Once again, the intrepid comedy idealists of Human Nature ride out into the American hinterlands to joust not so much “with” windmills as “for” them.
Residents of the remote island nation of Tuvalu are convinced that if global temperatures are allowed to increase more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, they will be doomed to inundation by the rising sea. Many other low-lying countries share that fear, and a number of African nations are already in deep distress from drought and other climatic events. … Goodbye Tuvalu. So long Sudan. It was fun while it lasted. You should have migrated north when you had a chance a few thousand years ago. Now who’s next?
— Petrolia resident David Simpson, reporting from the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit
Neither Bear River Ridge, one of the most beautiful places in the world, nor Ferndale, with its stately old Victorians, can be forced to become an industrial wind production zone, right? Or can they? Or should they be sold at any price if the deal, in the balance, threatens what’s best for the whole community?
— Petrolia resident David Simpson inveighing against the Shell Wind Energy project in a letter to the Ferndale Enterprise, 2012.
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The Lost Coast Outpost takes no particular pleasure in reporting that Petrolia resident and climate change superactivist David Simpson – a man it has long admired and esteemed – thinks that the struggle to reduce carbon emissions before entire populations sink under the sea is not quite as urgent as it once was, given that someone now wants to build windmills in his pristine viewshed.
But we’ll note that the Shell Wind Project is forecast to produce 50 megawatts of emission-free electricity, at minimum. That’s roughly a third of the power produced by the Humboldt Bay Power Plant, one of the cleanest natural gas generators in the nation, which nevertheless pumped 336,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere last year — the equivalent of 66,000 automobiles.
Goodbye, Tuvalu! So long, Sudan!
Previously: Shell Wind Project: Ferndale Has Plenty of Hot Air
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