Saving the Earth

Many people come to wind energy with environmental motivations, myself

included. These people are concerned about where energy comes from and

how it affects their neighbors and their grandchildren.

Different forms of nonrenewable energy have big environmental impacts. For

example

 ✓ Coal: The documentary Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America

opens with these challenging lines: “What if, every time we flipped a light

switch at home, a mountain exploded in West Virginia? Or every time

we turned on the air conditioner in summer, a child suffered an asthma

attack?” Film producer Jeff Barrie’s questions are not theoretical. In fact,

it’s a very real connection that he makes, because 52 percent of U.S. elec-

tricity comes from coal. The coal industry is indeed blowing the tops off

mountains in Appalachia while producing air pollution that leads to a vari-

ety of lung diseases. And your light switch is connected to this! Every time

you switch it on, you’re keeping this damaging process going. Roughly

speaking, generating 1 kWh of electricity requires a pound of coal.

 ✓ Oil and gas: Oil- and gas-fired plants damage the environment at the

extraction level as well as when these fuels are burned to generate

electricity.

 ✓ Nuclear: Nuclear power leaves behind dangerous wastes for thousands

of years and risks contamination from this and from reactor accidents.

 ✓ Hydroelectric: Even big hydro has serious impacts, flooding communities

and ecosystems and restricting the natural passage of everything from

tiny fish to kayakers.

If you’re interested in wind electricity for environmental reasons, you’re far

from alone. On the large scale, wind electricity is a big part of the potential

solution, and major environmental organizations from the Sierra Club to the

Audubon Society have supported wind farms.