Wind Turbine Syndrome

Figure 1: cartoon from 2012 New Scientist article

With our puppet masters pushing for investment in renewable energy sources, wind turbines are big business and so any suggestions that their infrasonic emissions might be undermining the health of people and animals living in their vicinity is not likely to be well received.

Predictably, the mainstream media is dismissive. Figure 1 shows a cartoon from a 2012 New Scientist article titled The sickening truth about wind farm syndrome. The cartoon reflects the tone of the article. The author of the article, a certain Simon Chapman, begins thus:

There are several reasons to suspect that the unrecognised entity of wind turbine syndrome is psychogenic: a “communicated” disease spread by anti-wind interest groups, sometimes with connections to fossil fuel interests. People can worry themselves sick.

He then goes on in this "unsympathetic" vein. In partnership with Fiona Crichton, he published a book in November of 2017 titled Wind Turbine Syndrome: A Communicated Disease. Clearly, he has not softened his position in the years following his New Scientist article. In a 2018 article to the Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, he says:

The history of social panics over new technology shows they have a natural history. There are doubtless a few people left who still fear television sets and microwave ovens. The heyday of fearing cell phone towers came and went in the 1990s. Wind-farm anxiety is now thankfully rapidly receding, with the desultory complaint volumes submitted to the Wind Commissioner showing the phenomenon has all but passed. But the delays this panic caused in driving Australian renewable energy harvesting were major. Our book’s final chapter explores lessons in how we might avoid the next wave of modern health worries.

So we can avoid "the next wave of modern health worries", like 5G cellular networks, by not succumbing to this type of "communicated disease". How do we do that? Well, simply believe it when big business and big government assure you that the technology is safe. They have our best interests at heart, don't they? It's not hard to dislike this guy. His ad hominem attacks on the anti-wind interest groups include accusations of "connections to fossil fuel interests", hostility to change and susceptibility to social panic. I can't resist including this further quote from his article:

New technology has a long history of attracting prolonged, impassioned and often crackpot attacks from those both fearful of and hostile toward mephistophilean artifice that offends the existing order of things.  

The real issue is not wind turbines but the infrasound that they emit. Another source of infrasound emissions derive from ventilation fans in mines. To present the other side of the argument, namely that infrasound can be injurious to health, this 2018 presentation by Dr. Mariana Alves Pereira is quite persuasive.

It's the people living close to these mine ventilation shafts and wind turbines that really need to be listened to. Here's a description of the effects experienced by one family living near a mine in Lithgow, Australia (the author is Norman Allan):

The physical effects include a sense of pressure in the head or chest and throat, vertigo, nose bleeds, vomiting, anxiety induced heart palpitations and other symptoms normally associated with travel sickness like general nausea and include what can best be described as an “out of body” or “living in a fog” experience. These are compounded by a sense of anxiety developed from long term exposure and multiple forms of stress, such as continued muscle tension from instinctive efforts to resist intermittent or constant shaking. These symptoms are extremely distressing. Yet, over time, the acute episodic symptoms pale in comparison to relentless high amplitude noise on the edge of normal human hearing perception going on day after day. In any case, sleep disturbance has been ongoing and the effects of sleep deprivation alone have been debilitating. Source

In November of 2106, the Australian Government issued an Australian Government response to the Senate Select Committee on Wind Turbines: Final Report  in which some action and monitoring was proposed but how serious its committment will be remains to be seen. What was more interesting in the report were the responses of the opposition Labor Party (not the Liberal-National coalition government). Here's an extract:

Labor senators recommend that the Federal Government reassure the wind energy industry, which is both an important source of income and employment in rural areas and a vital means of abating Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, that it is not intent on preventing its further development based on unsubstantiated claims of negative health, environment and economic impacts. 

Labor Senators recommend that the Federal Government publicly acknowledge that:

•  wind farms are an important means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from Australia’s electricity sector, thereby contributing to our greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals;

•  the health impacts of fossil fuel extraction and generation are acknowledged by the medical and scientific community;

•  there are no causal links between wind turbines and impacts on human health;

• the wind industry is a growing industry at a time when Australia’s manufacturing sector is undergoing significant change and downsizing and that it provides valuable employment opportunities in regional Australia; and

•  the continued growth of the renewable energy industry, including wind, is a positive thing or Australia’s economy and its environment.

This leaves little doubt that the Labor Party is firmly behind the wind energy industry but in truth nearly every government in the world will be leaning this way because of the massive investment and intense lobbying. Politicians know which way the wind is blowing and unfortunately for Norman Allan (whose experiences I quoted earlier) and others similarly affected, it's not blowing in their direction.

Living 1600 ft from a wind turbine is a video of couple talking about the experience of living close to wind turbines and mentioning the gag orders that wind energy companies have built into contracts to help ensure silence:

Down Wind is a much longer video about the impact of wind farms on the lives of communities living in rural Ontario. The liberal government there introduced legislation to ensure that wind turbines could be built even in the face of opposition from local councils. The dirty politics that the video exposes is being repeated worldwide. Electricity prices have soared and there has been no discernible benefits to the average home owner whether living in the city or the country. I realise now monstrous and ugly these wind turbines are. The proliferation of these structures will serve as another catalyst to moving people from the countryside to the cities where, having escaped constant bombardment from infrasound, they can enjoy constant bombardment from 5G frequencies.

Sufferers can draw some comfort however, because Donald Trump is in their corner. Trump is notoriously hostile to wind farms and tweeted the graphic shown in Figure 1 (that quickly went viral), thinking (wrongly) that it justified his hostility.

Figure 1

Perhaps it's better NOT to have Donald Trump's support. It's clear enough though that those who claim to be victims of infrasound will NOT have the support of:

• BIG BUSINESS
• BIG MEDIA
• BIG GOVERNMENT
• BIG MEDICINE

This is a global scam and things will be the same wherever you are. BIG BUSINESS will be downright hostile, BIG MEDIA will supply the propaganda, BIG GOVERNMENT will obfuscate and BIG MEDICINE will not receive any funding for studies into the matter. BIG PHARMA however, will be supportive by providing medication to alleviate the various physiological and psychological disturbances that are being experienced. Even when it seems the whole world has turned its back on you, BIG PHARMA will have your back.

ADDENDUM:

I couldn't help but include this article that appeared in Bloomberg today, the 27th of June 2019.

Bat-Killing Wind Turbines Outfitted With Systems to Stop Carnage

The wind farms that have proliferated across Texas in the past decade have done plenty to cut power-sector emissions. But with blades spinning at up to 100 miles-per-hour, they’ve been murderous for bats. Now Duke Energy Corp. is deploying technology to dissuade the creatures from flying headlong into their deaths. It uses ultrasound to block sonar bats use to navigate at night, prompting them to avoid areas around turbines. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based utility owner is using the “Bat Deterrent System” at installations in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s first time a company has commercially deployed the system, developed by ESCO Technologies Inc.’s NRG Systems, according to a statement Wednesday. A two-year study found it can reduce bat fatalities by 50%, Duke said.

So these wind turbines, as well as emitting infrasound and audible sound, will now be emitting ultrasound as well to ward off the bats. Another article explains why the blades are hazardous to the bats and an alternative approach to avoiding the carnage:

Wind turbines are an essential to our prospects of building a clean energy economy. Unfortunately, there's a lot of evidence out there that the turbines kill bats in alarming numbers--more than they do birds. And not in the gruesome manner you'd think--no high speed collisions with the blades--but in another gruesome way altogether. The sudden drop in air pressure around the turbines causes severe injuries to the bats' lungs, an affliction called barotrauma. Thankfully, scientists have come up with a way to reduce bat deaths around turbines by at least 60% without sacrificing any serious power generation from the turbines. And the solution seems overwhelming logical to me. Essentially, it's this: stop the blades from turning when it's not windy, because that's when bats are most likely to take flight.

The article just mentioned comes from treehugger and notice the article of faith that forms the first sentence of the previous quote: Wind turbines are an essential to our prospects of building a clean energy economy. Environmental groups have uncritically accepted the propaganda of the climate alarmists. See an earlier post of mine titled Students Strike for Climate Action for information about the clean energy economy scam.