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Editor’s note: We were contacted this spring by a group in Slovenia that is desperately trying to prevent the installation of scores of industrial wind turbines. They asked for our help. There is already one very large turbine up and running in the community, with dozens more on the way — unless these people manage to stop them.

Dr. Pierpont wrote them a letter, at their request, explaining the clinical evidence and science of Wind Turbine Syndrome. We published that letter, here.

The group in Slovenia responded with the following (extravagant) note of appreciation, along with a narrative of their travail, so far, with wind energy. (It’s interesting to see how the script followed by Big Wind never varies. Regardless of the country, it’s always the same bullying and deceit.)

Something else that likewise never varies are the symptoms of Wind Turbine Syndrome, as revealed in the heartbreaking piece by one of the Slovene campaigners, Barbara Marinsek, who unfortunately lives near the single turbine that’s been erected.

Keep in mind as you read this that English is not the primary language for these people.

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“Greetings from Slovenia to America, with deepest gratitude and respect to Calvin Luther Martin and his wife, Dr. Nina Pierpont, for their unselfish, generous and efficient support in our fight against wind factories.”

Civilna iniciativa za zaščito Senožeških Brd (Trans. as the “Civil Initiative for the Protection of Senožeška Brda”  (Senozeska Brda)

There is only one wind-turbine in our region – fortunately in our whole country SLOVENIA, but those living nearby report many health issues: WIND-TURBINE-SYNDROME. Moreover our government with the money and support from Brussels has recently been planning to build two wind-factories with 40 or even more 130 metre-high wind turbines. We are fighting against wind farms in our region and are grateful that Nina and Calvin are helping us in this difficult fight.

Dearest Nina and Calvin,

We are writing on behalf of our Initiative for the Protection of Senozeska Brda, SLOVENIA. We do not think there are words in any world language that could express our deepest gratitude and respect towards you both. In the time of despair and need when everything seemed to be lost, you offered us your generous support by even not knowing us AND IMMEDIATELY.

Thank you, Calvin, for your intervention to EPAW — without you we would not have succeeded.

Nina, thank you for having given us your scientific opinion on health issues and making an exhaustive report on the issues we are facing right now. They are of much help to us.  Much more than you think.  We hope that one day we can return your favour. We knocked on your door, and you opened it generously and widely.  We hope you will continue to be a voice against wind farms for good in our region and elsewhere around the world, where honest citizens fight their fights against wind farms.

God bless you for the wonderful work you have been doing for so long. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.

With deepest respect and gratitude,

Diego Loredan (Chairman)
Barbara Marinsek (Member and Victim)
Katarina Dea Zetko (Supporter)

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Firstly, LET US SHOW YOU OUR ANTI-WIND GROUP IN ACTION

NO WIND TURBINES: Our fight is tough, but we are determined to keep fighting to the end because we are right

And now a few words about how our fairytale turns into the nightmare of wind-turbines (another symptom).

It happens all of a sudden. At least this is what we want or wanted to believe.There is a lady from the capital city of Slovenia, Ljubljana, who decides to buy a home in a genuine, unspoilt countryside. So she buys a house in our beatiful region to enjoy the peace of nature and breathe fresh air, to hear birds singing, to make long walks into wilderness of our forest, to enjoy herself far from the madding crowd.

Soon the fairytale is over and a nightmare begins, although nobody was aware at that time that wind- turbines are so annoying and cause so many ill-health effects. The investor keeps repeating that wind farms are environmental-friendly, and what is more, the Slovenian representative of Greenpeace agrees with the investor.   “And there are so many happy people in Germany where so far there has not been a single complaint from the German folks in 20 years or even more,” the Slovenian Greenpeace says. Germany, a promised land for us Europeans.

 So, why not? There is a plan to set up one wind-turbine only 800 metres away from this lady and some other residents. She, as a successful woman, says to herself, “Why not?  It’S green energy and I must support this.”  They even seem to be so romantic and beautiful, we all think. This is the way of thinking of other neighbors, too, until this turbine Went up  — and  the nightmare begins. Headaches, sleep disturbance, vertigo, dizziness, depression, tiredness. These people have now become the loudest voice against wind-turbines, and yet almost nobody believes them.

And now, after the  “romantic” turbine has been set up, the message on the house of our member, Ms. Barbara Marinsek, living next to the turbine pleads: PLEASE, NO WIND TURBINES (see wind-turbine in the background):

Take a look at our Karst countryside of the village DOLENJA VAS without turbines, when life was so wonderful, magical:

. . . and with the planned wind turbines, if we do not win our fight (more than 40 gigantic wind turbines are planned in this region).

But gradually more and more people become aware that this is probably not the best solution, and form a group against wind farms  Unfortunately, there are at least three influential, greedy people in our region, supposedly having been offered a bribe. However, after the government realizes that there are so many people against wind farms, it cancels its plan immediately. We are relieved and our hearts are filled with happiness and we soon forget about everything.

But not for long. Out of the blue, these avaricious people make an action and try to convince people in the community how much money they will get and what a bright future our tourism will have with these “magical” wind turbines. They go from house to house, from person to person, bringing gifts and speaking sweet, promising words, their words of wisdom; they are so generous with their  “genuine” wish to help us and to make our countryside even more appealing. Foreign tourists from all over the world will be coming to enjoy the wonderful veduta (view) of our wind-parks.

Some people immediately fall victim to their promises. However, they do not know that their promises are made in hell.

Faustus sold his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles, in exchange for earthly power and money.

Together they establish a Civile Initiative for wind farms, and collect signatures from some naive people, write a petition for wind turbines and take it directly to the Ministry for Infrastructure and the Environment. The government now establishes a new plan as a high priority, even more ambitious than ever for wind turbines in our region. The government is now determined to set up 40 wind turbines or even more in our region, only from 400 to 800 metres away from us.

The rainbow in Dolenja vas a wonderful veduta (view) from the home of our member and  turbine victim, Ms. Barbara Marinsek

There is a non-binding consultative referendum in our region, where the majority of our people say NO to wind turbines. Happiness and a rainbow come again into our lives of frightened hearts. The mayor of our Municipality says that he will respect the democratically-expressed will of his community. However, not for long, as it turns out.

The nearby village Laze (where our Chairman Diego Loredan lives) in wintertime, with no wind turbines -HOW LONG?:

And a wonderful VEDUTA (view) from his house. HOW LONG??? HOW LONG???:

The panoramic view of the village of Laže without wind- turbines, so far.  HOPEFULLY FOR GOOD, NO, NO, UNDOUBTEDLY FOR GOOD:

You can see some white clouds in the skies of Laze. But these clouds get darker and darker, blacker and blacker. The thunderstorm approaches. The lightning gets louder and louder, but not the lightning from heaven.  No, it is much worse. It is the lightning coming from wind farms; it is the lightning of our hopelessness.  This time the government and the investor insist on their plan of two wind farms in our region, and they won’t give up. The mayor of our municipality is told that he and his community will do not count in any way. The government ministry is above all. The ministry is — God.

NOT A CHANCE!!!

And finally, this is the way our region will look like if we do not win:

So, here we go again on our own, down the road we have never known. But, we are fighters and we shall never surrender. We do the best we can.

And Lord has sent us the generous support of Nina and Calvin. They have shown us that the saying, “a friend in need is a friend indeed,” is really true. They have given us both moral and actual support, and so we will keep fighting to the end.

Let us finish the story about our nightmare, with the testimony of one of the victims of Wind Turbine Syndrome, who lives only 800 metres away from the gigantic wind turbine:  Ms. Barbara Marinsek.

I am so grateful for having the honour to expess my experience as a person and victim living next door, unfortunately, not to Alice but to our first “magical” wind turbine in our wonderful Slovenia. I’m delighted that you are ready to hear my voice on the effects of this turbine, which has become a permanent companion in the life of my family and has changed our lives forever. To be as clear as possible, we have to turn back the clock 10 years.

The then local “magnates” who were, at the same time, members of our agrarian community, which also owns a part of one commons (field), where this turbine has been set up, came up with the idea about the wind turbine.  Do not ask me how and why, because I don´t know. The turbine was presented to us in the best possible way with its possible good effects.  There were, of course, no negative effects whatsoever.

Above all, they focused on the money the people will get, especially those who own some land in our agrarian community.  (By the way, these earnings were fom 18 to 50 Euros.)  They used their best efforts to the extent that we were invited to Austria to see Mr. Klaus, who is the developer of the first wind turbine.

What we saw was a much smaller wind turbine and, really, at that time, we were not against it for the wind turbine in Austria was neither noisy nor disturbing — maybe only during our visit. I suppose that it must have been arranged in that way deliberately for us during our visit.  [Almost surely it was not generating power at the time, but “freewheeling.”   Freewheeling means it was spinning by drawing power from the grid, and the blades were turned so they were not catching the wind, with minimal turbulence with the tower — Editor.]  Nevertheless, in the end we got a much bigger one than that shown to us in Austria.

Well, as soon as the setting up of this turbine has begun, there were some problems with the bureaucracy, for the planned turbine was supposed to be much smaller, supported by 4 iron columns in a form of long-distance transmission, but they started to build a gigantic concrete pillar. With sadness in my heart, I was forced to watch from my balcony and from my yard (at that time I was the only one who was against it because I would have preferred watching animals and cows eating grass to the iron that spins and spins, rotates and rotates) how they were destoying our countryside and nature and, what is more, how there were too many, too big and too wide trucks driving across our land.

And then the time came when it started operating. Our first reaction was, of course, to the noise it was producing, which made us feel as if we were at the airport listening to the planes taking off: wuf, wuf, wuf.  I must emphasize that wind conditions are not always as favourable as they claim. Our strong northeast wind (called BURJA –  Huge Squall Level Wind) can blow at the speed of 120 kilometres per hour with huge squalls. And the winters here are tough and cold.

When the operating conditions are favourable, we can say goodbye to our peace, sleep and normal way of life, for the turbine noise can last as long as 3 days or more — night and day, 24 hours a day – NON-STOP.

Can you imagine how we feel? After sleepless nights, doing our hard work feeling so tired, without ability to concentrate and think. And this applies to our children as well: they can’t concentrate at school, for they are tired, exhausted and have no will to learn.

If we manage to fall asleep, we are likely to be awakened by the terrible noise in the midlle of the night, and we can say goodbye to our sleep, because this constant, permanent noise makes you feel completely nervous — a feeling of going nuts.

Our youngest daughter, 18, has always been healthy, completely without any medical issues. However, her medical problems started 8 months ago. She complains constantly of terrible headaches.  She went to see a doctor, and an eye doctor as well, who found nothing. There are other appointments with different specialists (CT- scans of her head, etc.) to find out what’s wrong.

I ask myself WHY? WHY at this age?  And at the very time when the turbine began operating?  My husband, as well, has been complaining of terrible headaches since then. And I have been feeling nervous, irritated, depressed, tired, exhausted, without any energy for living.

The neighbours of this so-called magical turbine have made several complaints to the people who are in charge of this matter. They have actually responded, but unfortunately they HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING, although now at least they seem to believe that there is a real, not imaginary noise in our neighbourhood. Mr. Klaus from Austria has seen us several times, however he keeps stating that he can’t be of any help. And we suggested that the wind turbine be shut down at night, his response was that it’s impossible.

After all, the worst part of this nightmare is the fact that we, as nonprofessionals in this field (laymen), were forced to organize ourselves in a group and to learn all about the wind turbines. Nobody knew anything about the low frequency noise and infrasound, which is not heard, yet THEY DO have SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON PEOPLE’S HEALTH.

We are lucky to have started as a small group which fights against the wind factories, and with our endless pleas and information via all possible media we have gained the support of numerous people — people who are ready to listen to us and, thank God, have said NO to WIND TURBINES in a referendum.

We are fully aware that it is all about MONEY and NOTHING ELSE in our project, therefore WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER AND WILL KEEP FIGHTING FOR OUR RIGHTS, HEATH, WELL-BEING AND PEACE OF MIND TILL THE END.

We appreciate any kind of support and express deep respect for your having listened to us. Thanks to all of you.

With best wishes from Slovenia,

Barbara Marinsek and family