I remember reading somewhere (probably my high school textbook) that one of the reasons people don’t like wind power being built is they cause visual pollution.
In my opinion, I think it would be pretty cool to just look out my window and see a giant windmill there, the opposite of visual pollution.
“Visual pollution” is a bullshit term that rich people came up with to keep them from being built near their vacation resorts. It means “ugly”
Even if we agree that it causes visual pollution, I’d argue that visual pollution from fossil fuels is many multitudes worse. Case in point, major chinese and indian cities.
And light pollution is technically a part of visual pollution, and that is a big deal.
I was in New Delhi when the AQI was ~700, that is MUCH worse than visual pollution. My lungs started hurting within 20 minutes of being outside, and a huge amount of people on the domestic flight I was on (mostly local residents) had coughs.
Sometimes “ugly” is even “not pretty and wealthy looking”.
Wind turbines aren’t pretty but they’re not any more of an eye sore as overhead power lines or whatever. And at least it’s a symbol of caring about being sustainable.
A lot of people like to move all the “ugly” elsewhere out of their sight and then call those places shitholes. It doesn’t bother them they’re just moving the infrastructure where the less wealthy have to deal with it. They’d rather a coal plant destroy a lower class city in pollution than see wind turbines near their upper class neighbourhood.
I think any place that rejects renewables should get a coal fired power plant instead. Let them reconsider it as their kids grow up with heavy metals and all the other shit these things spew out.
We stayed at a private beach resort once and I never want to again. Sure it was nice for a bit having so much space to yourself, but I miss you guys. I missed the +90 year old couples holding hands, the kids hopped up on ice cream and youth and BEACH, the young families holding a newborn, the middle aged bikers, the weird guy driving a model T, teenagers being sullen and prodding jellyfish, dogs who look like they are in heaven, hipster bicycles, processed meat fried in sugar somehow, arcades that still take coins run by crooked carnies, the 12 guys who decided to dig a really deep hole, the weird religious ethnic immigrant group just chillin…
I missed humanity in all its loud happy glory. This is the way we are meant to have fun, together. Not alone on some beach chair while someone underpaid changes our towels.
That’s how they’ve been restricting multi home buildings for years. They don’t want it to lower their resale value by obstructing the skyline.
They look better than pump jacks and oil derricks.
Let alone power plants billowing steam and smoke
And they don’t damage the environment as much as a hydro dam
And nowhere as ugly as giant farms of solar
Honestly its probably the BEST looking power source
Wind needs energy storage but it generates a ton of electricity 👍⚡
Ah pump jacks are satisfying to watch too. And I mean derricks are temporary. But I’ve always liked windmills.
They look better than smoke stacks
And in all honesty they remind me of like a leisurely creek or small waterfall in that they kinda just keep going on in a pleasant consistent kind of way ya know?
Basically what I’m saying is that they’re pretty IMO
They look pretty sweet and they generally aren’t near populated areas
Windmills look so much better than rural Indiana
Would suggest a driving trip on I65 just north of Lafayette Indiana…
It is a flat boring patch of rural farm land just like the rest of rural indiana, but they added hundreds of wind turbines to the fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. It is truly a marvel to look at…
In essence, i drive through rural indiana every so often… i can definitively confirm that the section with windmills is far more interesting looking than the rest.
Yeah I drove from central ohio to Chicago once. The thing that struck me most was how little renewables ohio had. The wind farms were exactly what rural America needed to look fine.
But yeah also I advise against driving through rural Indiana because you still have to be there to do it
Other power sources also cause visual pollution and I like windmills better than columns of smoke.
Gray smoke is a worse type of visual pollution imo
Yeah and blurry vision is pretty shit.
I think they look really cool. I can’t get the rage about a friggin’ giant electricity producing machine but they’re fine with billboards everywhere.
Once The Man figures out that windmills would make good persistence-of-vision displays to play adverts on, I’m going to start burning them down.
They weren’t there was a big campaign against them in the 60s. Which led to the Highway Beautification Act.
I find them comforting in a reassuring, kinda awe inspiring way. Like, they’re a visual sign of at least trying to address climate change, and there’s something about having a giant, obviously artificial moving structure towering over the landscape that just gives me a sense of thrill and wonder that we are capable of building that. Those things are pretty massive if you get anywhere close to one, after all.
Windmills look pretty nice. I’ve only ever seen the “visual pollution” argument made by rich, entitled Karens and Fox News drones.
I think they’re pretty tbh. There’s a huge stretch of them in a field I drive through sometimes, and at night I like to just stop for a second and watch 95% of them all flash their light on top in sync across an impressive distance.
And sometimes there’s one or two flashing out of sync in a weird rhythm and I assume it’s like an error code which I think is pretty interesting
Its fossil fuel lobby propaganda.
No, I like the rhythmic visual quality. And on a conscious level they make me feel happy about clean electricity. I see windmills every single day and they do not get old for me.
I love seeing them on the horizon. I genuinely get excited to see them.
Like with anything, too much of it will look/taste/smell/sound bad.
Is that a reason in and of itself to not build wind power plants? No.
Personally I find wind power plants to look cool, a bit sci-fi and futuristic.
The argument that they are ugly is dumb, using a term like “visual pollution” is just a way to try and make a subjective oppinion sound like objective fact.
people arguing about visual pollution never had to worry about their kids growing up with asthma induced by exhaust fumes.
They did have to worry about it, but they chose not to anyway
