Wind power is much vaunted as a "green" energy source, the primary purpose of which is appeasing loudmouthed climate scolds. As with grid-scale solar and other alternative energy sources, wind turbines are laden with issues, not the least of which is that they are low energy density, as well as unreliable, expensive, and intermittent, generally requiring backup from traditional power plants fired by coal or natural gas — or the nuclear plants that the climate scolds also oppose at every turn.
Wind power, though, has even bigger problems. The turbines are expensive and unsightly; they cost more energy to build than they produce in many places. These huge, ugly, bird-killing machines are a solution desperately seeking a problem, and they may even be making people who live near them sick.
Wind turbines are known to disrupt wildlife and severely damage the surrounding biotope, And, despite being inaudible, it is known that low-frequency vibrations from wind turbines can be harmful to human health.
Hat-tip: Tichy’s Einblick here.
Humans can only perceive sound waves over a range of approximately between 20 and 20,000 Hertz. Sound waves below 20 Hz cannot be heard by humans and are called infrasound.
Natural infrasound emitted by nature is harmless but it is increasingly being understood that infra-sound generated by wind turbines pulsates and make people who are subjected to them over extended time periods sick.
Some infrasound is natural; elephants use infrasound to communicate and over some pretty astounding distances. But the pulsating vibrations from these "green" windmills are a different story.
The rotating blades of wind turbines cause air pressure changes, which in turn can cause pressure on the ears and chest and lead to health issues and even serious problems like arrhythmia and vision impairment, according to a German Medical Journal.
The study’s abstract states: “Noise-exposed citizens, who live near infrastructures such as biogas installations, heat pumps, block-type thermal power stations, and bigger industrial wind turbines (IWT’s), show worldwide mainly a symptomatology associated with microcirculatory disorder.”
(Note: The original study is in German.)
There are domestic (American) studies as well, also documenting how infrasound can be damaging to the human body, such as this one from the National Library of Medicine:
Literature on mechanisms of response to vibration is categorized into hemodynamic, neurological, and musculoskeletal. Basic mechanisms of hemodynamic effects including stimulation of endothelial cells and vibropercussion; of neurological effects including protein kinases activation, nerve stimulation with a specific look at vibratory analgesia, and oscillatory coherence; of musculoskeletal effects including muscle stretch reflex, bone cell progenitor fate, vibration effects on bone ossification and resorption, and anabolic effects on spine and intervertebral discs.
And this one, also published in the National Library of Medicine (emphasis added):
Low-frequency noise (LFN) is recognized as an environmental problem by the World Health Organization. LFN is emitted within the range of 20 to 500* Hz by a variety of sources such as heating, cooling, and ventilation systems for buildings; compressors; motorized vehicles; and wind turbines. Traffic noise, which is rich in LFN components, was ranked second among the selected environmental stressors, evaluated in terms of their public health impact in European countries.
Add this to a long list of reasons why wind power isn't worth the trouble.
See Related: 'Green' Energy Fail: Multiple Iowa Tornadoes Wrecking Windmills
'Green' Energy Sources Have Too Many Problems – Like Unreliability and Fragility
Here's the thing not mentioned in the article linked above: This entire episode, including how the evidence of infrasound's effects is ignored by the German government, which has gone all-in on wind power, as well as by climate scolds, speaks very plainly to the priorities of the "watermelons." (Green on the outside, red on the inside.) The Green New Deal types and the environmentalist left, most of whom have little or no experience with the actual environment, claim to be all about "the science." They aren't. Not only do they have little or no understanding of how the scientific method actually works, as evidenced by how they ignore inconvenient data or facts, but they are openly hostile to the notion of people making up their own minds.
We shouldn't be allowed, you see, to choose what kind of vehicle we want to drive, how to heat and cool our homes, or how we wash our clothes. And now, Germans living around these raptor-killing windmills aren't even listened to when their health may be in danger. All to appease the climate scolds.
It isn't about the climate, and it isn't about the environment. It's about control. That's the only way any of this makes any sense.
