea for help - even if you do not live in Scotland, it does not mean that you don't care about it!

Barbara Ashbee Interview

http://www.wind-watch.org/video-melancthon-amaranth.php

This is an especially good interview, do watch it if you can.

On a hill overlooking Baggy Point and Bideford Bay

Turbine parts have arrived. This is the once pleasant hillside with views of Bideford Bay, Hartland and Baggy Point.
This is the site of the turbine we have marked 17 on our map.You can see the location here:
http://www.artistsagainstwindfarms.com/fullabrook2011/fullabrook-mar20-23.html

You can read more about the arrival of the turbine parts here:
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/news/Police-escort-gigantic-turbines-arrive-site/article-3435201-detail/article.html

Blimp flying

View Larger Map


If you live in the Highlands or are visiting there:
a blimp should be flying today, at the turbine height of 490 ft /149.5m, from land adjacent to Blairmore Forest (the maker on the map comes from using the post code on the Druim-ba-sayno website so we cannot vouch for its accuracy but it appears to be in the right place).

For more information go to:

http://www.druimba-sayno.com/

Biased BBC

The Biased BBC blog picked up on the story about the John Muir Report...

As Biased BBC point out, you would think this report would be given higher priority at a time when we are all concerned about cuts, and higher energy prices.

John Muir Trust

While on a trip to Scotland, showing support to campaigners at Blackcraig Hill and Auchencorth Moss, I saw this inscription on the wall of the Scottish Parliament. The photograph is by Henry Lewis. It reads:

"What would the world be, once bereft of wet and wildness?
Let them be left, O let them be left
Wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet"

Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Do the politicians inside the Scottish parliament pay any attention at all to these words by Gerard Manley Hopkins? It is hard to believe that many of them do, when so many wind farms are allowed to destroy Scotland's wilderness.

Here is a BBC report about a John Muir Trust study which queries wind farm efficiency:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12985410

Irish Sea Eagle killed by Turbine

http://raptorpolitics.org.uk/?p=4080

It is hard to keep track of all the beautiful and lonely places in the world that are being spoiled by the wind power industry.

This was such a precious area of South West Ireland, it is a shock to learn there are turbines here too.

Russell George

Russell George is Conservative Assembly candidate for Montgomeryshire.

He says on his website:

"Ever since my involvement in local politics I have been an opponent to The Welsh Assembly Government’s large scale wind farm policy and TAN 8 proposals."

Go to his website to read more: http://russellgeorge.com/

And also if you haven't seen it before, go to the Cambrian Mountains Society website.

"The Budget's green dreams will leave us powerless"

A powerful article by Christopher Booker in today's Sunday Telegraph.

"There's nothing wrong with fighting wind farms"

Read this article by Nigel Adams (MP for Selby and Ainsty) in The Yorkshire Post

Re whales and wind farms

We linked to a Press Report in mid March concerning whales and wind turbines. The Press Report was incorrect and the scientific paper that was mentioned in it did not mention wind farms.


Here is the correction on www.telegraph.co.uk


More information here as well:

http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/news/2011/do-marine-wind-turbines-drive-whales-to-beach-themselves-nobody-knows-for-certain-uk/

We are sorry to have linked (in good faith) to an incorrect Press Report. We do however think that there remains a strong possibility that whales could be disturbed by turbine noise. Obviously, proving this is not easy.

"Way clear for pylons to blot the landscape"

Buy The Times today if you can - a great article by Simon Barnes about threats to Constable Country.