Does wind power cause visual pollution in your opinion?
I remember reading somewhere (probably my high school textbook) that one of the reasons people don’t like wind power being built is they cause visual pollution.
In my opinion, I think it would be pretty cool to just look out my window and see a giant windmill there, the opposite of visual pollution.
the visible deterioration and negative aesthetic quality of the natural and human-made landscapes around people
All human activity creates “visual pollution” of all kinds. It is completely unavoidable. By the textbook definition, farmland, barns, barbed wire fences for livestock, all could qualify as visual pollution.
Wind turbines are no different. They could technically be defined as visual pollution, but they are quite benign in the grand scheme of things. They are typically designed with smooth edges and sweeping curves, and don’t give off a cluttered look, and as such do not really “interrupt” one’s environment. They do move, which can be a bit distracting, I guess.
They’re certainly much nicer to look at compared to the average nuclear/coal/nat.gas power plant
I don’t mind them and lived in the midst of two wind “farms”. They aren’t usually clumped tightly together so you don’t see many until you’re out on the road.
Personally found them kind of calming to look at as part of the backdrop when it was nice outside and I could go out and listen to music or radio and just unplug. Personal opinions vary wildly and some people will hate them just for existing just as some people will find a mural or new building an eyesore, they don’t have a tangible reason and usually they just don’t want change, ontop of there being no shortage of easily disproveable conspiracy theories about turbines they cling to because someone said they were bad once and they can’t be bothered to fact check anything that doesn’t already support their opinion.
So ultimately I don’t mind them anymore than a water tower or grain bin/silo, they are just part of my skyline now and it didn’t take long to get used to them.
Like with anything, too much of it will look/taste/smell/sound bad.
Is that a reason in and of itself to not build wind power plants? No.
Personally I find wind power plants to look cool, a bit sci-fi and futuristic.
The argument that they are ugly is dumb, using a term like “visual pollution” is just a way to try and make a subjective oppinion sound like objective fact.
Please define “visible pollution”. I think you mean something like “ugly”. So there’s not really much of a discussion to have, because it is opinion. Of course some people feel that way.
But anyway, since you asked, I’d rather look at wind turbines than the smog around, let’s say, Chicago or Los Angeles. But still that’s opinion.
People didn’t seem to mind fugly coal plants but now that weve got a clean energy source usually built in the middle of nowhere they suddenly have a problem with “visual pollution.”
To me it sounds a lot like those dudes that spew smoke out the back of their truck for no other reason than to “trigger” anyone they think might not approve.
I’ve tended to find people against them want the same skyline their grandparents had 50 years ago, ignoring that even the trees changed shape. So to them its change and conservative rural people abhor anychange that doesn’t have an immediate and tangible benefit.
You offer anyone whose home is within sight of a wind turbine say… 5000kw/h a year in free electricity. With a little careful planning and given that your average turbine produces around 6 million kwh a year. Id imagine they shut up pretty fucking fast.
Makes sense to me. If people who have to deal with something are invested in that thing they will defend it. Never miss an opportunity to take someone outside pissing in and put them inside pissing out.
It’s difficult to consider them pollution even if we were to accept the subjective opinion on displeasing aesthetics.
The pollution we’re all concerned about tends to be:
Physically harmful
Difficult to confine/localize/avoid/reverse
An externality the economy doesn’t sufficiently account for
A burden that’s unevenly/unfairly distributed across society
Even light pollution, which is arguably barely physically harmful, has all of the remaining qualities (or nearly) for sure.
If these qualities even apply wind generators at all, they do so very weakly. They can be moved/unbuilt, the “free market” is pricing them cheaper by the day, and if you really don’t like looking at them, it’s not impractical to avoid them.
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