Thanks for the laugh, dude (Re: Ross McCullough’s Feb. 10 letter, Say no to wind power.) Global warming is a very real threat, and is based on actual scientific fact, both at home, as well as internationally. The former Conservative government worked for years to cover this threat up in order to please its corporate friends in the oil and coal industries. Wind power, as a source of electricity, is becoming more and more common, either as the sole source of electricity production, or, to help reduce the demand on other forms of electricity production. Despite your claims that it will never receive social licence, it's already doing just that as new wind energy projects start taking shape on the drawing board, or are already under construction (though few in number at this point). Countries like The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway are making extensive use of wind power to provide electricity. While the cost of constructing such power generating operations could be considered high, the trade off is the extreme low cost of operation. The public at large has already made it clear. No more pipelines. Not just because of legitimate environmental concerns, but also because there is no demand for new pipelines because the market is already saturated with cheap oil. I do agree that that there is a danger to birds, but new designs are being developed that will shift away from the current design to one that, not only takes up a small amount of space, but also could be enclosed in a safety cage (though the design makes this unlikely) to keep birds from being struck. The new design being developed is all vertical. In place of a propeller like blade, panels catch the wind and spin the turbine. From a distance, it looks like a smokestack, but close up, it's obvious what it is.
Kirsten Anderson, Kamloops, B.C.
