Tilting at Windmills

I write my column Tilting at Windmills in TCS Daily on 19 August 2003.

Applying the precautionary principle to wind power

Sometimes environmental issues are not as clear as you might think -- or as green activists want them to be.

Norges Naturvernforbund (Friends of the Earth Norway, the country's largest environmental campaign group) is criticizing plans to build a wind farm of 40 turbines, more than 100 meters high, on the island of Sleneset in the northern Norwegian commune of Nordland. "Wind turbines can be placed almost anywhere, but not here," says Gaute Dahl, chairman of the local committee in Nordland. "This plan should be stopped before it even gets to the drawing board." Quite a surprise to those of us who are accustomed to hearing environmentalists solidly back the increased use of wind power. Believe it or not, Naturvernforbund in Nordland may have some good points about wind power -- and perhaps Brussels should pay attention.

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