Environmental Health (it is Earth Day)

I recently heard someone speaking about wind farms in regards to an option for generating energy. The person was on CNBC I believe and when she was asked for a final comment, she said that the only negative about wind farms were NOT having them. I did not find anything wrong with that statement.

More recently, I came across a story about a big expansion in wind farming - I believe it was a Swedish proposal - and I had to do a double take when I was reading - as it said offshore wind farming. Offshore? Off shore - as in off shore oil drilling - as in "in the ocean?"

I was (am) very concerned to hear about this. Certainly there is not the risk of oil spill or the pollution that is associated with other fossil fuel production - even on shore, but here again - we are exploiting an ecosystem. There is no way that building a structure and embedding it in the ocean floor will not disrupt the life cycles of countless species of marine life.

I am surprised that I had not caught this before - as offshore wind farms are not a future plan, but a past, present AND future one. There are many off the coast of the UK and also off land from France, Portugal, Spain- Sweden make have the biggest off shore wind farm in Europe and in the USA one is planned, if not begun, in the Nantucket Sound. WOW.

Yes the turbines generate a great deal of clean energy - I LOVE that part - but what of their adverse environmental impact? In fact, there is a term for what I am referring - EIA - or an Environmental Impact Assessment. Some countries require that the EIA be completed before a permit will be granted. In some cases, the studies are ongoing - and occur while the wind farms are created and used. In other words, well, let us build it and see what happens. It is less invasive to US (people) - it is not something we see or hear in our backyards - but it is certainly not neutral.

At this time - looking into the matter just briefly, I see more reports on how to do an EIA than I can find results of one. Instead, there are guidelines on what to look for and examples of how it is less harmful than some other measures. A report that reports ocean based wind farming as nearly risk free comes from the Ocean Energy Council, but that is a group that wants to use the ocean for energy. I would like an independent source.

Don't think for one minute that the brilliant scientists across the globe do not already know exactly what could happen - I just don't want something positive to cause something catastrophic for the aquatic world. And yes, it is a personal issue. We take things out (oil, orcas and more), we put things in(fuel,trash, emissions, ourselves) - we need to leave it alone....