The following commentary was written in response to “Wind Power Horror Serenade” (Denmark)—the Editor.
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—Simon

Having lived in Denmark for several years as an expatriate, I know that it takes a lot before Danes protest against something that is generally viewed as “good” for their country.  Danish society is consensus-driven and trust-based.  Danes see themselves as a “tribe” rather than as a multi-faceted society where different opinions and views co-exist and conflicts are therefore inevitable.

If some Danes take to drastic (and creative) measures like putting on a show about the horrors of wind power, you can be sure they have been pushed to the limit.

When Danes say “enough is enough,” they mean it.

Danes are tough people and they are not easily fooled.  They know a scam when they see one.  When Danes are taking to the streets to protest against a stupid idea, you had better pay attention, as they are usually right.

Faux (false) EURO currency?  Nope, the Danes were smart and stuck with their Kroners.  Investment Bubble?  The Danes have resisted the temptation of quick profits and now have a low 5% unemployment rate.  Compare this with 25% in Spain, where low interest rates and tax breaks resulted in impressive growth figures for a few years, but not much else.

Speaking of Spain, the EU paid for some wind “parks” there to “develop” the country.  When funding petered out, local governments couldn’t afford the maintenance and the turbines are now starting to fall apart.  So much for that “cheap” energy source myth.

Why, then, did those savvy Danes allow so many wind parks to be built in the first place?

There are several reasons, all connected to the way Danish society works.  Danes do (did) trust their government; they truly believe that decisions made by the administration in Copenhagen are in their best interest and, usually, they are (were) right.  This fits with the Corruption Perception Index, according to which Denmark and New Zealand are the countries wherein corruption is least likely to happen.

At the same time, Danes are staunchly loyal to Danish brands and companies, again leading international rankings.  (There used to be an agency in NYC that published those figures annually.)  This behaviour is based on the traditional belief that “Danes don’t betray Danes”—a cornerstone of Danish society.

Now there is Vestas Wind Systems, based in Randers, Denmark—the world’s biggest manufacturer of IWTs (Industrial Wind Turbines).  Surely Vestas wouldn’t build something that’s bad for people!  Especially, as DELTA Dansk Elektronik confirmed in their study, EFP-06, that IWTs don’t emit any low frequency noise worth mentioning.  (Strange, though, that they withheld acoustic data recorded in homes near wind parks, from independent noise engineers.)

Can you see the conflict?  Opposing Vestas and the government in their plans to install IWTs has been “un-Danish” in the past.  Even if you had reservations, you didn’t speak up.  “If it comes from Denmark, it is good for us Danes,” was the common belief.

That’s why wind developers met almost no resistance in the past.

Obviously, this is now changing.  Denmark is already suffering from widespread low frequency “noise pollution” because of a de-centralized system of “micro-power stations.”  It is so bad in some areas that Denmark was the first country to form a society against ILFN (Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise) pollution, called “Infralydens Fjender” (Enemies of the Infrasound).

Hence, when Danes realized that IWTs also emit infrasound at high levels, by golly they took action—at least the ones who were fed up with being brain-washed by Vestas and the government.

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Editor’s note:  See the following letter from the Infralydens Fjender group to the Danish Prime Minister.  (Click here for a lousy English translation.  Lousy, yes, nevertheless it gives you a good idea of what’s going on.)

Please sign the petition, below.  (Click here to access the petition.)

Dear All,

Something awfull is happening in Holland. Landowners and the wind industry have made plans to built wind farms on every available piece of land in the north of Holland.

I always thought wind energy was green energy, but this is far from the truth. After a year of reading reports from people who are living in the vicinity of wind turbines, and technical reports from acousticians, I have come to understand that wind farms are destroying the health of the people living close by. This is probably due to the fact that wind turbines generate low frequent noise and Infrasound. And this is very harmful for humans and animals. (See the documentary, “Pandora’s Pinwheels.”)

But, because there is so much money involved (subsidies), the wind industry and governments are not willing to look at the negative health aspects.

In Holland we are going to offer a petition to the government, to make them AWARE of what is really happening.

At the same time we have an international petition online to ask for support from abroad.

If you feel you would like to give us your support, then please sign this petition and send it on to as many people as possible.

Thank you very much!

Janet Holtkamp
Holland

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With appreciation to the Energy Integrity Project, an Idaho-based group whose website is worth adding to your list.  (With appreciation, as well, to John Droz for alerting us to this group.)

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Turn up your speakers to their highest, then turn up the YouTube video speaker to its highest—and you will hear this reasonably well.  Alas, the audio recording was not brilliant.

Editor’s note:  The following passage is excerpted from a report to the State of Mass. by Lilli Green, a documentary filmmaker living in Wellfleet, MA.  (Click here for her full report.)

Lilli’s report is a lengthy and impassioned rebuttal to the Mass. “Wind Turbine Health Impact Study: Report of Independent Expert Panel.”

I personally have conducted videotaped interviews with people living in the Makara Valley, NZ. I have provided to the panel members through MA Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) a documentary film I created from these interviews, as well as other interviews with victims living too close to wind turbines, industrial refugees (those who have had to flee from their homes because their health is so compromised by living too close to wind turbines) and experts in New Zealand studying these issues.

I traveled to these countries, spent my time and resources, edited the footage, and worked with others to post the film online in order to bring back information so that MA could make informed decisions. The citizens of MA are not alone; people on the other side of the globe experience the same symptoms as they do.

I provided a DVD of the film Pandora’s Pinwheels: The Reality of Living with Wind Turbines to MA DEP. I have also provided the online link to MA DEP and the panel members.

Here you will see the victims of the industrial wind power plant—the wind turbines in the Makara Valley, NZ—describe their symptoms. These are some of the very people who are part of the NZ study. Please pay attention to how they describe sleep deprivation.

Pay attention to the nurse/midwife and Senior Lecturer at a Wellington (NZ) university who describes the vibrations from the turbines and how she has chronic sleep deprivation. It is the noise, though not audible noise, which wakes her up. It is like a sensation, a vibration, she can feel. Take her up on her offer; go and “share her bed” with her.

Others in the Makara Valley have offered for you to go and live in their homes for three months. LIve the life they live. The point is their lives have been ruined because there are wind turbines sited too close to people.

These people are very ill. They experience a whole host of symptoms that Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD describes as Wind Turbine Syndrome. The following symptoms have been described to me on videotape by the people in the Makara Valley:

Sleep disturbance and deprivation, headache, tinnitus (ringing in ears), ear pressure, dizziness, vertigo (spinning dizziness), nausea, visual blurring, tachycardia (fast heart rate), irritability, problems with concentration and memory, and panic episodes associated with sensations of movement or quivering.”

I have visited these people twice. I visited in January 2011 and also 12 months later in January 2012. The findings show that no person we interviewed in January 2011 has gotten better if they continued to live in the Makara Valley. The industrial refugees, those who have abandoned their homes (they have not been able to sell them), feel better because they no longer live there.

There are people whom we interviewed in January 2011 who were determined to stay. Now these people have either abandoned their homes, have their homes on the market, or leave their homes every weekend to get relief, or go away for weeks at a time to get relief—and they plan to move.

Click here to truly savor that (former) ridgeline.  (Those of you who remember Vermont, it’s okay to weep quietly.)

—Peter Skeel Hjorth (Sweden)

This is a true story of an old freedom fighter’s valiant stand against the unjustice of wind power, with music as a weapon.

On April 9th, 1940 Denmark was occupied by German troops.  In the first years of occupation there was no resistance.  Then a small group of youngsters in a high school in Aalborg, Northern Jutland, started a different kind of sabotage and began to steal weapons from the Germans.  Their activities had no real results, but the youths became known as the Churchill Club.

After a year or so the members were arrested and imprisoned for long time.

Knud Pedersen was one of them.  Today he is 86 years old and one of the last surviving freedom fighters from the time of German Occupation (1940-1945).

After he was finally freed, for decades Knud Pedersen and his wife Bodil have had a house in the forests of Southern Sweden.  In 2009 their paradise was threatened by a wind project in the forest around their home.  That made Knud start his resistance fight against this injustice against humans.  His contribution to our common resistance is a musical composition called “Wind Power Horror Serenade,” which was played in the middle of Copenhagen on December 9th 2011.

With appreciation to The Spectator

“Downfall”

—Fraser Nelson, The Spectator (UK), 4/15/12

It did not take long. Last month, Matt Ridley argued in a Spectator cover story that the wind farm agenda is in effect dead, having collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. The only question is when our ministers would realise. In an interview with the Sunday Times (£), climate change minister Greg Barker admits that his department has adopted an ‘unbalanced’ approach to wind farms and will now look at other options. ‘Far from wanting thousands more, actually for most of the wind we need … they are either being built, being developed or in planning. The notion that there’s some new wave of wind [farms] is somewhat exaggerated.’

Indeed, the phrase ‘somewhat exaggerated’ applies to the case for wind farms itself. There are a staggering 3,500 wind turbines in Britain, what to do with them all? Ridley had this suggestion:

It would be a shame for them all to be dismantled. The biggest one should remain, like a crane on an abandoned quay, for future generations to marvel at. They will never be an efficient way to generate power. But there can be no better monument to the folly of mankind.”

To Ridley, this was—at root—an intellectual error. An example of how the establishment, and entire government machine, can sponsor something that makes no economic or environmental sense—but no one dares point this out, because the cause is seen as noble. He has generously sponsored the £8,500 Ridley Award for essays that expose similar environmental fallacies and entries close on 30 June. We’ve had plenty of brilliant entries so far—but keep them coming. Click here to find out more.

Click anywhere above to listen to the future.  America’s future.  Short video by the American Civil Liberties Union.  It ends with the question, “Do you want to do anything to prevent this?”

We put it on this site because we think there’s a connection between the mentality which forces wind turbines down the throat of communities, and the Big Brother (Orwellian) mentality forecast in the video.

Control.  State control.  In the name of the new god, “security.”  In the case of wind turbines, “securing us from the threat of global warming.”  At least that’s the official propaganda.  General Electric, Vestas, Siemens, Wall Street, and Big Oil all know it’s about “harvesting” tax dollars.

When you open the video, a menu soon appears with the category “Health” (upper righthand corner).  (“Mary,” the cheerful gal taking the man’s order, clicks on “Health” further along in the dialogue.)  I’m married to a medical doctor.  For those of you who don’t know, all medicine in America is now controlled by Big Insurance.  Surprised?  Putting this more starkly, all medicine in America is “driven by” insurance companies.  Now, consider Electronic Medical Records.  EMR.  This is the “new thing” in medicine.  Doctors are under tremendous pressure to switch all their patient records to EMR, which can be (will be) linked to a central database.  The database will, in due course, be controlled by Big Insurance.  My wife tells me that the EMR format for patient records is pretty much a matter of checking off boxes—checking off pre-set definitions and categories of clinical diagnosis.

There are at least three alarming elements to this EMR business:  (1) It is furthering the trend of replacing medical doctors with Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners.  PA’s and NP’s are terrific, but as replacements for MD’s—that’s an economic decision being made by Big Insurance and financially-strapped hospitals and clinics.  (2) When your health is assessed by a checklist, by a form, then both you and the profession of medicine have lost something—lost the range of “possibility” upon which good medicine and good science rely.  With EMR, Wind Turbine Syndrome would never have been detected.  Think about it.  (3) The third alarm bell is, of course, that Big Insurance arm-in-arm with Big Government will control medical care, through and through.  And it will be up to Big Insurance/Big Govt. to decide how your medical record is shared, and with whom.  All in the name of “good government,” by the way, and “best practices” and “the bottom line for insurers” (hence the necessity of adding a “health” link to Pizza Palace’s online order form)—and don’t forget, “security.”

Goddess Securitas

Researchers in mythology have devoted far too little attention to the goddess Securitas. Some have maintained she is only a pale personification, but they are profoundly mistaken. What other ancient deity has survived to our own times and enjoys such robust health? This fact alone should be an incentive for deeper studies and for scholarly reflection.

We know that each god ruled over a specific sphere of reality, had his own zealously guarded hunting district and favorite human game. The domain of Securitas is murky, determined by an unclear threat. Her entire inventiveness consists in devising ever-new dangers. She skillfully gives these out in doses, for she knows the art of gradation. Sometimes she is satisfied with a rioting suburb, then she embraces a frenzied city, wanders from one continent to another like the plague, captures land, water, air. Her borders are elastic. Who sets them? Most likely fear.

She does not need temples, sacrificial smoke, processions, or sacred orgies. She is satisfied with a profession of faith in our own miserable physiology. A flutter of the heart, sudden paralysis of the legs, cold sweat, shrieking in a dream—it is not us but our bodies that sing a daily antiphony to her glory.

Securitas belongs to the species of monsters. Compared to her, what are all these childish monster-giants, dragons, half-men and half-animals, hybrids haphazardly sewn together? Securitas is very much like us. She is a monster with a human face.

Like every deity, Securitas draws vital forces from our hopes and fears. She possesses a vast amount of psychological knowledge. She does not lavishly give away eternal youth because this is a charlatan’s stock-in-trade. She does not promise other worlds, nor does she deceive us with notions of justice, because when all is said and done each of us—in the depths of the heart—counts only on a final act of mercy. Securitas puts us face to face with the cruel alternative: either security or freedom.”

—Zbigniew Herbert, “Securitas,” pp. 1-6 in The King of the Ants: Mythological Essays, trans. from Polish by John & Bogdana Carpenter (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1999), pp. 5-6.

With appreciation to John Droz for bringing the video to our attention.

Farewell to a Turbine Refugee

Curt Devlin, Fairhaven, MA

I have a friend who is about to become a turbine refugee. I’ll call her Jenny because her peace and privacy have already been violated enough; but I assure you she is very real.

In case you think the term refugee is an exaggeration, look up the definition. It denotes someone who flees their home to avoid danger or to find a place of safety and asylum. If you want to really hear Jenny’s stories with an open heart, ask yourself what could cause you to leave your family, your home and your friends.

Jenny moved to this area over 30 years ago, when she got married and finished school. She dreamed of being an architect; but like so many of us, life had other plans for her. She and her husband ended up buying a home and raising a family. She started a small but successful business, working outdoors with plants and flowers, which she loves. She also grew to love her quiet little, coastal New England town with its cast of quirky but endearing characters, and the peaceful, beautiful vistas of life along the coast.

About nine years ago, Jenny and her husband had a chance to buy a parcel of land in an especially quiet area with plenty of open space between neighbors. Even better, she got the chance to design her own home, one that would fit her and her family’s lifestyle, like hand in glove. Nothing is perfect, but it was a very good home and a good life. As her son grew older, Jenny dreamed that someday he would get married right on this property, at the home she had designed—a summer wedding with enough flowers to remember for a lifetime. That was the dream that was about to turn into a hellish nightmare in just a few short days.

About 2 years ago, one of her neighbors signed a contract with a private wind developer to site a 1.5MW industrial wind turbine just 1300 feet from her beloved home. Jenny was not fearful at first because she did not know that turbines are intensely toxic for some people; nor did she know that she was a “sensitive receptor.” Jenny’s life turned instantly for the worse when the turbine started spinning. The turbine affected her husband, too; but not with same severity as her. It was still just the beginning of a long, steady, irresistible downward spiral to hell.

One sleepless night turned into another. She often awakened with that strange feeling of dizziness that you sometimes get when you are disturbed from a deep sleep, only it didn’t go away after a few minutes. There was the strange feeling of anxiety, too, as though something was terribly wrong but she was unable to put her finger on it. Her energy level sagged from lack of sleep. The strange “thrumming” sensation was all around, like it was inside her head and chest, too. Even when the turbine was not spinning, she was stressed and anxious, wondering when it would start again.

She tried everything to cope, hoping she might gradually get used to it. Noise machines, sleeping pills, nothing seemed to help. She began sleeping in the basement because sometimes the vibrating thrum from the turbine was not quite so bad—sometimes. Naturally, this took its toll on her marriage. The relentless thrum was taking its toll on her business, her health, and her coping mechanisms, as well. Gradually, she began to sink into depression.

As days turned to weeks, and weeks to months, it slowly dawned on Jenny that she was in a fight for her life and stopping the turbine was the only way to win. She tried reasoning with her neighbor, who dismissed her as a crackpot or hypochondriac. After all, it didn’t make him sick. She tried to get help from town officials, but they were too busy putting up turbines of their own to listen to a handful of disgruntled residents. Finally, she tried suing her neighbor. She watched as her rainy-day savings dwindled away. Five, ten, fifteen, then twenty thousand; but the turbine kept spinning. Justice turns much more slowly than turbines. In despair, Jenny began to have what psychiatrists call “suicidal ideation.” In fact, it was much more that ideation. She was stockpiling her sleeping pills.

Ironically, her mother began to suffer from a debilitating illness that prevented her from living alone any longer. Jenny could not go through with her plans just yet. By putting her mother’s needs first, her own daily existence became an agonizing test of endurance. Then, mercifully, the town decided to curtail the operation of all turbines to consider the impact on public health. But his fragile flame of hope was soon snuffed out. After a couple of months of respite, the town decided to restart the turbines, citing the urgent financial needs of the town.

I had hoped that Jenny would not return to her darkest thoughts, but my hopes were in vain. Deciding to give it one last try, she went to a public meeting in town setup to “build consensus” about what to do about the turbines. It is hard to listen to debate about megawatts, decibels, revenue shortfalls and energy costs being discussed as though they are all just as important as your health, your life. People do not understand or simply refuse to believe that your life is hanging in the balance. To many, you are just collateral damage in the war to save the planet.

Just before arriving home, Jenny took enough pills to end her life. Fortunately, she confessed what she had done before she lost consciousness. She wanted to live. Her husband got her to the hospital in time to save her. She is in counseling now and it must be helping because she told me “We need to get the message out to all turbine sufferers. . . . No location is worth dying for.”

But she is left with only one option. Escape. She had been ready to move to the mid-West, where she knows no one; but it was the only place where she could afford a small place to start over on her own. Her funds are nearly exhausted. Her husband felt he could not leave with her because he is just three years from his retirement benefits, the last financial leg they have to stand on. Luckily, his heart overruled his head after rushing her to the hospital the other night. He is cashing in what little benefits he is eligible for, so they can find a small place together where no turbines can be built. They do not expect to get much for their place—assuming they can even sell it.

It is hardly a Hollywood ending. With no money to retire on, the prospect of finding work when you are approaching retirement in a down economy is grim—but it is still better than the alternative ending they had in store. At least they are together, for better or worse.

When people are forced to leave behind everything they have loved and worked for, so hard, in order to save their lives, there is no other word for it—they are refugees. There are thousands in the same situation as Jenny, all around the world. Every day, a few more of them are forced to abandon their homes to save themselves. When we build turbines too close to vulnerable people, we exact a terrible price on our neighbors to ease our own conscience about our energy gluttony.

I am deeply saddened to see my friend leave like this and I’m afraid Jenny will not be the last. Unless something is done to stop the turbines, I’m sure I will be saying farewell to more of my friends in Little Bay soon.

Curt Devlin

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See also, “What the hell’s the matter with you people?” (Massachusetts), “Life under the blades” (Massachusetts), Two Acousticians succumb to Wind Turbine Syndrome (MA), and Woman suffers from Wind Turbine Syndrome from her workplace, not her home (Mass.)

“Add them all together—the eagle death, the bad eggs, the deformed lambs, the headaches, the forgetfulness, the family feuds—and it is difficult to envisage a more apprehensive or dysfunctional town.”

“Questions Blowing in the Wind”

—Graham Lloyd, Environmental Editor, The Australian (4/21/12)

From the low mountain ridge, 3km in the distance, the roar of wind turbines bears down on the Waterloo village main street like a runaway truck that never arrives.

At night, the soundscape changes with the prevailing winds. Sometimes the distant rumble could easily be mistaken for waves rolling on to ocean sands. But given the heightened anxieties along this dysfunctional street, 120km northeast of Adelaide, the mind can play tricks.

Is the squeeze of ear pressure significant or simply a brewing head cold? Is broken sleep the result of unfamiliar surroundings or something more sinister?

But what is beyond doubt is that in Waterloo, after 18 months of operation of the wind farm, residents are voting with their feet at great personal financial and emotional cost. Domestic and farm animals are reportedly showing signs of distress and the discovery this week of a dead wedge-tailed eagle at the base of the northern wind turbine tower may confirm the worst for environmentalists.

Photo by Vanessa Hunter

Experts say the eagle, a sub-adult with a broken wing and crushed skull, appears to have died quickly. Many locals say the impact of wind turbines on immediate residents is more drawn out.

Roger Kruse is a descendant of one of Waterloo’s original settler families. In March last year he went to a liquidation auction to buy a $180 lawnmower in neighbouring Saddleworth, but ended up buying the property for $233,000 as a bolthole to escape the noise in Waterloo.

Kruse says he gets ear popping and head squeezing from the wind turbines and finds it difficult to sleep. “The wind turbines are the only thing we talk about around here any more,” he says. “There is nothing else to say, you just can’t escape unless you go away.”

Kruse says he is forced to use the Saddleworth property often enough to make the purchase worthwhile.

Other residents, such as the Marciniak siblings, Andreas, Wanda and Johannes—who each moved to Waterloo to retire and live debt free—are not so wealthy, or lucky. Andreas and Johannes claim the wind turbines have worsened existing medical conditions and they have fled to live in caravans away from town.

“When the company first said it was going to put them in I was all for it,” Andreas says. “I have got solar panels, hot water, it is a very green house. We thought they (wind turbines) were good for everybody.”

He spoke out publicly in support of the Waterloo project but says “once there is a problem no one has come to speak to any of us. I have written letters till they come out of my ears and all I get back is the reply they are following the guidelines set by the EPA (Environment Protection Authority).

“Something is happening here. It’s not the noise, it is something else penetrating my house. I am waking up saturated, scared, my heart is pounding.”

His sister Wanda says she is watching her health, relationship and life collapse and just wants wind energy company TRUenergy to move her transportable home somewhere else.

“People say these people (complainers) have found out the farmers are getting money and now they want some,” Wanda says. “This is disgusting. We didn’t even know these things, that farmers were getting money. I don’t want money, I want to get relocated.”

Neil Daws, 51, lives directly opposite Andreas behind a big, black sign that reads: “Warning, while you are near wind turbines you may experience: Short term exposure—headache, nausea, vertigo; Long term exposure—sleep depravation, feeling sea sick, increased blood preasure (sic).”

But this week, Daws was more concerned about his chickens which, after years of faithful service, had started to lay yolkless eggs. The chooks are now off the lay completely.

Daws has kept examples of the yolkless eggs to demonstrate. He cracked open two for the cameras and, sure enough, out flowed white with no yolk.

Ironically, yolkless eggs are known as “wind eggs” and there are a number of plausible explanations. According to Broad Leys Publishing, which specialises in books for poultry keepers and organic gardeners, “wind eggs” are fairly common when a pullet is first coming into lay.

“Wind eggs can also occur in older hens if they are subject to sudden shock,” the Broad Leys website says. Daws’s chickens do not have youth on their side.

Andreas claims his chickens, too, had produced yolkless eggs in Waterloo but returned to normal laying habits when removed from the influence of the turbines.

Yolkless chickens aren’t the only animal concern in Waterloo. One long-term sheep farmer reports a three-fold spike in birth defects since the turbines started operating. This year, lambs have been born with no ears, three legs and hoofs turned backwards.

But the farmer, who does not want to be identified, says he’s not ready to blame the windmills.

“If it continues we will have to call out the experts,” he says.

“It could be genetics from inbreeding or chemical residues or something else.”

But add them all together—the eagle death, the bad eggs, the deformed lambs, the headaches, the forgetfulness, the family feuds—and it is difficult to envisage a more apprehensive or dysfunctional town.

Whatever is causing the symptoms, the suffering in Waterloo is acute and a stark example of the community challenges faced in the push into wind energy that still enjoys a great deal of support from the South Australian government.

It highlights questions about the rights of neighbours and the need to properly understand health concerns that are now being raised across the world.

TRUenergy, which purchased the Waterloo wind farm from Roaring 40s last year and has plans to expand, says it is doing its best to be a good community citizen. According to TRUenergy’s Waterloo community liaison officer, Michael Head, and the company’s Melbourne-based head of corporate relations, Sarah Stent, community relations are progressing well. The company says there are many local residents who are happy but not willing to speak publicly.

There is a community liaison group but only three of the group’s more than 25 members live near the wind turbines.

Head’s office is in the foothills below the range on which the wind turbines are perched. He does not live in Waterloo and is prepared to accept assurances from outside the town that local community divisions are long-standing.

Head says the company has worked hard to fix issues of poor television reception and denies there are widespread complaints from the local community.

The company rejects the findings of a recent survey that says more than half of local resident respondents reported having been very or moderately negatively affected by the wind turbines.

For Kruse, the Marciniaks and other local families, the explanation is obvious. All say that when they ring TRUenergy to complain using their land or mobile lines the calls go to message bank and are never returned. When they use an unfamiliar line to call, the telephone is picked up.

They say it exemplifies the pattern of screening in which they believe the company favours advice from people who tell it what it wants to hear, something the company denies.

This includes the use of postcode surveys in which “locals” may live more than 20km away and never see a wind turbine.

From Melbourne or Adelaide it is seen as good enough.

“It is not our view that the majority of the population is opposed to the wind farm nor dissatisfied with our approach to community engagement,” says Stent. “Community engagement for us is not a battle ‘to be won.’”

The company’s December community newsletter says “Talking with the community is very important to us as it helps us gain an understanding of your opinions and concerns.”

Stent says that the company will “continue to engage with the community both in Waterloo and the wider mid north so that residents can form their opinion on wind energy based on relevant, factual information”.

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Photo by Vanessa Hunter
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Question:  If turbines do this to chick embryos, what do they do to developing neurons?

You’re wondering about the “no yolk” photo?  It was taken by Australian journalist, Vanessa Hunter, at the Waterloo “wind farm.”

These eggs, folks, came from this man’s chickens.

Photo by Vanessa Hunter

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Robert Johns, The American Bird Conservancy (2/2/11)

News Release (Washington, DC):  American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the nation’s leading bird conservation organization, said today that the build-out of wind energy proposed by the federal government to meet a Department of Energy target of generating 20% of the nation’s electricity through wind power is expected to kill at least one million birds per year by 2030, and probably significantly more.

ABC considers the one million estimate, which is based on a 2005 paper¹ and widely cited by the wind industry, as likely a significant underestimate of bird mortality. For example, a more recent 2009 estimate by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) indicated that approximately 440,000 birds were already being killed per year². At the time, 22,000 turbines were in operation representing 25GW of installed capacity, a fraction of the 300GW of production capacity needed to meet the 20% by 2030 target. Wind farms are also expected to impact almost 20,000 square miles of terrestrial habitat, and over 4,000 square miles of marine habitat by 2030, some of this critical to threatened species.

“The real answer is that we simply don’t yet have enough data to reliably estimate cumulative impacts, but once acquired they will likely far exceed current estimates. The growing and disproportionate ‘take’ of species of conservation concern also appears to be an issue relative to the overall number of birds killed, and that is another cause for worry,” stated Dr. Albert Manville of the FWS’s Division of Migratory Bird Management.

“We are plunging head-long into wind power, but so far, very few studies have been conducted that show what scale of impact it will really have on birds,” said Mike Parr, ABC’s Vice President. “While American Bird Conservancy supports bird-smart wind power, we do not support the fast-tracking of wind projects without adequate environmental oversight or assessment that can help developers and the public be certain that significant numbers of birds will not be harmed.”

In the near future, the Department of the Interior is expected to issue industry guidelines on the siting and operation of wind power to reduce bird and other wildlife impacts. Whether these guidelines will be binding or not is a cause of major concern to conservationists. “We wouldn’t allow stop signs to be voluntary, so why would preventing the killing of birds, which violates the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, be voluntary?” said ABC’s Vice President of Conservation Advocacy, Darin Schroeder.

Another major concern about wind development is that certain sensitive species may be affected very significantly by wind build-out. These include the spectacular Golden Eagle, the declining Greater Sage-Grouse, and endangered species such as the Whooping Crane. These species can be impacted by transmission lines and the infrastructure associated with wind farms, or by the turbines themselves.

In addition, today, American Bird Conservancy requested a Congressional hearing to investigate the scale and impact of bird kills caused by wind energy. “The impacts to birds from wind power have gone unrecognized and unaddressed, and are wrongly dismissed by industry as insignificant. In the light of the rapid growth in the industry to meet federal renewable energy targets, ABC is requesting a Congressional hearing into the bird impacts of wind power,” added Schroeder. “ABC supports bird-smart wind power, but without strong federal standards protecting birds, we fear a major, on-going new threat will be created. We still have time to get it right if we act now,” he stated.

A major Department of the Interior meeting is scheduled for next week to address a series of issues regarding renewable energy, including the impact of wind farms on birds and other wildlife.
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1. Based on mortality estimates in Erickson, Wallace P., Johnson, Gregory D and Young Jr., David P. (2005). A Summary and Comparison of Bird Mortality from Anthropogenic Causes with an Emphasis on Collisions. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-191, pp 1029-1042.

2. The 440,000 estimate corrects for biases regarding: inconsistencies in duration and intensity of searches; size of the search plots; failure to estimate mortality during the peak periods of migration, or during some migration periods at all; impacts from wind wake and blade tip vortices; biases from unaccounted crippling losses; and the possibility of mass mortality events where nighttime migration coincides with inclement weather, that are not typically addressed or corrected for by existing studies.

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American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit membership organization whose mission is to conserve native birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. ABC acts by safeguarding the rarest species, conserving and restoring habitats, and reducing threats, while building capacity in the bird conservation movement. For more information, visit, www.abcbirds.org.

—Robert Bryce,* The National Review (2/2/12)^†

In his State of the Union address last week, President Barack Obama touted renewable energy and declared that he would “not walk away from workers” such as Bryan Ritterby, who is employed by a wind-turbine manufacturer in Michigan.

But in their rush to embrace the wind-energy business, Obama and numerous other politicians are walking away from rural residents such as David Enz and his wife, Rose. A year ago, the couple abandoned their home near Denmark, Wis., because of the unbearable low-frequency noise produced by a half-dozen 495-foot-high wind turbines that were built near the home they’ve owned since 1978. The closest was installed about 3,200 feet from their house.

Shortly after the Shirley Windproject’s turbines began operating, the couple began experiencing numerous symptoms, including “headaches, ear pain, nausea, blurred vision, anxiety, memory loss, and an overall unsettledness,” says Mr. Enz, 68. Today, the Enzes are living in their RV or staying with friends. “We didn’t expect any of this stuff,” says Enz, who spent more than 30 years working as a millwright at a paper mill in Green Bay.

Policymakers and health experts are casting a hard eye on wind energy at the same time that the wind industry is desperately trying to convince Congress to pass a multi-year extension of a tax credit that supports it. Without the subsidy, the domestic wind business, which is already being hammered by falling natural-gas prices, will be forced to downsize even further. In December, the American Wind Energy Association issued a report predicting that some 37,000 wind-related jobs in the U.S. could be lost by 2013 if the tax credit is not extended.

That possibility doesn’t faze Wisconsin Republican state senator Frank Lasee, whose district includes the Enzes’ 41-acre property. Last October, Lasee filed legislation that would require the state to investigate the health effects of the noise produced by industrial wind turbines. If passed, the bill– the first of its kind in the U.S. — will impose a moratorium on new wind projects until the study is completed. “I’ve heard and seen enough from people I represent to know that we need a factual study,” Lasee told me recently. In addition to the Enzes, Lasee says he knows another family among his constituents who have abandoned their home because of wind-turbine noise. “We shouldn’t be embracing an agenda that hurts people’s property values and their health,” he said. In mid-January, Lasee filed another bill that could allow cities and counties to establish minimum setback distances between wind projects and residences.

It’s tempting to dismiss the complaints about wind-turbine noise as little more than NIMBYism. And to be clear, not every wind project is causing problems. Further, the most problematic noise generated by the turbines — low-frequency sound (20 to 100 hertz) and infrasound (0 to 20 Hz) — has varying effects. Some individuals feel the effects of the noise quickly and compare it to motion sickness. Others may not feel it at all. That said, the harmful effects of infrasound are well known. A 2001 report published by the National Institutes of Health said that exposure to infrasound can cause vertigo as well as “fatigue, apathy, and depression, pressure in the ears, loss of concentration, drowsiness.”

Furthermore — and perhaps most telling — are the news reports. And there are lots of them. Newspaper stories from Missouri, Oregon, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Britain, Australia, Canada, Taiwan, and New Zealand indicate that the wind-turbine-noise problem is global and that the frustration among rural landowners is growing.

The wind-energy lobby desperately wants to downplay the problems associated with low-frequency noise and infrasound. That’s not surprising. The industry has no solution for the noise problem, except, of course, to increase the setbacks between wind turbines and residential areas. But doing so would dramatically reduce the industry’s ability to site turbines (and collect fat taxpayer subsidies).

In 2009, the American Wind Energy Association and the Canadian Wind Energy Association commissioned a group of doctors to review the available literature on wind turbines and noise. The two lobby groups published a paper that concluded, “There is no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects.” It also said that the vibrations from the turbines are “too weak to be detected by, or to affect, humans.” However, that same study also said that extended exposure to unwanted noise can cause a number of symptoms, including “dizziness, eye strain, fatigue, feeling vibration, headache, insomnia, muscle spasm, nausea, nose bleeds, palpitations, pressure in the ears or head, skin burns, stress, and tension.”

To bolster its claims that turbine noise is not harmful, the wind-energy lobby is touting a study released in mid-January by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection that largely dismissed complaints about wind-turbine noise. But the authors of the Massachusetts report did not interview any of the homeowners who’ve left their houses because of turbine noise. Instead, they did a cursory review of the published literature.

Shortly after the Massachusetts report came out, Jim Cummings of the Acoustic Ecology Institute, a non-profit organization that tracks noise issues, wrote that the authors of the Massachusetts report “dropped a crucial ball” because they did not “provide any sort of acknowledgement or analysis of the ways that annoyance, anxiety, sleep disruption, and stress could be intermediary pathways that help us to understand some of the reports coming from Massachusetts residents who say their health has been affected by nearby turbines.”

Over the past few months, a spate of reports have been released that provide credence to the complaints being made by the Enzes and people like Janet Warren, who raised sheep on her property near Makara, New Zealand, until a wind project was built near her home. Noise from the turbines caused “loss of concentration, irritability, and short-term memory effects” that forced her and her husband, Mike, to leave their property in early 2010.

Among the most important of the recent reports is a decision issued last July by Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal regarding a wind-energy facility known as the Kent Breeze Project. Although the Canadian officials allowed the facility to be built, they said that

this case has successfully shown that the debate should not be simplified to one about whether wind turbines can cause harm to humans. The evidence presented to the Tribunal demonstrates that they can, if facilities are placed too close to residents. The debate has now evolved to one of degree.

In other words, Canadian regulators have stated, on the record, that wind-turbine noise can harm human beings if turbines are built too close to homes. That finding was corroborated, again, in August, in a peer-reviewed article published in the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society. Carl V. Phillips, a Harvard-trained Ph.D. who now works as a researcher and consultant on epidemiology, concluded that there is “overwhelming evidence that wind turbines cause serious health problems in nearby residents, usually stress-disorder type diseases, at a nontrivial rate.” That same issue of the journal carried eight other articles that addressed the issue of health and wind-turbine noise.

In October, a peer-reviewed study of wind-turbine-related noise in New Zealand found that residents living within two kilometers of large wind projects reported

lower overall quality of life, physical quality of life, and environmental quality of life. Those exposed to turbine noise also reported significantly lower sleep quality, and rated their environment as less restful. Our data suggest that wind farm noise can negatively impact facets of health-related quality of life.

Alec Salt, a research scientist at the Cochlear Fluids Research Laboratory at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has written extensively about the health effects of wind-energy projects. He flatly concludes that wind turbines “can be hazardous to human health.”

Dr. Robert McMurtry, a Canadian orthopedic surgeon, is also pushing for more study; he is among the leaders of a large anti-wind contingent in Ontario. Try as they might, McMurtry’s opponents cannot dismiss him or his credentials. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada and was recently named a member of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Ontario has become ground zero in the fight against the wind-energy sector. In September, a Canadian family filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the owners of a wind project in southwestern Ontario. That same month, CBC News reported that Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment has logged “hundreds of health complaints” about the wind projects there. According to the Society for Wind Vigilance, a group of doctors, acousticians, academics, and health professionals that is focused on the adverse health effects of wind turbines, about 40 families in Ontario have moved out of their homes because of turbine noise. Last month, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the province’s biggest farm organization, said that the push for wind energy had “become untenable” and that “rural residents’ health and nuisance complaints must be immediately and fairly addressed.”

Finding people in Canada and elsewhere who are being victimized by turbine noise is easy. Over the past two years, I’ve personally interviewed, by phone or e-mail, homeowners in Wisconsin, Missouri, New York, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and England who’ve had wind turbines built near their homes. Their health complaints are nearly identical to those made by the Enzes. For instance, Darrel Capelle, a 34-year-old farm hand, lives in De Pere, Wis., with his wife and their two young boys. In October 2010, two large wind turbines were built within a quarter mile of their home. “Sleeplessness with the kids started right after the turbines went in,” says Capelle. His wife, Sarah, now suffers from frequent, intense headaches.

Although the federal government has yet to undertake any broad studies of infrasound and wind turbines, other countries are responding to the surging resistance against land-based wind projects. Among those countries: Denmark, which has become the Green Left’s favorite example of the merits of wind energy. Alas, the Danes themselves aren’t so enthusiastic.

In 2010, the Copenhagen Post reported that “state-owned energy firm Dong Energy has given up building more wind turbines on Danish land, following protests from residents complaining about the noise the turbines make.” The newspaper quoted Dong CEO Anders Eldrup as saying, “It is very difficult to get the public’s acceptance if the turbines are built close to residential buildings, and therefore we are now looking at maritime options.”

The controversy over wind-turbine noise has been raging in Australia for more than two years. Much of the fight has focused on the noise generated by the Waubra wind project in the state of Victoria. Residents near the project began complaining of health problems shortly after the 192-megawatt facility began operating in 2009, and several residents near the project abandoned their homes. Australia’s mainstream media have paid serious attention to the turbine-noise issue, including a 2010 TV report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that focused on the problems at Waubra.

In mid-2011, Victoria’s state government responded to the problems at Waubra by announcing that it would enforce a two-kilometer (1.25-mile) setback between wind turbines and homes. The state’s planning minister said the setback was needed for health reasons. In December, government officials in the state of New South Wales issued guidelines that give residents living within two kilometers of a proposed wind project the right to delay, or even stop, the project’s development. The rules also will impose strict noise limits.

The backlash against the wind-energy sector is particularly fierce in Europe, where the European Platform against Windfarms now lists 518 signatory organizations from 23 countries. In the U.K., where fights are raging against industrial wind projects in Wales, Scotland, and elsewhere, some 285 anti-wind groups have been formed. Last May, according to the BBC, some 1,500 protesters descended on the Welsh assembly, demanding that a massive wind project planned for central Wales be halted. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., about 140 anti-wind groups have been formed.

The growing resistance to large-scale wind projects raises a number of questions that must be addressed before Congress approves any further subsidies.

The most important one is also the most obvious: If the noise generated by wind turbines isn’t a health problem, why are so many people, in so many different countries, complaining about the noise in nearly identical terms? And why are some of them going so far as to abandon their homes?

Another question: Why isn’t wind-turbine noise getting more attention from the Environmental Protection Agency? The EPA has plenty of resources to investigate complaints about the oil-and-gas sector on the issue of hydraulic fracturing. Meanwhile, the wind industry is getting a free pass, even though tens of thousands of wind turbines could be built in the U.S. over the coming years thanks to the renewable-energy mandates that have been instituted in 29 states and the District of Columbia.

The Green Left is so married to the notion that wind energy might help reduce carbon-dioxide emissions that they are blithely ignoring the “energy sprawl” and noise problems that come with large-scale wind projects. Never mind if dozens, or even hundreds, of rural homeowners are being euchred out of their homes and property. They can be ignored. They can easily be sacrificed in the quest to appear to be doing something — anything — in the push to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, no matter how small or inconsequential those reductions might actually be.

That same mindset prevails in the White House and at the Department of Energy. Indeed, despite the panoply of evidence that shows wind-turbine noise causes health problems, President Obama has made it clear that he wants lots more renewable energy. In his State of the Union speech, he said that he wants to impose a national standard requiring the use of “clean energy,” and that he wants to “double down” on the “clean-energy industry.”

When Dave Enz heard the president’s proposal, his response was simple: “I don’t think he cares about people like us.”

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*Robert Bryce is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His latest book is Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future.

^†The image posted, above, was not used by The National Review—the Editor.

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Editor’s note:  The following is a practical guide on what to do if you become ill from wind turbines.

But first, a word of caution from a man named Simon Chapman.  Mr. Chapman is a PhD in what appears to be sociology.  He teaches at an Australian university.  He’s brilliant.  (Consider Chapman’s curriculum vitae, so formidable that it offers a Table of Contents to help you navigate the mind of a man who has said not only all he has to say about everything, but all he has to say about nothing.)  In his words:

This contagious “wind turbine syndrome”—a condition not recognised by any international disease classification system and which appears not once in any title or abstract in the massive US National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database—appears to be spread by the vector of anti-wind farm activist groups.

—Simon Chapman, PhD

Copy out Chapman’s Caution (let’s call it) and keep it someplace handy, so you can remind yourself that—you’re—probably—making—it—all—up.  To remind yourself:  WTS is a hoax, an exercise in hysteria being foisted on the human race by “anti-wind farm activist groups.”  (Who could possibly know better than a cheerful Australian sociologist, right?)  And you, dear reader, are nothing but a sucker for falling for it.

»»»»»»

There is increasing recognition around the world that some people begin to develop some new health problems, or experience worsening of pre-existing health problems, after a nearby wind turbine development starts operating. This can happen with just one wind turbine, and people are reporting these symptoms out to a distance of at least 10km in some places.

Some people are affected right away, whereas others develop the symptoms over time, many months later.

For many individuals, it is subtle, and they or their families only start to realize they are being affected if they go away from home and the symptoms go away, only to return when they come back home AND the turbines are operating. Many people do not initially link the operating wind turbines with their symptoms, especially if they are unable to get away from their home (near the operating wind turbines) for longer periods of time and notice for themselves they are feeling much better.

If you think this might be happening to you, one way of finding out is to start a detailed personal health journal or diary, noting the date, the time, and the particular symptoms or problems you experience, which is then shared with your treating medical practitioner.

Certain weather conditions and wind directions also are consistently reported to be associated with symptoms being experienced, or symptoms worsening.  This information is also worth recording.

If you would like further information, I recommend you view the information in the videos on our website.

There is also a large amount of information on the Wind Turbine Syndrome site and Society for Wind Vigilance site (a Canadian organization with aims similar to ours).
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Sarah Laurie, MD*
Chief Executive Officer
The Waubra Foundation

Personal Health Journals

If you are concerned that the turbines may be having an effect on you or your family’s health, one way of seeing whether or not your concerns are justified is to start keeping a detailed journal or diary. This information is often used by acousticians to try and help people affected by noise from other sources, and residents elsewhere have found it very helpful for themselves, and for their local health practitioners to identify a pattern to their symptoms, if there is one.

I suggest keeping the information either in an exercise book used only for this, or entering the information into a spreadsheet on the computer if you prefer. It is best to do this at the time you are experiencing the symptoms.

I suggest noting the following:

» Date

» Time

» Blood pressure (if relevant)

» Heart rate (if relevant)

» Detailed description of symptoms, and what you are doing at the time they occur, how long they last, and anything else relevant

» Weather conditions

» Wind direction

» Estimated wind speed (e.g. no wind, light breeze, strong, or gale)

» Turbines turning (if you can see them—some people can’t)

*Editor’s note:  Dr. Laurie’s Australian medical degree, BMBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery), is equivalent to the MD degree in the United States.  We have listed her as “MD,” since Americans typically have no idea what BMBS stands for.

Suggested Guidelines (March 2012)

—Sarah Laurie, MD*
Medical Director
The Waubra Foundation

This information has been compiled after consultation with a number of researchers, clinicians and acousticians internationally who are working in the area of adverse health effects of industrial noise in the lowest frequencies—below 200Hz. Any errors or omissions are solely mine.

Information has been gathered from relevant literature, together with field observations from affected residents, workers and visitors exposed to sound energy in frequencies from 0-200Hz (including predominantly wind turbine sound and vibration energy), and from medical records and treating doctors, where these have been available.

The following are suggestions, only, in an area with limited knowledge and precious little hard data, and will need to be adapted according to individual clinical circumstances and presenting pathology. The guidelines will be updated as more information is gathered.

It is strongly suggested that the original studies and reports be consulted, especially the work of the clinicians and researchers who have led the way.

Grateful thanks go to many people, above all to fellow health professionals who have refused to be silenced:

» Amanda Harry, M.D., UK General Practitioner, with her original work in 2003.
» David Iser, M.D., Australian General Practitioner, for “blowing the whistle” in 2004.
» Nina Pierpont, M.D., Ph.D., USA Pediatrician and Behavioral Medicine, for her 2009 study of 10 affected families to ascertain the risk factors for “wind turbine syndrome,” along with proposing a pathophysiological mechanism.
» Robert McMurtry, M.D., Carmen Krogh, Chris Hanning, M.D., Michael Nissenbaum, M.D., Carl Phillips, Ph.D., and the other members of the Society for Wind Vigilance.

Grateful thanks to Noel Kerin, M.D., Occupational Physician from Ontario, Canada, who was the first to draw my attention to the relevance of cortisol in this rapidly escalating global public health problem, and to G.M. for so generously sharing his cortisol pathology results with us.

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Background Information for Health Practitioners

Acute Exposure to ILFN

Acousticians have been aware for many years that acute exposure to infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN), such as wind turbines are now known to emit in significant amounts, produces a host of clinical symptoms and health problems.^1,2  For example, Professor Geoff Leventhall, a British acoustics advisor to the wind industry, has admitted publicly that he has long been aware of the symptoms Dr Nina Pierpont identifies as “wind turbine syndrome.”³ In other words, the existence of a distinct pattern of symptoms—now generally known as “wind turbine syndrome”—occurring in some people and correlating with acute exposure to low frequency noise sources (including wind turbines) is apparently not disputed by at least one high profile acoustics consultant to the wind industry.

What is now disputed by the wind industry is whether there is a “direct” causal link between wind turbines and reported health problems. The current fashion among wind developers, their legal advisers and paid medical experts is to blame reported symptoms on “stress” caused by “scaremongering” medical practitioners who have investigated and reported the occurrence of turbine-associated health problems.^4,5,6  Those who become ill are themselves blamed, in pejorative language, for their illness—generally based on opinion instead of research, and rather than consulting the treating medical practitioners.⁷

The symptoms are invariably referred to as an “annoyance” by acousticians—a term that perniciously masks and distorts the range of pathology and gravity of illness directly related to exposure to sound energy in the lowest frequencies.⁸

Meanwhile, government health agents universally deny there is a problem, claiming there is “insufficient peer-reviewed published credible evidence”—even as they turn a blind eye to voluminous clinical reports of adverse events.⁹

Since there are no readily available diagnostic tests to confirm exposure and sensitivity to infrasound and low frequency noise, what is required is a careful clinical history (detailed contemporaneous patient personal health journals can help with this) and, where possible, correlation of symptoms with actual acoustics measurements.

These acoustic measurements need to cover the full sound spectrum, which can measure the “dose” of sound energy the affected individual is being exposed to inside his (her) home or workplace (wherever the symptoms are being experienced). This is expensive, and has not previously been done anywhere in the world, with the recent exception of several acousticians in the USA and in Australia, funded by philanthropists and concerned rural residents.^10,11

Most recently, episodes of acute pathology related to adrenaline surges have been reported in both Ontario and in Australia, and have included Tako Tsubo heart attacks and acute hypertensive crises.¹² The usual known causes have not been identified in these cases (e.g. phaeochromocytoma, sudden severe shock), but have occurred when exposed to operating wind turbines. The Tako Tsubo events have also been reported in residents exposed to other sources of industrial noise (e.g. coal mining) where ILFN has also been measured and residents have likewise reported the characteristic range of symptoms indicating sensitization to ILFN exposure.

Prolonged Exposure to ILFN

Prolonged exposure to wind turbine noise, including the infrasound and low frequency noise components, appears to be related to a range of additional and different pathology when compared to acute exposure, much of which could be explained by:

• chronically elevated stress hormones, particularly cortisol and its myriad of adverse sequelae for physical and mental health,¹³
• focal damage in a variety of organs (attributed to oxidative stress in one animal study which trialed the use of antioxidants with infrasound exposure and found they were of benefit).¹⁴

Both of these scenarios have been reported in very limited animal studies involving exposure to infrasound, generally on mammals (rodents), and most are reported in the 2001 NIEHS Toxicology of infrasound literature review.¹⁵

Both have also been reported in individual residents, and to a very limited extent have been confirmed by pathology and radiology investigations. They have also been observed in some domestic pets and livestock (dogs, goats and cattle) exposed to wind turbine ILFN. Such reports have been dismissed as “anecdotes,” which indeed they are.

But “anecdotes,” which are thorough objective clinical evaluations of individual circumstances, are extremely important, not just for the individual patients, but also to contribute to a body of knowledge about the consequences of chronic exposure to wind turbine noise, currently virtually non-existent in the published animal and human health research literature.

This lack of data does NOT mean there is no problem.¹⁶ It means the research has not yet been done. Clinical data collected from affected residents will assist with expanding the clinical knowledge base, especially if there is a baseline documentation of pre-exposure health status.

Consequences of Chronically Elevated Cortisol

There is mounting peer reviewed published evidence that chronic stress, shown biochemically by chronically elevated cortisol in particular, has a range of serious health consequences. This is not a new concept.

One of the leading researchers in this area is Bruce McEwen. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998, he stated: “When the brain perceives an experience as stressful, physiological and behavioural responses are initiated, leading to allostasis and adaptation. Over time, allostatic load can accumulate, and the overexposure to mediators of neural, endocrine, and immune stress can have adverse effects on various organ systems, leading to disease.”¹⁷

Just a few of many relevant examples of the many serious consequences of this chronically elevated cortisol include:

• increased infections (e.g. noticeably increased dental infections, sinusitis and respiratory infections are being reported by residents),
• connections between chronically elevated cortisol and decreased Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF); and decreased size of the hippocampus, which in humans has been associated with depression.¹⁸ (Depression post exposure to ILFN is also commonly reported).

The Additional Sequelae from Sleep Deprivation

In addition, the commonest problem which residents living 24/7 near wind turbines report is chronic severe sleep deprivation. This is not only caused by the audible noise of the turbines, but also appears to be caused by the inaudible noise (ILFN) sound and vibration energy, on the basis of consistent reports from residents internationally, although this is yet to be specifically demonstrated with concurrent sleep and acoustic data collection.

People out to distances of 10km from 3MW turbines placed on a range of hills in Australia (Waterloo wind development) report they are awakened, regularly, in the early hours of the morning in an anxious, frightened, panicked state, coinciding with turbine operation. Sometimes this will happen repetitively, night after night. This description is characteristic, around the world, and from many reports is NOT related to audible noise emissions from the wind turbines, especially as distances increase away from the nearest wind turbine.

Just one turbine can do this (Falmouth USA is a well known example).¹⁹ The recent acoustic report from Falmouth USA by Rand and Ambrose has clearly linked the noise emissions in the lowest frequencies with this characteristic sleep disturbance. For many people, sound energy below 20Hz is inaudible.

The occurrence of severe sleep disturbance alone, regardless of the cause, is well-known to have a wide range of deleterious health effects which are additional to those already mentioned above. These include, but are not limited to:

• increased risk of cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, atherosclerosis)²⁰
• diabetes
• increased risk of accidents (especially important with farming communities using farming equipment and heavy vehicles)

Exacerbation of Pre-Existing Conditions

There is a range of pre-­existing conditions, which are being reported by affected residents and some of their treating doctors, to be exacerbated with chronic exposure to operating wind turbines. They follow the characteristic pattern of worsening with exposure, and returning back to “baseline” when away from home or when the wind turbines are turned off.

This pattern is crucial to differentiating between those conditions which are related to exposure to operating wind turbines and those which are not. Sometimes this is clear, but often the changes are more subtle initially, and it may be necessary for residents to repeat the exposure/non-exposure pattern a number of times in order to be sure.

Some of the conditions which have been reported in Australia to fit this pattern include exacerbations of pre-existing but stable:

• angina and hypertension
• diabetes
• post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety
• inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, lupus, and asthma

Some of these exacerbations have been sufficiently serious for their treating specialists (especially cardiologists) to strongly advise that these residents never go back home, unless the turbines are off. Some are now living in a shed or caravan elsewhere, having left comfortable homes. Home abandonment has been reported to be occurring in Europe, the UK, Canada and the USA.

Vibro-Acoustic Disease

There is an important body of work by Professor Mariana Alves-Pereira, Dr Nuno Castelo-Branco (Portugal) and co-researchers, over many years, investigating various pathologies occurring in a population of aviation workers, resulting from chronic exposure to infrasound and low frequency noise, particularly from aviation sources.²¹ Their work commenced with the observation by Castelo-Branco of a 20-fold increase in the incidence of late onset epilepsy in these workers compared to the general population.

Their work has identified characteristic tissue changes which occur with chronic exposure to ILFN. One of these is collagen thickening, and has more recently been identified by them in some cases of human and animal (horse) exposure to ILFN from wind turbines.²² Other relevant pathologies noted by that group include brain pathology and lung ciliary function disturbances.

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What “Dose” of ILFN Are People Being Exposed to?

What Is Safe with Chronic Exposure to ILFN at Lower Sound Pressure Levels over Long Periods of Time?

We don’t yet know what is “safe,” particularly with chronic exposure.²³ Symptoms and health problems are widely reported to worsen over time with ongoing exposure to ILFN, and to improve when exposures are reduced or eliminated (e.g. when people permanently leave their homes).

Nor do we know the actual individual exposures, especially inside homes.

Firstly, there is very little publicly available data measuring sound energy in these frequencies around wind developments, as it is generally restricted to measurement of outdoor audible sound above 200Hz (in dBA), which excludes infrasound (0-­20Hz) and low frequency noise (20-­200Hz), and excludes indoor measurements.

Secondly, the recent groundbreaking work by two American noise engineers, Rob Rand and Steve Ambrose, at Falmouth (MA), has shown that the sound energy people are exposed to inside their homes appears to be significantly different from the sound energy outside their homes occurring at the same time.²⁴ So, outdoor measurements in dBA (currently used globally by the wind industry and regulatory authorities) is not measuring what we think is the problem for many people, which is particularly the INDOOR frequencies between 0-200 Hz. This involves not just the actual sound energy, but the proportion of this ILFN as the total sound energy exposure at the time.

Infrasound and low frequency sound energy are extremely penetrating through the walls and the roof of a home (even if well insulated), whereas audible sound waves cannot penetrate as well. Hence the proportions of sound energy present inside the home can change markedly compared to that being measured outside the home at the same time. This is just what was demonstrated at Falmouth.

These two acousticians themselves became sick in the home in Falmouth where they were taking measurements, within 20 minutes of being there. [Editor’s note:  It is significant that neither Ambrose or Rand were sleeping, or attempting to sleep, during the period they became ill.] Their symptoms coincided with periods when the turbines were turning, and correlated with measurement of infrasound inside the home. Their report is well worth reading, as are the resident’s accounts of their experiences.

There are signs that at some locations, seismic transmission of energy waves may also play a part. A simple way of checking for this is to ask the resident if there is a sensation of vibration coming up through the pillow, or water in a glass visibly moving when on the bedside table. Both these may be indicators of possible seismic transmission. This is important, as the presence of this additional very low frequency energy may be implicated in more rapid onset of serious adverse health effects.²⁵

We do not know what “dose” of sound and vibration energy is producing these symptoms in people, and we do not know what a “safe” cumulative exposure is, either. But observations of how some people’s health can rapidly deteriorate over time make this thorough acoustic assessment urgent and necessary to advocate for, on behalf of the affected residents.

The Acoustic Assessment needs to be:

• full sound spectrum and include vibration if indicated, with monitors and microphones capable of measuring very quiet background noise, and down to very low frequencies,
• inside and outside the home or workplace, concurrently,
• completely independent of the wind developer, and conducted “blind,”
• over a sufficient time period and occur under wind and weather conditions when symptoms are being experienced.

.

Recommended Further Reading

Harry, Dr Amanda “Wind turbines, Noise and Health” (2007)

Pierpont, Dr Nina “Wind Turbine Syndrome:  A Report on a Natural Experiment” (K-Selected Books, 2009)

McMurtry, Dr Robert “Toward a Case Definition of Adverse Health Effects in the Environs of Industrial Wind Turbines: Facilitating a Clinical Diagnosis” Bulletin of Science Technology and Society 2011 31:316

Ambrose, Stephen & Rand, Robert “Bruce McPherson Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise Study” (2011)

.

Suggestions for Pre-Construction Health Assessments

Clinical History

Useful specific features to record include:

• history of motion sickness, migraines, existing inner ear conditions
• comprehensive documentation of past noise exposure
• documentation of past medical and psychiatric conditions,

Examination:

• blood pressure
• cognitive assessment (in order to detect subtle changes in cognition and memory which have been observed to occur post exposure). Dr Nina Pierpont has suggested the following:

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Battery: can identify mild cognitive impairment

The Trailmaking test: a timed, simple test of spatial and divided attention

• mental health assessment questionnaires (for later comparison with repeat testing), to document current mental state with particular reference to symptoms of anxiety, depression, & PTSD

Baseline Pre exposure Investigations to be considered:

• baseline ECG (heart attacks and Tako Tsubo episodes are being reported to occur in association with operating wind turbines)
• baseline routine bloods including kidney and liver function, complete blood picture, thyroid function, fasting blood sugar and Hba1c
• baseline night time salivary cortisol (for comparison with later on when exposed to operating wind turbines)

What residents can do:

• keep thorough personal health journals contemporaneously
• monitor their own blood pressures, if indicated
• actively try and manage their stress, and try and organize time away from exposure to operating turbines if they need to, and can
• consider a trial of antioxidants (given their reported benefit to rodents in one experiment with prolonged exposure to infrasound)

Post construction history, examination & investigations (as indicated by the clinical context and presenting problems):

• detailed history of new symptoms with correlation of exposure to operating wind turbines (personal health journals can help here)
• comparative nighttime salivary cortisol, and more extended serum cortisol testing (has been found to be markedly elevated, but returns to normal when repeated again after cessation of exposure to ILFN, when residents report feeling “better”)
• comparative repeat cognitive and mental health assessments, as indicated
• other investigations which may be indicated in specific situations where specific pathology is being identified include:

» 24 hour blood pressure monitoring
» sleep studies (comparing “in home” and “away from home,” if possible)
» specific blood pathology indicated by the clinical picture (kidney, liver, CBP, clotting, thyroid function, blood glucose & Hba1c)
» specific radiological investigation where focal pathology is suspected, including brain MRI where indicated (e.g. cognitive defecits being reported, suspicion of late onset epilepsy)

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Footnotes

1. Leventhall, Benton & Pelmear May 2003, “A report for DEFRA:  A review of published research on low frequency noise and its effects.”

2. NIEHS (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) November 2001, “Infrasound: Brief Review of Toxicological Literature.”

3. Professor Leventhall’s presentation to the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia’s forum on 7th June, 2011 in Canberra.

4. Professor Gary Wittert, in evidence given during Paltridge v Acciona & DC Grant, January 2011, ERD Court, Adelaide, South Australia.

5. Oral testimony given by various wind developers including Mr Jonathon Upson, of Infigen, to the Australian Federal Senate Community Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Social and Economic Effects of Rural Wind Farms, particularly on March, 29th 2011 in Melbourne, transcript available from 202.14.81.34/hansard/senate/commttee/S13806.pdf

6. Oral testimony given by Mr Simon Holmes a Court, Chairman of Hepburn Wind, in the above inquiry, in the Hansard transcript cited above.

7. Chapman, Professor Simon (a sociologist) in a commissioned piece in PERSPECTIVES “Wind Farms and Health: who is fomenting community anxieties” Medical Journal of Australia, 195 (9) 7 November, 2011 p 495. See Dr Daniel Shepherd’s reasoned response to the “ad hominem” attacks in his letter in a subsequent edition of the MJA 196(2) 6 Feb 2012.

8. Pederson and Waye, “Perception and annoyance due to wind turbine noise:  A dose-­response relationship” in J Acous. Soc. Am. 116 (6) 2004 pp 3460-70.

9. The most recent example is from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, “Wind Turbine Impact Study” January 2012.

10. Stephen Ambrose and Robert Rand “The Bruce McPherson Infrasound and Low Frequency Noise Study” Falmouth, December, 2011.

11. Cooper, Steven, The Acoustic Group “Peer Review of the Acoustic Assessment, Flyers Creek Wind Farm” December, 2011.

12. Laurie, Dr Sarah Medical Director, Waubra Foundation, reported in Submission to the Australian Federal Senate Inquiry into Rural wind Farms, February 2011, accessible via senate submissions or here.

13. McEwen, Bruce “Protective and Damaging Effects of Stress Mediators” NEJM 1998, 338 171-­179.

14. Dadali, VA et al. “Effects of infrasound and protective effect of adaptogens” in experimental animals, Gig. Sanit. (1):40-­43 (Russian) MEDLINE record 92406047 cited as reference no 58 in NIEHS November 2001, op. cit.

15. NIEHS November 2001, op. cit., especially pp 16-­30 e.g. Nishimura K,1988 “The effects of infrasound on pituitary adrenocortical response and gastric microcirculation in rats” J Low Frequency Noise & Vibration 7(1):20­‐33.

16. See Professor Warwick Anderson’s comments as CEO of the National Health and Medical Research Council in his oral testimony to the Federal Senate Inquiry into Rural Wind Farms p 86.  202.14.81.34/hansard/senate/commttee/S13730.pdf

17. McEwen, Bruce op. cit.

18. Warner-­Schmidt JL, Duman RS (2006). “Hippocampal neurogenesis: Opposing effects of stress and antidepressant treatment” Hippocampus 16 (3): 239–49.

19. Stephen Ambrose and Robert Rand op. cit.

20. Capuccio F et al., “Sleep duration predicts cardiovascular outcomes: A systemic review and meta-­analysis of prospective studies” European Heart Journal (2011) 32, 1484-­1492.

21. Mariana Alves-Pereira and Nuno Castelo-Branco, Review “Vibroacoustic disease: Biological effects of infrasound and low-­frequency noise explained by mechano-transduction cellular signaling, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 93 (2007) 256-­27.

22. Professor Mariana Alves-Pereira’s presentation to the NHMRC forum on Windfarms and Health on 7th June, 2011 in Canberra.

23. NIEHS op. cit. comments on page 3, last paragraph.

24. Stephen Ambrose and Rob Rand op. cit.

25. Dr Bob Thorne, personal communication, confirmed with my own observations from field work, especially at Waterloo in South Australia and Cape Bridgewater in Victoria.

.

If you require any further information about any of the information and sources cited in this document, please do not hesitate to contact me at sarah@waubrafoundation.com.au.

*Editor’s note:  Dr. Laurie’s BMBS degree (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery), earned at the Flinders University School of Medicine (Australia) is equivalent to the MD in the USA.  We show her degree as “MD” since American readers don’t have a clue what BMBS stands for.

Wind Wise Radio is a live internet-based talk show and includes interviews with experts and q&a from callers. Episodes will stream live each Sunday Night at 7-8pm (U.S. Eastern Time) and podcasts of archived shows will be available in the itunes store, at our site, and elsewhere.

WWR is an all volunteer effort to help our communities and groups grow closer to each other, both regionally and nationally, by providing a weekly forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the role of wind energy in our attempts to solve the problems associated with human created climate change. Each week we will strive to present timely, relevant, newsworthy interviews with the leading experts. Susan and I hope you will tune in and listen to the show and to call in to interact with our guests. Please join the conversation.

Additionally, we are writing today to ask you for your support in getting the word about Wind Wise Radio out to all of your friends and communities. Besides emailing or telling your groups about WWR, many of you run websites, blogs and facebook pages and we hope you will consider putting a link, or a graphic, or even one of our widgets on your sites.

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Highest Regards,

Harley Keisch and Susan Lockwood
The hosts of Wind Wise Radio

harleyandsusan@windwiseradio.org

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Review of Laura Israel’s movie, “Windfall”

—J. Michael Welton, Huffington Post (2/1/12)

Filmmaker Laura Israel isn’t tilting at windmills—but she does want to cast a critical eye in their direction.

And she’s done that with Windfall—her first documentary film, art-directed within an inch of its life—and one that delivers a profound message:

Look before you leap into wind power.

“People who are living with these turbines nearby are developing hypertension, migraines and heart palpitations,” she says. “There are some really spooky health effects, even with a turbine a mile away—I’ve heard people say they can feel their heart beating at the same pace as the turbines.”

The effects of the turbines’ low frequency sound are chilling—nearby residents sleeping in basements, unable to stop the 24/7 noise and visual pollution. But the budding industry—growing now at a startling 39 percent annually—is choosing not to deal with them. “Instead of dealing with it, they’re trying to discredit the people complaining,” she says.

When the sun gets behind the blades of the turbines, an incessant and mechanical shadowy flicker is the result. Closing shades and curtains makes no difference. “It just doesn’t stop,” she says. “People say you don’t get used to it—you get sick.”

Windfall documents the effects of a proposal of a wind developer on residents of the town of Meredith, N.Y. Attracted at first by the green aspects and financial incentives that might boost their dying economy, many residents grew alarmed when they discovered the 400-foot-tall windmills would bring side effects they never imagined.

“People say it sounds like a jet that never lands,” she says.

Sales people working for a contracting company usually approach a town and its elected officials, selling them on the idea and contracting for the use of their property. Contactors then move in to build infrastructure—widening roads to transport the turbines, and installing transmission lines. Energy produced is usually owned by the large power companies—sometimes Duke Energy, General Electric or Deepwater.

“The landowner profits a little bit, and the town a little bit—if they make a good deal,” Israel says. “The companies profit most, because most of the benefits come from federal subsidies to build and to sell wind energy for more money.”

The intent of Windfall, which opens in Manhattan at the Quad Cinema on Friday, Feb. 3 is to open up the topic to communities nationwide.

“I want to create discussion and encourage people to look at this industrial development for what it is—industrial development,” she says. “I want them to discuss it in a more balanced way.”

Don Quixote, she’s not. And she’s certainly produced an eye-opener of a film.

For more on Windfall, click here.

For other reviews of the movie, click here and here and here and here.
.

Laura Israel

He “kept saying his wind turbines were ‘green’ and their studies showed they were absolutely safe for our health.”

Editor’s note:  The good people of Stanstead, Quebec, are being stalked by Big Wind.  This note arrived yesterday from a distraught woman named Lynda Hartley.  I replied, offering to post her plea on our site, in the hope that readers would reply in their Comments, below, with suggestions and offers of assistance.

Please respond to her.  This is another “bus wreck” in the making.

Lynda followed her first note with the following:

We just found out about this project last week; we had no idea we had to be concerned about wind turbines being put up in front of our home.  Also, it was just last night at 6:30 at the town meeting that we heard of this Chad Farrell, Encore Redevelopment, and gave him a piece of our mind, telling him “no way” would we ever agree to these horrible things.

We had heard awful things on CTV, CBC News and elsewhere about the wind turbines, and felt sorry for the people affected. With all the problems in the world, I hadn’t researched the health problems and other negative effects till yesterday, when I realized we had to be informed and take prompt action.

Everyone I’ve talked to on our road and surrounding area is opposed and wants to know what they can do.

Dear Dr. Martin,

I was hoping you’d be able to help us.

We live on Lagueux Road, in Stanstead, Quebec, Canada, and we were recently informed by a lawyer’s letter around March 26th, that a company called Encore Redevelopment and Encore Derby Line Wind, LLC, plans to erect at least 2 giant wind turbines of 427′ tall on the Stanstead (Quebec) and Derby (Vermont) line border, which is 500′ from our house and even closer to our neighbors’ homes.

The company has leased the land from two farmers.

We are all absolutely opposed to the project, but were informed last night at a Stanstead town meeting that the date to oppose was the 26th of March—before we received the letter!

Two wonderful ladies from Derby, VT—Glenda Nye and Karen Jenne—were responsible for getting the company to inform their Canadian neighbours of the situation, although the company made certain it would be too late.  These ladies are also against the wind turbines.

At the town meeting we had in Stanstead last night, the representative for the company, Chad Farrell, kept saying the information we kept referring to from the Internet (such as your “Guide to Wind Turbine Syndrome”) was false and that his wind turbines were “green” and their studies showed they were absolutely safe for our health.

Chad Farrell reluctantly disclosed that they plan to get the wind turbines up this August!

Can you help us stop this project from going forward?

Sincerely yours,

Lynda & Terry Hartley

A WTS victim agonizes over the immense & irreplaceable losses in her life

—Gail Mair

Last night I dreamed I killed a man.  A massively fat man, four times my size, who was cannibalizing my car.  He saw me watching him, grabbed me and carried me to a nearby workshop where I noticed the knife among other tools on the work bench.

He didn’t bleed much but he fell and I was free.

There was another smaller, less dramatic death in my dream—a young girl I knew vaguely.

I’m writing this now because of that dream.

We abandoned our home in Tuscany over four years ago.  We had moved there from Germany in October 2006, six weeks before the turbines started operating and the horror trip began.

At first I ignored the new, unpleasant sensations; I thought I was just sickening from something and it would blow over.  This did not happen and the symptoms dragged on and on, worsening each day.  Insomnia, tinnitus, palpitations, panic attacks, nausea and depression.

I had never suffered from these symptoms before, except that I was often carsick as a child.  I wasn’t even nauseous in pregnancy.

I was afraid to come home or be at home; the drone inside the house set my body’s cells in motion—a frightening, weirdly alienating sensation.

I have always had a strong sense of the bond between my physical and spiritual self.  While I was living in that house both went awry.

I began to wonder if the turbines had anything to do with it and started to make notes.  (See my Italian Windfarm Diary on National Wind Watch.)  All through 2007, my husband’s memory and his ability to concentrate were severely affected and our marriage was put to one of the most critical tests it had ever undergone.  We decided that the only way to save ourselves was to give up everything we had worked for and abandon the house.  This was no spur-of-the-moment decision, but one squeezed from us by the circumstances.

Long before we left, I had been to see the mayor of our village, who ridiculed my situation, declaring, “It is your sacrifice for Italy.”  I also went to a psychiatrist, who offered me tranquillizers.

I told everyone what I was suffering, they saw me distraught, but few understood—the turbines were not in their backyards. My words met with scepticism, disbelief and, before we moved out in 2008, with downright suspicion.

“This woman is mad,” they said.  How right they were:  I was, till I moved away, taking with me only a small carload of books and some clothes.  My husband followed a few weeks later.

It took me a few weeks to recover in the refuge offered by some of my husband’s relatives, although since then I have not been troubled by any of the distressing symptoms I had in Tuscany—as long as I stay away from the turbines.

The ridicule and suspicion we were subjected to was the hardest thing to bear, so we started researching in an effort to understand what was happening.  Getting back on our feet financially has cost us another three years of our lives, but gradually we’re making it—not easy at the respective ages of nearly 57 and 64.

Although the house in Tuscany has been valued at zero euros, we will have to invest yet more money in it so that if, at any time, we do have the possibility to sell, we can.  The laws have changed in the last few years so we are now obliged to put in a completely new heating system to conform to the norms which are in force.  We are working on this at present and we’ve also just heard from an architect that our windows, approved less than ten years ago, are too small—another massive set-back if verified.  I’m at the end of my tether.  We are also still collecting data—for our lawyer.

We’d often thought about taking the IWT company to court, but it has changed hands several times since the installation went into operation, so who should we sue for our rights?  It was impossible for us to find out, and many people in the surrounding area were not interested in us finding out.  We had spent all our savings on the house and the cost of a lawyer was prohibitive, besides which we were hesitant about contacting any of the lawyers in the vicinity.

It was our friend, whose home is just 100m (roughly 300 feet) from the nearest turbine, who went to see the local Count to ask if he could help.  The Count had opposed the IWT since before they were built, saying they were illegal.  He had even won one court case against them, but this ruling was later overthrown by the company in collaboration with the local town council.  The view in front of his “listed” castle has been devastated by the turbines, and he is still fighting for justice.

Realizing that we had a different, possibly crucial, angle on the situation, the Count agreed to take us on board and pay for a class action, for which we are extremely grateful.  His lawyer is not based in Tuscany.  Since then we have taken a back seat; I do not understand the workings of justice in Italy.  I know only that our lawyer has to prove that we have a legal case for compensation and I am confident that he will do so.  Last year the case was adjourned pending new evidence, and it has been adjourned again, while the judges deliberate if more evidence will be admitted to the proceedings.  The IWT company has opposed this but our lawyer has insisted.  We are waiting for the outcome.

It is in this limbo that I had my dream.  The “smaller” death is my right to freedom of speech.  The violent death depicts the fall of the giant IWT company.  I know that if an out-of-court settlement is reached that I will be gagged, and my conscience is plaguing me as to whether I can live with this “small” death.  When I think of my children, who will also be robbed of what we were hoping to leave them, I believe I can.

My thanks go to all the people, too many to name individually, who have helped us understand what we have been through and that we have a right to compensation for the injustice done—an injustice which is still being perpetrated all over the world with impunity.

This is also for those who have been forced to sign the infamous “confidentiality clause” as the price for their rightful compensation.  My profound admiration goes to the few who have had the courage to challenge that clause.

Physician tears into Vestas for dismissing Wind Turbine Syndrome

Editor’s note:  The following is taken from Dr. Mauri Johansson’s recent speech before a Vestas Board meeting.  Click here to read the remainder.  (Click here for a related article on Vestas “smearing” people who speak against wind turbines.  Such a charming company!)

Hooray for courageous Dr. Johansson!  He marched into the Vestas annual meeting and blasted them!  Why are not more physicians doing this!?

I searched for ‘noise’ and ‘health’ [on the Vestas website]. . . . I did not find anything about this topic on the Danish website.  However, the English website showed a couple of video clips where a neatly dressed gentleman in a convincing voice alleged that noise has NO negative health consequences.   He managed (in a biased manner) to smear one critical report but did not mention a single independent scientific report documenting that there are NO problems. This is because such reports do not exist, neither in Denmark nor in any other country, although there are many that document a growing number of serious problems.”

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At the moment, we don’t know the answer.  But we aim to find out.

Dead bats are once more turning up on properties close to the Falmouth (MA) wind turbines.  Last summer, many were found on one particular property, very near to Wind 1.

This time around, we’re getting an autopsy done, to see if there is evidence of exploded lungs.

Stay tuned.

A bat is born
Naked and blind and pale.
His mother makes a pocket of her tail
And catches him. He clings to her long fur
By his thumbs and toes and teeth.
And then the mother dances through the night
Doubling and looping, soaring, somersaulting—
Her baby hangs on underneath.
All night, in happiness, she hunts and flies.
Her high sharp cries
Like shining needlepoints of sound
Go out into the night and, echoing back,
Tell her what they have touched.
She hears how far it is, how big it is,
Which way it’s going:
She lives by hearing.
The mother eats the moths and gnats she catches
In full flight; in full flight
The mother drinks the water of the pond
She skims across. Her baby hangs on tight.
Her baby drinks the milk she makes him
In moonlight or starlight, in mid-air.
Their single shadow, printed on the moon
Or fluttering across the stars,
Whirls on all night; at daybreak
The tired mother flaps home to her rafter.
The others all are there.
They hang themselves up by their toes,
They wrap themselves in their brown wings.
Bunched upside-down, they sleep in air.
Their sharp ears, their sharp teeth, their quick sharp faces
Are dull and slow and mild.
All the bright day, as the mother sleeps,
She folds her wings about her sleeping child.

—Randall Jarrell, “Bats”

Click anywhere, above, to watch the video.

For more news on the demonstration, click here and here and here.

—Mtumba Djibouti

People (that is, citizens other than wind industry shills or community “representatives”—council members, selectmen, etc.) need to understand:  your government does not give a damn about you.  It is beholden to greed and stupidity.

Polite engagement will not work.  They do not care.  Your concerns will continue to be ignored.

Gay activists in the USA in the 80s and 90s realized this and started a nearly universally derided and disparaged and mocked movement called Act Up!  Although government and media critics all said they were counter productive, the fact of the matter is HIV research only began in earnest after Act Up! crowds began civil disobedience—occupying government buildings, blocking the streets, etc.  In the US, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) only began to take AIDS research seriously AFTER their offices were repeatedly occupied by shouting Act Up! crowds.

The result is plain.  The government caved, research was done, and HIV is now a largely manageable disease.  Even though this disease affects more heterosexuals than gays, the government didn’t give a damn.  But AIDs activism forced a change.  Not begging or pleading or asking quietly or politely—but agitating.

Governments don’t like unpleasantness.  They don’t want attention.  They like to operate under the radar.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Mary Morris (Mid North Wind Farm Awareness), in BarossaHerald.com (4/3/12)

A petition has been presented to the Goyder Council listing 277 genuine local names and signatures from the immediate area of Waterloo wind farm and the adjacent proposed Robertstown and Stony Gap wind farms.

These residents are clearly saying that they do not want any more wind farms to be built in the area between Burra and Eudunda because of the real impacts of the turbines on themselves, their friends, family and neighbours.

These people have not been surveyed by TRUenergy or the Clean Energy Council or the CSIRO since the Waterloo wind farm began operating.

Many of these people were in favour of the wind farm until they had to live with it. The collection of signatures is ongoing and at least 40 more will soon be presented to the council.

In July 2011, after the Waterloo wind farm had been operating for about eight months, an Adelaide University survey sent to 75 households within 5km of the Waterloo wind farm had 48 respondents, an extremely high response rate.

Seventy per cent were moderately to severely affected by the wind turbine noise.

Four households who lived between 3-4.5km from the turbines have had to leave their home in order to get enough sleep.

Two of these have bought houses in other towns.

Two other households who cannot afford to buy another home are living in a shed and in a caravan. Other families remain sleep deprived and sick in their own homes, waiting for the EPA to act.

Noise pollution governance and the EPA are failing the people of Waterloo and Hallett.

What does Mr Garnsworthy say to the residents at Waterloo who have been advised by their doctors never to go back to their home when the turbines are turning?

How is he and his company “engaging” with them?

How is he “engaging” with the children who are getting headaches, earaches, and cannot sleep?

And they are planning to do it all again at Stony Gap, and Robertstown adversely affecting even more rural residents.

Regarding the Pygmy Blue Tongue lizards at the Stony Gap Wind Farm site.

The PBT are listed as endangered under the EPBC Act and the NPW Act.

This should trigger an EPBC referral which should result in an in-depth survey being done.

Not only did TRUenergy not do this, they did not notify and inform the PBT recovery team of their discoveries or proposed wind farm development or consult with them about how to proceed.

At the time of writing this letter, the PBT Recovery Team, having been alerted by the community, is still waiting on a response from TRUenergy.

From the people who asked you to attend yesterday’s demonstration at the Lawrence Middle School in Falmouth, Massachusetts:  The meeting continues today, April 3, 2012, starting at 6 pm.

We are asking everyone in the world to phone in to the Town of Falmouth.  Tell them to “Shut down the wind turbines!”  If you are a WTS sufferer, it is imperative that you call—from whatever country you live in.

Call Mary Pat Flynn, Chairperson of the Board of Selectmen, 508-495-7320, 508-548-7611, and Selectmen@falmouthmass.us.  (Please call and then follow-up with an email.)

Additional information:  The Falmouth Town Meeting, which began yesterday, April 2, will resume tonight at 7:00p.m. EDST with Article 22 to complete action on the thirty-two articles on the warrant.

Article 23 calls for the temporary shutdown of the two municipal wind turbines until November, when the town completes a review of pertinent factors connected to the health and noise issues raised by residents, and convenes another Town Meeting.

So, please take a moment out of your busy day (or night) and PHONE-IN.  We think you’ll be glad you did!

Editor’s note:  The following call to civil disobedience is being issued by the European Platform against Windfarms (EPAW).  Read it and appreciate the groundswell of global rage that is building against wind energy.

Opposition to windpower fascism is spreading across the world.  From Canada to New Zealand, there are today over 2,800 citizen groups fighting against the corruption, the speculation, and the violence to populations (human & nonhuman) carried out in the name of windpower.

We have listed 732 websites which carry the voice of these opponents.  This list is far from complete.

On April 3rd, 2012, groups from Ontario (Canada) will mobilize to show their discontent.  In Germany, other groups will act in various ways to express their solidarity with their Canadian colleagues, and with all the others that are fighting against windpower fascism around the world.”

Hi Calvin,

Time to be the bad-ass grandpa and get inta da streets. (Last time I did this was against Vietnam War in Durham, North Carolina.)

People from all over Ontario are converging to protest a pro-wind industry conference in “Hogtown” (Toronto).  Our Prime Minister is trying to make Kanada as corrupt as the USA “democracy.”

I’ll call you if I need bail   😉

Keep your emails coming,

Barrie Gilbert, PhD
Wildlife Ecologist
Wolfe Island, Ont.
Canada

Editor’s note:  The following is a call to “demonstrate” in Falmouth, MA, tomorrow (April 2^nd).  However, we are taking the liberty of ratcheting up the “demonstration” to a call for civil disobedience.

There have been “demonstrations” aplenty in Falmouth; the municipality needs to be confronted by a different order of magnitude of the by now painfully obvious message:  “No turbines in town!”

If you live anywhere within reasonable driving distance of Falmouth, consider joining.  Yes, be disobedient.

Tomorrow, Monday April, 2, at 7:00 p.m., there will be a municipal meeting held at the Lawrence Middle School, Falmouth, MA to discuss and to vote on Article 23 on their Town warrant.

The warrant reads:

To see if the town will vote to continue suspended operation of Wind 1 and curtailment of suspended operation of Wind 2, except for periods required for the further study or ordinary maintenance of either turbine, until November 2012 Town Meeting, at which time concerns for both turbines can be addressed in the context of studies and mitigation options funded by Town Meeting in November 2011, as well as a new turbine by-law currently under development by the Planning Board, or do or take any action on this matter.”

Organizers are asking everyone who can come, to join them in a “Standout”—a demonstration of concern and solidarity with the victims of the negative effects of the poorly sited wind turbines.

The standout will be held outside the Lawrence Middle School at 6:00 p.m.  Signs will be provided and the attendees are welcome to bring their own.

This will be a very important moment in the lives of the Falmouth neighbors.  They have already reached out to many to warn us of the awful risks and suffering the unwise placement of Industrial Wind Turbines can bring upon people.

Directions from Bourne Bridge at Bourne, MA:

Go halfway around ROTARY

Head straight down to Falmouth

Go left on Lakeview Ave.

Proceed about ¼ mile and on your right you will see us outside. You can’t miss us!

For more info contact David Moriarty at waveydavie@aol.com or call 774-521-8474

Editor:  Marco Bernardi (Gemany) has collected 732 websites around the world, protesting wind turbines.  They make for interesting reading.  We urge you to fix yourself a cup of coffee some evening, and start browsing the sites.  You need to use “Google Translate” to read all of them.  (Google Translate works beautifully.)

Our thanks to Marco, and our challenge to Big Wind:  Why the hell don’t you bozos pay attention?  On second thought, don’t bother answering; your answer is obvious.

Editor’s note:  The letter by Colette  McClean (Ontario, Canada), was written in response to this urgent appeal from Neil Andersen and his wife, Betsy, residents of Falmouth, MA.  The Andersens have been made very ill by the wind turbines in Falmouth.  Both of them suffer tremendously from Wind Turbine Syndrome.  Both were interviewed by Dr. Pierpont last autumn.

To:  Falmouth Board of Selectmen, 3/29/12
From:  Neil Andersen, Blacksmith Shop Rd., Falmouth
Regarding:  Wind Turbines making us ill

I am starting to see stories and hear rumors about the possible start up of Wind 1, on some sort of a curtailed operation.

Speaking simply as a fellow human being, and the protector of my family’s home, health and well-being, I beg you to reconsider. You know what the turbine has done to my family. You know how we have suffered over these past two years, even as recent as the short intervals during DEP and Vestas equipment testing.

I have told you many times that we cannot live in this house with the turbine in operation. There is a dangerous, constant, repetitive and torturous low frequency pulse that is emitted by the turbine that causes physiological and psychological damage.

We really cannot take any more.
We really cannot take any more.
We really cannot take any more.

Please do not turn that turbine on.

If so, at least get my family out of harm’s way first.

Again, I beg you to understand. Our lives are in your hands.

As a resident in the province of Ontario, I have now been living with turbines for almost 2 yrs. I can attest to many of the symptoms that the residents of Falmouth describe.  Ear ticking, grinding of teeth, sleepless nights and joint pain—and I count myself as one of the lucky ones.

I do not doubt the sincerity of their claims, because they are repeated over and over, right here in Ontario with friends, family, neighbours.

I do not understand the disconnect gov’t officials are having with respect to wind energy, where everything labelled “green” must be held sacrosanct even over the health and well-being of residents like Neil Andersen.  Neil must now BEG his own community to stop the turbines in order to be SAVED from the debilitating effects the Falmouth wind turbines are having on HIS HEALTH and the HEALTH of his family.

What could possibly be the motivation of people like Neil Andersen, other than to protect his health, family and home?  Why would you even consider foisting this kind of pain on him, his family, and neighbors?  Do you as selectmen of Falmouth have the right to harm citizens like Neil for the sake of economic gain?  If so, then you must also have the power and means to help Neil GET OUT!

Or is it that you believe Neil is lying?  How else can one explain your willingness to continue operating the wind turbines?

What could possibly be the basis of your willingness to continue harming Neil, his family and his neighbours?

Like Neil, I am begging you as well.  Please stop the turbines and stop putting people in harm’s way.

Colette McLean
R.R. #5, 1245 Gore Rd
Harrow, Ontario
Canada