FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH

Welcome to the first Wind of Change blogpost of 2012!!!

It'll be an interesting year - mostly because we here at Wind of Change confidently predict that 2012 will be, will have to be the year in which the nonsense is finally brought to an end. Sure, there will still be fanatical nimbies who are "pro-renewables" but not in their "back yards" (i.e., more than half a kilometre away), and there will still be a few fools spinning anti-windpower myths. But there is also reality, and the reality is that oil is in decline, nuclear is on the way out, gas is getting too expensive, and a green future is the only sane and sustainable option.

Part of the journey towards sanity and thinking properly about the future will be an embargo on misleading newspaper headlines. Our old fogey friends at the Telegraph recently warned that switching to a low-carbon energy system will cost everyone in the UK an average of £5,000 a year. OUCH!! Cue the terrifying Bernard Hermann strings. Or, look at the figures: going green is actually one of the most cost-effective of the available options. Read more here:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2134710/uk-switch-low-carbon-energy-cost-gbp5-person

Better news, though, for the UK's burgeoning wind power sector. In spite of the lunatics out there who routinely oppose everything that's good for Britain, good for their local communities, good for their children and the planet, windfarms are contributing more and more to our electricity supply. In the third quarter of 2011 (July to September) renewables generated 9% of the UK's energy, and most of that came from windfarms. Taking the first three quarters of 2011 together, offshore windfarms generated 64% more electricity than in the comparable period in 2010 and onshore windfarms generated 36% more. Just to be clear, these figures were released by the government's Department for Energy and Climate Change, and they give the lie to the idiotic nimby myth that windfarms "don't work". Even with the monstrous nimby deception merchants shouting their silly stories left, right and centre, wind power in the UK really is going from strength to strength.

Much of this information doesn't reach the general public - who, as the recent polls so prudently buried by the Murdoch press showed, are on the whole in favour of windfarms, would like to see more of them, and think that subsidies for windfarms are the right thing to do. Worse than the information-deprived man in the street, though, is the deluded nimby who insists on reading nothing but the lousiest anti-windfarm propaganda and has no idea about what is really happening in the glorious world of clean, green, inexpensive wind energy. That's because your average nimby lives in a bubble of his own making.

So, for those of you who feel that you have been misled by the nasty nimbies and their stupid stories, and would like to know more about the exciting developments that have been going on in the real world, here's a precis of last year's highlights, courtesy of the European Wind Energy Association's very useful blog:

http://blog.ewea.org/2011/12/another-look-at-eweas-breath-of-fresh-air-blog-in-2011/#more-2699

Worth noting: worldwide, nuclear is falling behind renewables (which is only right and proper), green energy is advancing the world over, the Danes never did lose faith in wind power, and yet another genuine scientist has poured scorn on the daft nimby claims that wind turbines can damage your health.

All in all, it makes for optimistic reading. If we could only see beyond the gibberish spouted by right-wing newspapers and certain cretinous Tory MPs, we would be in no doubt that renewables really are the future. Maybe not the entire future ... but then again, maybe they are. As the following article indicates, it is actually perfectly possible for us to, quote: Nix nuclear. Chuck coal. Rebuff biofuel. All we need is the wind, the water, and the sun.

http://www.dianuke.org/nuclear-free-carbon-free-world-possible/

Let that be the inspiring message for the year ahead. No more nimby lies. No more Big Oil and Bad Nuke lobbying. A world fit for our children, and their children - nuclear free and carbon free. It can be done. Most of the people living on this planet want more renewable energy. The EU's Climate Action Commissioner thinks that Europe will be 100% renewable by 2050.

We can do it. But only if we silence the liars and deniers first. So let's make that our mission for 2012. Happy New Year, one and all!!