{"id":21621,"date":"2012-04-25T18:33:28","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T22:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=21621"},"modified":"2012-04-25T18:43:57","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T22:43:57","slug":"wind-energy-has-collapsed-under-the-weight-of-its-own-contradictions-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2012\/wind-energy-has-collapsed-under-the-weight-of-its-own-contradictions-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"“Wind energy has collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions” (UK)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nWith appreciation to The Spectator<\/span><\/p>\n

“Downfall”<\/h3>\n

\u2014Fraser Nelson, The Spectator<\/a> (UK), 4\/15\/12<\/p>\n

It did not take long. Last month, Matt Ridley argued in a Spectator cover story<\/a> 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 (\u00a3)<\/a>, climate change minister Greg Barker admits that his department has adopted an \u2018unbalanced\u2019 approach to wind farms and will now look at other options. \u2018Far from wanting thousands more, actually for most of the wind we need \u2026 they are either being built, being developed or in planning. The notion that there\u2019s some new wave of wind [farms] is somewhat exaggerated.\u2019<\/p>\n

Indeed, the phrase \u2018somewhat exaggerated\u2019 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:<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To Ridley, this was\u2014at root\u2014an intellectual error. An example of how the establishment, and entire government machine, can sponsor something that makes no economic or environmental sense\u2014but no one dares point this out, because the cause is seen as noble. He has generously sponsored the \u00a38,500 Ridley Award for essays that expose similar environmental fallacies and entries close on 30 June. We\u2019ve had plenty of brilliant entries so far\u2014but keep them coming. Click here<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With appreciation to The Spectator “Downfall” \u2014Fraser 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 (\u00a3), climate change minister Greg Barker admits that his department has adopted an \u2018unbalanced\u2019 approach to wind farms and will now look at other options. \u2018Far from wanting thousands more, actually for most of the wind we need \u2026 they are either being built, being developed or in planning. The notion that there\u2019s some new wave of wind [farms] is somewhat exaggerated.\u2019 Indeed, the phrase \u2018somewhat exaggerated\u2019 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\u2014at root\u2014an intellectual error. An example of how the establishment, and entire government machine, can sponsor something that makes no economic or environmental sense\u2014but no one dares point this out, because the cause is seen as noble. He has generously sponsored the \u00a38,500 Ridley Award for essays that expose similar environmental fallacies and entries close on 30 June. We\u2019ve had plenty of brilliant entries so far\u2014but keep them coming. Click here to find out more.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[157,16,170,173],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}