Declan Martin damns wind turbine moratotium

(The Shepparton News today published an opinion piece by reporter Declan Martin which was further evidence of a shift in public opinion that coal belongs in the ground and should not be used of source of energy. Martin also sees the upcoming federal election as an opportunity to rid ourselves of hypocritical members of government members who stand in the way of progress through their endorsement of ideas that held sway last century.)

Let’s hope the upcoming election can clean out some characters that deter progress in this country, such as tin-foil hat-wearing, Senators John Madigan and David Leyonhjelm, who are asking for a moratorium on building wind turbines because of the health concerns to those who live nearby.

These are ridiculous claims that are actually being taken seriously, meanwhile, countries, such as Denmark and Germany, are progressing with renewable technology, while Australia is being blocked from building wind turbines.

Recently it was reported that $3.3 million would be spent on two university studies into the affects of wind turbines, particularly infrasound created by the blades — that’s taxpayers’ money that is better directed elsewhere.

This infrasound is also created by a number of sources, such as the ocean, traffic and refrigerators, but as common sense prevails we aren’t switching our fridges off . . . yet.

One has to wonder what would be the outcome of a similar study on coal mining and coal-power stations and their environmental and health outcomes?

The conservative Senators hearts bleed for a handful of people who claim they are ‘‘affected by infrasound’’, but don’t care about the people who have to live near coal mines where the ground is blown up and heavy machinery works 24 hours, seven days a week.

In the vast majority of these times these people have to live with it because a state government has rubber stamped the expansion of a mine beyond the original limitations.



Shepparton
News reporter,
Declan Martin.

Huge areas of ground, often farming land, is ripped up for coal mining along with animal habitat, nobody bats an eyelid, but heaven forbid an anecdotal claim about headaches created by renewal energy and all hell breaks loose.

Coal dust particles are small enough to cause serious health impacts and correlate with poor respiratory health in the regions where coal is king, but that’s not a concern to Mr Madigan and Mr Leyonhjelm.

I’m not saying wind power is the answer, but surely there shouldn’t be some campaign against it happening because it’s hypocrisy of the highest order.

The Coalition Government will say to the media and in press releases, ‘‘We’re all about progress and are happy for renewable energy’’, but their actions speak louder than their words.