I love nearly everything about Mother Nature and I believe the world's population should strive to keep its natural resources. To me, wind energy is a brilliant form of renewable energy that many states across the Midwest take advantage of, including Kansas. By using free, non-polluting energy in Kansas we are creating jobs and not harming the environment. Although there are many benefits to wind energy, there are some negative concerns as well. Many people view wind turbines as an eye sore lain across the pretty prairie land; this is actually a big concern for people living near a wind turbine farm because once they are put in place they are basically large, permanent statues. However, I personally live near the largest wind farm in Kansas and I think wind turbines are a beautiful reminder that everyone should do their part to keep our natural resources, plants, and animals alive and safe. Another factor in turbine construction is the cost of transportation, building and maintaining. Once again though, I believe the costs are worth the long term benefits. Wind turbines have created jobs for people in the down fall of the economy. Also, by using wind turbines we are saving the Earth, ozone, humans, and animals from many pollutants that other energy sources would give out. Hopefully more ideas of non-polluting energy keep surfacing!
http://videos.kansascity.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=3563690
Wind energy is certainly a very important renewable energy source. Slowly the world has been putting up more turbines in a hope to harness this power. "Experts estimate that in the United States alone if the 10 windiest states were to fully utilize their available wind sources the energy produced could offset the entire coal-based power production facilities currently being used and replace them entirely." I put this in quotes since this has been stated over and over again. With facts like this it is hard to understand why we don't just put up turbines in those states. Hopefully you can do more research into the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy.
ReplyDeleteStevie, I didn't realize you had "wind farm" exposure. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on that topic when we visit the Greensburg wind farm and when we watch the movie "Windfall". We'll also have a guest lecutre from a WSU engineer who teaches a class on wind turbines. It should be interesting. If you are so inclined, you could do one of your research papers on policies regarding the siting of wind farms, or something similar. As your post indicates, it is easy to see that there are moral issues at stake, and the tradeoffs are often between individual interests vs. collective interests.
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