When will we learn?

More and more voices are warning us that “big wind” is not the way to go. It’s becoming a strong chorus that includes state senators, knowledgeable thinkers who understand the technical, environmental, financial and political details, Jeff Danziger, a woman who’s an off-the-grid farmer, and even a fourth-grade boy representing a generation whose future is at stake.

And still there are others, some prominent, some ordinary citizens like myself, who warn against the destructive impact of industrial wind plants. It’s not just the ugliness of it, but also the fact that,like so many past destructive undertakings, desecrating the natural beauty of our mountains would be futile as well, because, as is being patiently explained by expert after expert, it stands to benefit only the wind industry.

There’s deep wisdom in a moratorium on building further greed-inspired monstrosities. It would give us no choice but to be more frugal (or rather, less wasteful) with the energy we are getting now. We might find out we don’t need more energy, we don’t need to use more and more energy-gobbling stuff more and more of the time, we don’t need lights on where they’re not in use, and instead we may be surprised by how well supplied we are if we just conserve.

Dam-crippled rivers, mountain removal for coal, fracking-poisoned land and water, the curses of tarsands, oil spills and nuclear accidents — when will we ever learn? How many more outrageous storms and power outages do we need before we finally realize we’re devouring the very Mother that’s nurturing us body and soul?

Louise Sandberg

Corinth