Save the planet: Clear cut old growth forest

Another day, another hypocrisy from the environmental movement:

Dixville Peak Wind Towers?

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A couple of us rode over the peak yesterday and the very top was closed due to logging. We stopped to inquire and were told they were clearing the top, down to the 2700 ft elevation for the installation of Wind Towers. 2700 feet is roughly where the "T" intersection (134/110) is on the South side of the peak.

They said they were clearing it all by April 1st, and that 30 Wind Towers were being installed in the area (maybe 30 including those at this location).

This is a group of snowboarders, discussing why all of a sudden the forest they're used to is all being cut down.  One of them stops to talk to the people working, and gets details:

• 33 Turbines in total. 8 at Dixville [New Hampshire - Borepatch] Peak, 13 on Mt Kelsey & Owlhead, and 12 on Fishbrook.

• 410 Feet high, rotor of 295 ft diameter

• Each requires 1.6 acre total clearing around them.

• Will be lit at night per FAA regulations.

Cool - so the intermittent power generated by the windmills will be used to light the windmills up so that nobody flies into them at night.  And where is this?

I'm a fan of finding and using other sources of energy, but this is not the place. These towers are being installed in one of the FEW locations in the state where there is no evidence the area has EVER been logged. Now there will be 30 concrete platforms and a 30' wide gravel road across the top of these ridges. Why don't we install the towers, 1 on top of each of those skyscrapers in the cities? Those are already an eye sore, can't make them any worse. This project is turning 'God's Country' into disaster.

Silly sledders.  Eggs, omelets, and all that.  The Very Smart Environmentalists are very busy trying to Save The Planet™ and sacrifices must be made.  Now shut up and do as you're told.

I guess I'll have to update my take on wind power: unreliable, intermittent power that's five times the cost of alternatives and which causes virgin forest to get clearcut.  Other than that, it's awesome.

(Via)

UPDATE 8 March 2011 16:13: Bishop Hill discovers more unintended consequences of environmental programs:

A few months back there was a report that the low-energy lightbulbs demanded by environmentalists and served up by a complicit government are causing dangerously high levels of mercury in children's bedrooms. Now, in strangely similar news, it is reported that recycled cardboard is causing some foods to have dangerously high levels of mineral oils.

Cool.  We can add "poisoning babies with mercury" and "poisoning everyone's food" to "kill endangered birds".  Boy, it sure is a good thing that progressives are so Very Much Smarter than everyone, or something bad might happen!