Windmills

Evidently Austria has a little fight with its neighbors (including Slovakia) over energy--it is against nuclear energy. Consequently, there are loads and loads of windmills in Austria.

I support windmills. That said, I have a haunting feeling that our approach to energy in general (go out and find it and use it all up and then find something new) is not without its problems. [I think it's possible that technology could solve our current oil problems, but not without creating some new and different problems. I think that unlimited techno-optimism is just silly. And, consequently, I think it's pretty important that humans not forget all of the skills that once allowed us to live with less technology than we have now. That is to say, I really appreciate the fact that my father gardens and hunts: should the rest of the world collapse, you will be able to find me in Williamsport.] Frankly, I have a secret thought that one day we're going to use all of the wind up. The wind is caused by the unequal heating of the earth's surface, right? Well, it can't just strain and strain to cool off the parts that are too hot, while we suck all of the wind up with windmills (Do we do the same thing with water?? Take away all of the energy from it and leave it sitting in little pools?).

Admittedly, my theory is almost certainly wrong, but I have heard that windmills are killing (or maiming?) certain animals--they create super high-pitched sounds that humans can't hear, but which are a problem for some animals. In addition, I think that there are problems with birds. I am just really imagining, if our past relationship with energy has been any indicator, that we will stick windmills on every square inch of ground.




















This question is striking closer to home at the moment: Williamsport, PA is going to be mined for natural gas. This is supposedly a rather safe process with the only potential side-effect that's being mentioned, the possibility that getting out the gas could ruin the water supply in a particular area (which seems to me like an enormous potential side-effect). However, I actually can't imagine that this is the only potential side-effect of getting natural gas out of the ground. Perhaps I'm wrong. I just actually do have pictures in my mind of Centralia, a town in Pennsylvania (pictured above) that caught fire underground in the coal mine and has been burning for years (a couple of people still live their illegally, refusing to leave their homes). Let me tell you, once you've seen the smoke leaking out of the ground, that picture never leaves your head.

Here is the trusty New York Times on the risks of extracting natural gas, which the E.P.A. is studying (the risks of removing gas, not the New York Times): "The streams of people came to the public meeting here armed with stories of yellowed and foul-smelling well water, deformed livestock, poisoned fish and itchy skin.
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Several other concerns linger over fracking [the method of removing natural gas], as well as other aspects of gas drilling — including the design and integrity of well casings and the transport and potential spilling of chemicals and the millions of gallons of water required for just one fracking job.
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The recent string of accidents in the oil and gas industries — including the gulf spill and a blowout last month at a gas field in Clearfield County, Pa., that spewed gas and wastewater for 16 hours — has unnerved residents and regulators."

The thing is, I really need Williamsport to be around, in case the rest of the world falls apart. I'd really like it not to fall into the ground. And that is the end of my insanity (for today).

(The pictures at the top were taken from inside a train in Austria as we passed fields growing windmills, which were swaying in the breeze).