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Do I need to say that this page should not be taken entirely
seriously?
Some wind turbine opponents could think it is for real! |
Sage advicePeople like Sarah Laurie of the Waubra Foundation (WF) travel around Australia, indeed, around the world, telling anyone who will listen that if a wind farm is going to be built near them they must expect to become ill. There are those out there who claim that this is a self-fulfilling prophecy, that when she spreads the expectation of sickness it makes people anxious and fearful and the anxiety and fear can then lead to illness; it's called the nocebo effect. But this is just what health scientists say; 'Dr' Sarah Laurie knows better. After all, she is a doctor.Some qualificationOh, OK, it is true that Sarah Laurie is not qualified to do medical research and is not registered as a doctor and has stopped calling herself a doctor and hasn't practiced medicine for years, and didn't practice very long; but at least she did practice medicine for a while.
Immunity in someStrangely, those of us who find no particular faults with wind turbines, those who have (and get paid for having) turbines on their property, and those who work on wind farms, are mysteriously immune to the DWTR. Some of us (I must admit that I am one such) even enjoy sleeping beneath turbines and get a perfectly good night's sleep every time we do so; some even claim that the sound of the turbines is restful (again, I must admit fault here). How silly is that?Ignorant scientistsAustralia's new PM, Tony Abbott well knows that science and scientists are not to be trusted. That is why his government is the first in about 80 years without a Science Minister (it might also be a contributing factor to his being one of the least popular Prime Ministers in Australian history). Sure science has shown us how the Universe works, but when you get down to it, scientists admit that science proves nothing.
PM Abbott is intending to fund a study (see Flinders University Wind Farm Noise Study) into the health impacts of wind turbines, while at the same time saying that he can't imagine why anyone would demonise coal (which causes at least two million deaths each year from air pollution). Infrasound doesn't fit the billThere has been a tendency in recent times to blame wind turbine illnesses on infrasound, but there are problems with this. The South Australian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced a report titled "Infrasound levels near windfarms and in other environments" in January 2013. Extracts from the Executive Summary:
DWTR is the causeThat is why I think that the cause must be Diabolical Wind Turbine Radiation. Infrasound, being a physical thing, has to obey the laws of physics. If the rays are diabolical then science doesn't come into it.Whatever it is that is coming from wind turbines doesn't obey the inverse square law of physics (everything else does). If it did, how could we explain the fact that people like wind farm workers are immune and people living kilometres away get sick? And why is it that wind turbine illnesses are practically unknown in Western Australia and in non-English speaking countries. But if the mysterious radiation is diabolical then it doesn't have to obey the laws of physics; how is that for clever? The rays, being diabolical, are free to zero in on special people and ignore the rest of us, just as demons do (or so we are told). Where should you look for reliable information?Anyway, anyone with any intelligence would ignor the scientists and look to reliable sources such as Alan Jones, Stop These Things and the Landscape Guardians for their facts.OK, OK, I know that STT is written by someone who is not willing to give his own name and who thinks that name-calling is clever, and I know that the Landscape Guardians are not really interested in environmental matters at all; they just oppose wind farms and pretend to be environmentalists, and I know that Alan Jones is continually in trouble with ACMA (the Australian Communications and Media Authority) for passing off his opinion as fact, but they know everything about wind power! (Take their words for it.) Serious footnoteMention of Dr Laurie's limited medical experience might be condemned as a personal attack. I believe that it is justified because she has relied heavily on her title of doctor, until very recently, to legitimise her claims. Now that she is calling herself simply Sarah Laurie perhaps people will take less notice of her ridiculous, unsupported, and above all, harmful claims. People respect medical doctors because medical doctors are generally very careful to behave responsibly and give reliable advice. I believe that Sarah Laurie has misused this respect and has harmed the respected position of medical doctors in general. |