Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, November 18, 2008
Books Lynda Barry Vs. the Turbines
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 2:29 PM
Slog Tipper Alyson points us to this lovely Vice Magazine interview with Lynda Barry. It begins exactly the way every interview with Lynda Barry should begin:
Vice: You. Are. Amazing.
But then the minute Barry starts talking, it's clear she's distracted:
Lynda Barry: Thanks, but I’m not feeling very amazing at all. Ever since I found out an industrial wind farm is being planned for right beside our place—67 turbines, each standing 40 stories tall, 1,000 feet from our door. We’re looking at losing everything we’ve worked for—maybe having to move and start over. I’ll try not to mention it again, but if you would like to know more about a whole other side of “wind energy” you can visit the website I run for our community. It’s at betterplan.squarespace.com. I do want people to know these machines are not benign. They bring a lot of misery to those who are forced to live among them.
She says she'll try not to mention it again, but about a quarter of the interview is about the turbines. The other three quarters is great stuff, though, and I think, in many ways, it wouldn't be a great Lynda Barry interview without some sort of sad distraction pulling on the edges of it.
2
At $1000 annually per site and $6000 annually per turbine it sounds as if this could be a good source of income for finacially strapped rural communities. Since someone always lives near someplace, just about anything which is built for the benefit of the public at large is going to displease someone. I wonder if she would rather have a coal-fired electric plant over a wind farm.
3
Why does she hate America so?
I say we use her basement to store depleted uranium if she doesn't want a wind farm ...
I say we use her basement to store depleted uranium if she doesn't want a wind farm ...
4
Linda Barry is right, though. It's not fun to live next to turbines. However, it's much worse to live next to coal -fueled power plants, or pretty much any other energy source.
5
I'm so sick of these enviro-weenies who complain about stuff like this. So poor, poor Lynda has to deal with a wind farm nearby. Well, boo-freakin'-hoo. It's better than having an unbreathable atmosphere, dontcha think? How do these people want us to produce electricity? By riding on a bamboo-and-palm-fronds stationary bicycle like on Gilligan's Island?
The truth is that what the hardcore environmentalists really want is for the whole world to go back to pre-industrial conditions, using zero electricity, no cars, etc. And that's soooo realistic, isn't it?
The truth is that what the hardcore environmentalists really want is for the whole world to go back to pre-industrial conditions, using zero electricity, no cars, etc. And that's soooo realistic, isn't it?
7
I fully support conversion to an exclusively bamboo-and-palm-fronds stationary bicycle-based energy economy.
8
I had a nightmare once where wind turbines become the dominant source of power on Earth and we built them in all the places where the wind was strong. Every horizon, every vista, every panorama included wind turbines. It solved all our energy problems and we lived in a utopian society, but it destroyed our weather systems and the earth turned into a desert. We just learned to live with it because we had all the power we needed, but the earth became a barren, hostile place and all the beautiful trees and gardens were lost. It was very sad.
11
Like someone else said, which kind of power plant would she like to have 1000 feet from her house? Coal, Nuclear, cow-shit methane...?
12
@5 - Yes, she speaks for all hardcore earth-hugging environmentalists out there. You've exposed us, we're all NIMBY whiners, every last one. Good catch.
14
Well, it sounds like 1000 feet is too close to build a turbine next to a residence... I remember the sounds of the fans over the apple orchards in Eastern Washington, and those are only what 1/6? 1/4? the scales of wind farm fans. I feel for these people, but this is what happens when civic leadership is not up on an issue.
16
@4 - it's not fun to live next to a coal or oil fired power source either - or next to a mining operation.
17
Enviro-weenies taste like chicken. chicken can be easily shredded and cooked in desert environments with plenty of steel-blade wind turbines. Chicken, and things that taste like chicken, can be prepared in such a way as to provide nourishment.
Convenient!
Convenient!
18
Living within a 1000 feet of a freeway, an elementary school or an ambulance station can be a noisy drag too. Let's get rid of all those!
19
The point Barry is trying to make is that wind energy isn't any different than other sources of energy. Kudos to her for trying to make sure it has as little impact on the environment as possible.
23
@22: Aw jeez, if I had to stop liking a work of art or entertainment just because the person who made it somehow disappointed me, I'd never get to read, watch or listen to anything. Hell, I'd have to give up listening to Prince, and that ain't gonna happen.
24
I'm trying to imagine choosing Rock County WI as the place to build a life and I can't think of any reason that wouldn't be court-ordered. Few distractions- that must be it.
25
If I'm going to have to live next to a power plant I'll take wind over coal, oil, nuke, geothermal, just about anything. When it comes down to it we have to get our power from somewhere. No matter how you get it it's going to bother someone. At some point you have to decide what's best for most of us.
On the other hand, it's a big country. We've got lots of space. Aren't there places we could put these that aren't 1000ft from someone's house? Of course you need to be somewhere with lots of wind so I guess that limits it a lot.
On another note, am I the only person in the country who likes seeing wind turbines? I get a little chill of excitement every time I see a good sized wind farm. I like the way they look and I love just knowing that they're there.
On the other hand, it's a big country. We've got lots of space. Aren't there places we could put these that aren't 1000ft from someone's house? Of course you need to be somewhere with lots of wind so I guess that limits it a lot.
On another note, am I the only person in the country who likes seeing wind turbines? I get a little chill of excitement every time I see a good sized wind farm. I like the way they look and I love just knowing that they're there.
26
Last night on KCTS there was a program called "Kilowatt Ours" which explored processes by which individuals can use less power from polluting power plants. Some families who owned wind turbines to run their farms were featured. These were quite large, and produced more enrgy than they needed to run their farms and homes. No one mentioned noise as a negative by-product. Of course, these were farm folks, not self-involved ex-urbanists.
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