Ed. note: This essay was published in the June 2019 issue of Desert Report, published by the Sierra Club of California and the Nevada Desert Committee. (Part II will be posted tomorrow.) On Thursday (10/17), Dr. Deever will report on the subsequent events at the magazine casting doubt on his overview.

THE SILENT MENACE (When it comes to wind-turbine infrasound, what you can’t hear can hurt you)

” … infrasound noise can travel over much longer distances than previously admitted by the wind energy industry. Moreover, the intensity of potentially harmful levels of infrasound vibrations do not dissipate as quickly as formerly believed.”

Sci-fi fans remember the tagline from the Alien movie poster, which ominously declared, “In space, no one can hear you scream.” Likewise, research on the infrasound frequencies produced by industrial wind turbine blades is increasingly providing proof that what you can’t hear can hurt you.…

The plaintiffs claim that developers built the project too close to their homes and as a result, have created a number of hazards and adverse health effects, including sleep disturbance, annoyance, headaches, dizziness, vertigo, nausea, motion sickness, bodily sensations, fatigue, stress, depression, memory deficits, inability to concentrate, anxiety and an overall reduced quality of life. The complaint says that these effects are largely due to the shadow flicker and loud noise that comes from the turbines when they are in motion.

As if the news for wind developers weren’t seriously bad enough: 1200 layoffs at Siemens and Vestas, controlled demolitions of demonstration size, mega size turbines in Scotland, deemed too dangerous to remain in place, planned demolition of another demonstration single turbine in Pickering Ontario, because leaving it in situ is dangerous, and communities all over the world railing against rate payer gouging, toxic homes, damaged health, harmed or dead animals, or even forced displacement.…

“Chris Skates, a top energy advisor to Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, said he figures he helped emit millions of pounds of carbon dioxide in a 30-year electric utility career, adding ‘and I am damn proud of it.'”

– Quoted in Inside Climate News, September 26, 2019.

“Southern State Energy Officials Celebrate Fossil Fuels as World Raises Climate Alarm,” an article is titled in Inside Climate News (September 26, 2019). The subtitle adds:

The message from the industry-supported meeting: Push as much deregulation as possible while Trump is in power and never apologize for promoting oil, gas and coal.

“There was a sense of defiance in the hotel’s meeting rooms,” James Bruggers wrote. The author seems shocked that

[Kentucky Governor Matt] Bevin, a Republican and the host of the meeting, was dismissive of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, calling the young Swede who has inspired a global climate movement and who spoke at the UN on Monday, “remarkably ill informed.”

[Editor note: A ‘clarification and apology’ associated with this post is here. The author failed to note that Andrew Dessler also stated, “I debate in the peer-reviewed literature.”]

“Doesn’t the wholesale reordering of our society demand at least a little bit of public debate? We think so.” (Heartland Institute)

“In a public debate, advocates can use all kinds of rhetorical tricks, as well as outright lies, to advance their cause. There’s no way to counter them in that forum.” (Andrew Dessler)

“All of the noise right now from the climate change denial machine, the bots & trolls, the calls for fake “debates,” etc. Ignore it all. Deniers are desperate for oxygen in a mainstream media environment that is thankfully is no longer giving it to them. Report.