Sustainability
Sustainability may be defined as the capacity to endure. In this day of age, we humans are trying to live in a more sustainable society. Due to our errors in the past with careless dumping of toxins into lakes, immense trash pile-ups, and the pouring of pollutants into the air, we are trying to become more environmentally aware. It is crucial to understand the importance of sustainability. We need to find and harvest sustainable energy sources, so we do not continue tot destroy our planet. Groups such as NIMBY (not in my backyard), that might seem to be environmentally friendly, are actually impeding the use sustainable energy.
With the dwindling numbers of fossil fuels, it is important to find other energy sources. Harvesting the power of natural resources such as wind, water, and sunlight can be beneficial to humanity. For one, there is no burning of fossil fuels involved since these are natural raw forces. Many residents of towns in southern Ontario are opposed to companies constructing wind farms near Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair. These residents are also against the building of wind turbines in farmers' fields and along Ontario Highway 401 (Ferenc, 2009). These wind farms will provide an excellent source of renewable energy. This renewable energy is not harmful to our planet or it’s atmosphere, in the way fossil fuels are.
NIMBY tries to provide many reasons for not wanting to build wind farms. Most of these appear to be environmentally friendly. However many are pointless. NIMBY is concerned with the wind farms effects on the avian migration patterns, the noise associated with wind-powered energy, the unattractiveness of the towers themselves, and the possibility of upturning toxic sludge from beneath the lake-beds during construction and when the wind towers cause vibrations. Most of these points are invalid. Birds are at risk when it comes to the wind towers. However, a study estimates that wind farms are responsible for 0.3 to 0.4 fatalities per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity while fossil-fueled power stations are responsible for about 5.2 fatalities per GWh (Sovacool, 2009). This shows that fossil fuel power is about 10 times more dangerous. NIMBY thinks that the noise the wind turbines will provide is harmful to humans. Renewable UK, a wind energy trade organization, has said that the noise measured 350m from a wind farm is less than that from normal road traffic or in an office (RenewableUK, 2010). The unattractiveness of the towers is not harming anyone. The final point about the upturning of sludge is a possibility, but it is minimal pollution compared to fossil fuel burning.
The main reason NIMBY groups are opposed to these wind farms is because they don’t want it near them. That can no longer be used as a reason. When the environment is getting destroyed by the minute, anything we can do to should be done. These wind farms will create 50,000 job opportunities over the three years as well raise the amount of renewable energy being used to fight climate change (Ferenc, 2009). Toronto Hydro purposed placing 60 wind turbines in shallow water on a natural reef up to four kilometers off shore, from Leslie St. to Ajax, to create up to 200 megawatts of electricity, one megawatt being enough to power 300 homes (Ferenc, 2009). So it doesn’t take much to see that the wind turbines would be beneficial environmentally and economically.
We must take advantage of all the technological advancements coming out in order to have sustainability. Organizations, such as NIMBY, pose a threat to the development of a more environmentally friendly future. When all is taken into account; i.e. the job opportunities, the energy savings, and the reduction of fossil fuel burning, wind farms are the way to go.
Sources:
Ferenc, Leslie. (2009, February 11). McGuinty vows to stop wind-farm NIMBYs. The Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/585591
Noise from Wind Turbines - The Facts. (2010). RenewableUK. Retrieved November 6 from
http://www.bwea.com/ref/noise.html
Sovacool, Benjamin. Contextualizing avian mortality: A preliminary appraisal of bird and
bat fatalities from wind, fossil-fuel, and nuclear electricity. (2009, June). Science
Direct. Retrieved November 6 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science
Sustainable. In Mariam Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/sustainability
