Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
offshore. In the 2012-2013 winter, there were 35,000 additional deaths. This correlates
with the increase in wind turbines and the increasing number of the people facing energy
poverty. It translates as six elderly, sick or vulnerable people dying each year for every
wind turbine, or six deaths per megawatt of wind power generated.
In the 2011-2012 winter, tens of thousands of trees disappeared from parks and
woodlandsacrossGreece.Impoverishedresidentsdidnothavemoneytopayforelectricity
and turned to fireplaces and wood stoves for cooking and heat. The same has occurred in
Germany.Thecombinationofacoldwinterandrisingenergycostshasforcedpeopletogo
collecting wood in the forests for home heating and cooking.
Governments cannot resist a new tax. The community sees carbon taxes as a tax
on rich, filthy industrialists and their polluting businesses. There is no such thing as
carbonpollutionandthecarbongasemittedfromindustryisCO
2
—acolourless,odourless,
non-toxic gas. CO
2
is plant food. It is good for life on Earth, and human emissions
are directly proportional to employment. There is a very low level of the community
scientific knowledge displayed when CO
2
is regarded as a pollutant rather than the key to
photosynthesis.
v. In order to stop climate change, energy sources need to be shifted from
coal, gas and oil to wind, solar, tidal and biomass
The 'alternative' energy systems such as wind and solar are environmentally disastrous.
Theycauselossofecosystems,destructionofwildlife,sterilisationofland,inordinatecosts
that may not be retrieved during the life of the system, and the emission of huge amounts
of CO
2
during construction. Furthermore, both wind and solar power are inefficient.
They can't provide 24/7 base-load power and need backup by coal-burning carbon
dioxide-emitting electricity generating plants. If Australia were to generate 50 per cent of
its energy needs from wind, an area the size of Tasmania would have to be clear-felled
and covered with wind turbines, because wind energy is low density. One large nuclear-
or coal-fired power station occupying a few hectares would generate the same amount of
energy.
Germany shut down eight nuclear power stations because of Green pressure. Although
Germany has a huge solar and wind generating industry, the unreliability of these
ideological power sources is such that Germany has now increased its CO
2
emissions by
building new thermal coal-power stations. German electricity prices are now almost twice
those of the US, and it is hurting. Ironically, the coal boom in Germany is a result of
Greenpeace's political success.
Denmark had been a very enthusiastic supporter of wind energy, but in 2004, it
decided to build no more wind farms because it was producing the most expensive
