I thought this post in New Scientist was positively inspiring. So nice to read about someone who loves nature and science using what they know about the environment to inform their aesthetics.
Personally, I don't like the idea of wind farms taking over all our skylines. Particularly the Rimutakas or the Tararuas in the reserve. I love how much of New Zealand feels like it doesn't have people crawling all over it. And it is a shock to come over a ridge in the middle of nowhere and see a big pile of modernity covering a hill top.
One of the peculiar things about England is the way even the forrests have been managed for hundreds of years. Almost nothing has been left quietly minding its own business.
But, I have a powerful antipathy for the Clyde dam. How anyone could drown the meeting of the Clutha and Kawarau rivers is a mystery to me. And consequently I'd rather see intermittant wind farms in the North Island (where the power is used) than another hydro damn down South.
In a world where everything has an ugly side, it seems to make sense to see beauty where we are helping things instead of harming them.
That said, I also think Wellingtonians should have very small wind turbines on their roofs. People say that it would create noise pollution, but I think we live with constant wind noise and car noise and it would reduce my ability to hear the neighbour's bad taste in dance music.
Posted by carla at April 14, 2005 04:11 PM