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7. This is my view on pubic speaking...
There are two things that are more difficult than making a public speech:
climbing a wall which is leaning toward you, and
kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.
— Winston Churchill
15. We’ve come
full circle.
First we’re told that the planet is
facing immanent catastrophe —
then a salesman comes to our
community with a solution! The
spiel is that we can do something
consequential to help prevent this
global disaster — and we can
make some easy money in the
process. What a deal!
20. Some Relevant Carl Sagan Quotes To Ponder —
1 - Skeptical scrutiny is the means by which deep thoughts can be separated
from deep nonsense.
2 - We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology,
in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
3 - I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science
there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.
4 - We have arranged things so that almost no one understands science and
technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for
awhile, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and
power is going to blow up in our faces.
38. The processing of
Rare Earth Elements
involves dozens of steps,
of caustic chemical baths
or blast furnace separations.
Each of these results in a
waste stream
of severely polluted
air, water, and residue.
39. I know of no US media or environmental
organization who have adequately reported on
this horrific situation — but here are the stark
conclusions from an English investigation...
40. The processing of the
Rare Earth Elements,
for the 80 MW Pantego project will...
1) destroy 16,000± square meters of vegetation,
2) generate 5,000,000± cubic meters of highly toxic air pollution,
3) pollute 23,000,000± gallons of wastewater (making it poisonous),
4) produce 500,000,000± pounds of contaminated tailing sands, &
5) result in 80,000± pounds of radioactive waste.
41. Yes, that’s right:
processing the REEs
used by the Pantego turbines
results in 80,000± pounds of radioactive waste!
68. One likely consequence is that a few of the farmers
who have leases, will scale back their operation, or
stop farming entirely. Here is one of many examples
where this is exactly what happened elsewhere.
We will assume a low 10% of local leasing farmers will cut back on their operations.
71. BTW the Scottish Government is a promoter of wind energy, so they had a vested interest here.
In any case the researchers concluded that (even after taking into account new visitors to wind projects)
that (not surprisingly) there would be a net decrease in tourism.
We’ll use the mid-number of 4% as the average.
77. Note that this figure does NOT take into account
the additional human health costs associated with
things like an increase in mosquitoes.
I don’t have to tell you that your own website
acknowledges that this is already a problem,and
that mosquitoes spread such deadly diseases as
West Nile Virus & Eastern Equine Encephalitis.
78. Here is a scientific study about local weather impact from wind development...
79. Beaufort County Annual Economic Impact Due To Pantego
This does NOT include additional financial losses due to:
— The lower employment,
— Tax reductions from nearby property devaluations,
— Health effects from turbines,
— Health effects from insect proliferation,
— Higher cost of electricity, etc.
87. You can listen to the
breeze energy proponents,
and for sure they will
paint you a rosy picture.
That is their job...
The marketeers will tell you
carefully-crafted,enticing
stories about how the
shortcut through the woods
is easy money.
88. Anything you bring up to express a
concern about, the peddler is very
well-rehearsed to dismiss
as not being a problem.
(How many times did Bernie
Madoff do exactly that to people
who expressed concerns to him?)
89. But there are no guarantees!
When reality hits,
you will be on your own.