Coming to a hill near you...?

Another short clip showing what happens when they build a wind farm. They have to lay down roads, to bear the weight of the heavy construction vehicles. On either side of Burland Lane, the ancient drovers track between Ilfracombe and Braunton, roads have been constructed. This was filmed at a point where they had made an opening through both sides of the lane, so that they could drive across it.
If you live in the countryside, the chances are that this could be happening in the future to your hill, or your moor, or your valley, too, wherever you are.
More photos and videos to come, look for them on YouTube.

Here were orchids

It may not mean much in the larger scheme of things, but on this bank, on this quiet little road, near Beara, in North Devon, orchids usually bloom. You couldn't expect the contractors to know that, I suppose.

Cambrian Mountains Society Exhibition

On Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/cambrianmountains#!/album.php?fbid=188796561163999&id=155679791142343&aid=44865

More interesting links

"WRONG kind of WIND blamed for renewable red-ink FAIL It doesn't blow, it sucks"
By Andrew Orlowski

His article includes this quote "And, quite often during the December cold snap, wind plants used more electricity than they generated – just when the electricity was needed the most. (Electricity is drawn from the grid for yaw control, lighting, de-icing, pumps and to power the control mechanisms.)"

Read more at this link:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/22/wind_abnormal_fail/

Another good link from The Register:

"Fukushima's toxic legacy: Ignorance and fear
Hysteria rages unchecked as minor incident winds down"

by Lewis Page, this is another article that points out the comparison in risk between nuclear and wind power. He also says this: (quote here)

"Suppose that nuclear power were allowed to be merely, say, 100 or 1,000 times safer than coal or oil (or wind: wind power has already caused scores of deaths in a brief period while at the same time generating very little energy). In that case nuclear would become so cheap as to wipe out carbon emissions and other pollution from electricity production in the advanced nations – and it might also start to make serious cuts into emissions from other sectors such as transport, heating etc, as electrical heat became cheaper than that from gas or oil and cheap juice drove down the expense of EV charging infrastructure."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/22/fukushima_tuesday_2/


Isn't it time that we did get serious about reducing CO2 emissions, rather than talking about it?

The Cambrian Mountains Society

News on the their excellent website:

Artist David Bellamy donates a watercolour to the Society to help raise funds:

http://www.cambrian-mountains.co.uk/issues-wind-nantymoch-bellamy-watercolour.php

Some amazing - and horrifying - photo-montages of the proposed Nant y Moch wind farm:
http://www.cambrian-mountains.co.uk/nantymoch-windfarm-photo-montage1.htm

More about the horrific plan to put a 64 turbine wind farm with turbines up to 481 ft high on these most beautiful mountains:
http://www.cambrian-mountains.co.uk/issues-wind-nantymoch.php

Up on the beautiful hills of North Devon, today.

Why Fukushima made George Monbiot stop worrying and love nuclear power

Up on the North Devon Downs, by a once peaceful field.

At the Fullabrook Down Wind Farm Public Inquiry, the "Friends of Fullabrook Down Wind Farm" talked a lot about George Monbiot, quoting from his book "Heat". Their favourite refrain was "better a wind farm than a nuclear power station," which was anyway irrelevant since no one had planned to put a nuclear power station up on Fullabrook Down.

I will never forget hearing one passionate wind farm supporter saying that we must have these turbines, because we need energy security (in case, for example, the Russians switched off our supply of gas.) She seemed oblivious of the fact that it was a freezing cold day. There was no wind, and any turbines up on Fullabrook would have been producing virtually no electricity at all (as we have learnt this winter)

But the Inspector appeared to listen to the Wind Farm Supporters, and the Wind Farm Developers, and of course had to pay attention to government targets. He gave consent for the Wind Farm to be built, against the opposition of North Devon Council, and the many local people who would be affected by these turbines. Now the hills above the North Devon coast are being raped (it does indeed feel like that to those who love them) by heavy machinery, and filled with concrete.

Read George Monbiot's article in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/21/pro-nuclear-japan-fukushima

Incidentally, opponents of the Wind Farm also raised the issue of noise. The Inspector did say (if I remember correctly) that he was the same Inspector who had given consent for the the Wind Farm at Deeping St. Nicholas. He seemed a nice man, as are - of course - many of those who fear nuclear power and love wind turbines because they believe them to be green and clean. But the people who will have their lives ruined by these developments are also nice people. I wonder how many Wind Farm supporters would really be prepared to swap houses with Jane and John Davis?

Deeping St. Nicholas is the village where Janet and John Davis are unable to live in their home, because of noise problems.
We can only hope that the people who live in the 75 or so homes that will be within 1 km of a Fullabrook turbine won't suffer in a similar way.