Re: Renewable energy hysteria

Gray Merriam | Sep 16, 2015

Wolfe Erhlichman is a sincere conservationist and his frustration is easily understood. But his statements (Renewable energy hysteria and fear mongering, Letters, Sep 3/15)Renewable energy hysteria and fear mongering, Letters, Sep 3/15),  need to consider alternative views. When folks speak of "pristine" landscapes, they don't necessarily mean "virgin". Clearly our environment was no longer pristine as soon as we arrived with our many activities that have such great environmental impacts.

The fact that, in ignorance and arrogance, we have changed the structures and the processes of the ecosystems that we invaded does not mean that the natural riches are exhausted. The beauty and the natural riches that remain can still have high value to each of us in our own ways.

To place industrial wind turbines along the windy ridges above Denbigh clearly would change the view and would change the value of that view spiritually and in the long-term economics of landscape resources. (Not to mention the allowances for bird kill rates in the developer's contracts.)

Clearly the world needs to derive its energy from sources other than oil, atoms and damming rivers and those wind turbines are one of the alternatives. But what is the basis for that need for energy? Should we surrender the view of the forested ridges in favour of corporate greed and undisciplined urban habits? No, the energy for the proposed wind farms of our northern neighbours is not for them. It is for distant economic activities and distant profit. A fundamental of any planning for wind farms or solar farms should be to capture the energy near where it will be used.

The argument that Europe has protected the heritage of its countryside is a Baltic herring. Countryside heritage in Europe is tightly regulated but it is almost totally man-made. If the forested hills above Denbigh could be transplanted to the Netherlands or to Germany, they would suddenly be valued very highly monetarily because they have such high value as beautiful landscapes with strong residual ecological structures and processes – they are naturally rich -- despite not being "pristine". Are we smart enough to plan and locate alternative energy sources so that we do not sacrifice aesthetic and spiritual values of our landscapes?