Wind energy is essential to our transition off of fossil fuels

The Editor, I see that Jane Wilson and her advocacy group, “Wind Concerns Ontario” are continuing their battle against the alternative energy sources essential to Canada’s transition away from fossil fuels. It’s interesting to note that the prevailing narrative seems to have morphed somewhat over time. In the early days, it was all about protecting people from the supposedly dev- astating health risks associated with having wind turbines anywhere in sight, but now that those concerns have been pretty much debunked in study after study, our friends have a new focus. Now, it’s all about protecting the environment! Interviewed by the Messenger for comment on the release of Ottawa’s recent discussion paper on rural issues, Wilson, “says several issues of concern are missing, particularly about environment and renewable energy.” Wilson goes on to mention “the loss of woodlands and farmland” and “the danger to groundwater sources.” This, in a province that is in the process of paving over the greenbelt to build high-end homes so that Canada’s rentier class can continue to expand their real estate portfolios! The hypocrisy is stupefying.

And that’s not where the hypocrisy ends. Wind energy is essential to our transition off of fossil fuels, which have environmental impacts that are nothing short of mind-boggling. The tailings ponds of toxic sludge in Alberta’s Oil Sands are now so vast that they’re visible from space and cover an area twice the size of the city of Vancouver. Worse than that, the Alberta Energy Regulator estimates that once all of the multinational oil companies have packed up their carpetbags and vanished, taxpayers will be on the hook for $130 billion in cleanup costs. And that’s just the oilsands. The results of years of indiscriminate fracking are still largely unknown, but the problem of the induced earthquakes that are now proliferating in rural Alberta is being studied extensively.

So yes, there are minor environmental impacts associated with wind turbines, but they pale in comparison with the devastation of the environment associated with fossil fuels production. We would all benefit from following the advice of the late Richard Carlson, who once uttered those words to live by, “don’t sweat the small stuff.”