Three of my letters have, recently, been published in the Western Mail and two of them must have 'really annoyed' pro wind turbine lovers as they responded with a lot of 'hot air' which, of course, provided me with a wonderfiul opportunity to respond and to reveal some further facts as to why we must fight against the 'windmilling of Cymru'.
See sequence of letters below. beginning with letter no 1 from me then a response. Then, a response to the response from me. followed by another letter of 'attack' and a final letter of response to that attack from me.
Sir - Congratulations to the people of Trefaldwyn for their deserved victory in getting Powys County Council to finally realize the folly of the windmills of mass destruction of our countryside. Let us now hope that the rest of Cymru also sees sense and follows the guidance of Powys and that our ‘so called’ government in Bae Caerdydd acts as a ‘true’ government should and refuses to participate in Westminster’s latest strategy of colonial exploitation in Cymru.
Windynimbyism SIR – Has Sian Ifan ever had a Lee Enfield pushed into her face or starved on a rubber plantation (Letters, July 16)?
See sequence of letters below. beginning with letter no 1 from me then a response. Then, a response to the response from me. followed by another letter of 'attack' and a final letter of response to that attack from me.
Sir - Congratulations to the people of Trefaldwyn for their deserved victory in getting Powys County Council to finally realize the folly of the windmills of mass destruction of our countryside. Let us now hope that the rest of Cymru also sees sense and follows the guidance of Powys and that our ‘so called’ government in Bae Caerdydd acts as a ‘true’ government should and refuses to participate in Westminster’s latest strategy of colonial exploitation in Cymru.
The ball now is firmly back in the court of the Welsh Assembly Government and it is they, along with the Welsh MEP’s, MP’s and Welsh Lords, that should be opening up the “2nd front” in London whilst Anti Wind Farms groups in Cymru must unite in order to continue with the campaign to rid our nation of this scourge once and for all. Towards achieving this end, we must awaken our people to the horrifying truth in regards to what effect the TAN 8 strategy will have on our countryside; we must awaken our people to fully realise what is being done to our motherland in the name of green imperialism and eco colonialism.
Siân Ifan
CEO Embassy Glyndŵr
SIR – There is so much wrong with the sentiments expressed in the letter from Sian Ifan of Embassy Glyndŵr (July 5) that I scarcely know where to start.
Firstly, the outright opposition to wind farms. I can only say to Sian, wake up and open your eyes. Fossil fuels are running out – a report in The Ecologist (June 28) indicates that peak oil is coming even sooner than was thought.
Like so many wind farm opponents, Sian utterly fails to consider that the current provision of our energy is unsustainable or to recognise that alternatives need to be found and soon. I do not say that wind farms are the only solution, but we need renewable sources to provide a much greater proportion of our energy in the very near future.
Secondly, Sian wants to protect natural beauty and I’m in full agreement there. But if Sian wants to see “mass destruction” then look at the tarnished earth website (tarnishedearth.co.uk).
The pictures are also on show in St Mary Street in Cardiff and they show the utter desolation being created in Alberta as oil companies lay waste to our planet in a desperate attempt to scrape the bottom of the oil barrel. Compared to that, wind farms and pylons are a small price to pay.
If Sian is happy for other parts of the world to be devastated just to maintain the status quo a little longer, this is nimbyism of the highest order.
Lastly, the attempt by Sian to use anti-English sentiment to play a political game over energy supply is utterly cynical and revolting. We need energy from renewable sources; to reject any way forward that will take Wales to an even worse economic situation than it is in now.
MARTIN RENDLE
SIR – I am very aware we need to find suitable renewable energy for Cymru (“A small price to pay”, Letters, July 12) but churning up every acre of our nation so gigantic and next-to-useless wind turbines can be stabbed into the earth of our motherland is definitely not the answer as has been proved in other European countries that took the lead with onshore wind.
Let us take Denmark as one example, a country that has 6,000 turbines for a population of five million people. They have ceased to support new on-shore wind developments because they have learnt the hard way that wind is unreliable.
Too much wind means that the turbines have to be switched off as wind cannot be stored; then no wind means that they’re totally useless but, subsidies are still paid to wind farm developers and in Denmark’s case, businesses and consumers, since 2005, have paid more than £620m in subsidies through their electricity bills which are the highest in Europe.
Why should our nation, again, have to pay the price with capitalist exploitation of its communities and expropriation of its resources.
We have, continuously, for centuries, had to suffer the “rape of our fair country” by the likes of Anglo-Norman lords such as the Beaufort land-grabbing family and the copper, Iron, coal and slate masters.
We already have more than 400 turbines in Cymru with planning applications for many more being placed before Cymric councils by large wind farm developers through their Welsh collaborators. I, for one, am not prepared to stand by and watch an “absurd” and worthless strategy turn our beautiful nation into a wasteland of cemeteries for these expensive and useless turbines and their pylon infrastructures just so a few capitalist parasites can become billionaires on the backs of the “Gwerin”.
The Gwerin will, again, be footing the cost of it all for years to come through continual rises in their electricity bills – while the Duke of Beaufort will get £7m a year in subsidies for having 19 turbines on the 4,000 acres of Land that his Anglo Norman ancestors gained around Swansea.
And no, I am not “happy for other parts of the world to be devastated” either Mr Rendle. And they needn’t be – any more than Cymru need be. There are better choices of renewable energy available and as Joel Rawson from the Centre for Alternative Technology has argued, these other and better choices need to be explored in more detail – and I would add, adopted as “wiser” strategies that would benefit indigenous peoples everywhere.
I always find it puzzling when Western liberal environmentalists living in Cymru can empathise and sympathise so much with communities in danger of being destroyed in other parts of the world but cannot see the same dangers in regards to the nation they’ve chosen to live in.
I don’t think it’s me who needs to wake up and open my eyes, Mr Rendle.
SIÂN IFAN
CEO Embassy Glyndwr
Windynimbyism
Probably not – but then those who oppose wind farms seem to have no problem using words like colonialism, imperialism , rape and holocaust with no idea or experience of the reality of these things.
The planet is heating up because of the CO² we are putting into the atmosphere and the oil is running out. If Ms Ifan can’t see that then I suggest she enter a process called “growing up”.
If she is so concerned about the landscape and wildlife why just wind farms, why not opencast mines and factory farms?
Those who oppose wind farms want to use energy but can’t face the consequences of doing so.
She can of course give us all an alternative that she is prepared to stick by and champion when it comes to opposition but one thing is intrinsic to windynimbyism: despite many requests no alternative is ever forthcoming.
Let’s make Wales a sustainable society by building the turbines and other renewable technology here where we can address the issues of poverty and climate change at the same time.
Green collar economy or rural la la land (propped up by EU subsidy) – easy choice to make methinks.....
NIGEL BAKER
Cardiff
Cardiff
My Reply to the above when published in the Western Mail of Saturday 23 July had been shortened to suit but I would like you all to see the full version that was sent for publishing, as follows.
Sir - Re letter by Nigel Baker (19 July 2011) entitled 'Windynimybism'.
No, Mr Baker, I do not know what it's like to have had a Lee Enfield
I am the daughter of a quarry worker and the granddaughter of a coal miner. Many of my friends are also from slate or coal mining backgrounds and our families have suffered over three centuries of English ‘slate masters’ as well as native Anglo-Cambro coal capitalists. Both my grandfather and my father died in their early fifties, one of silicosis, the other of emphysema. They worked hard in dangerous conditions for poverty wages and there was no ‘compensation’ for their families when they died; so I think I have more experience of the “reality of these things” than a 'Green fascist' blowing enough hot air that can only add to Global Warming not help decrease it?
If you seriously care about the effects of the CO² that is being put into the atmosphere, then you should consider the enormous C02 emissions that is being generated as a result of the constructing of these turbines through the mining and the smelting of the metals used for their construction, through the carbon-intensive cement needed for their huge concrete foundations, and through the building and widening of roads needed to take them on site - not to mention the releasing of immense quantities of CO2 from the peat bogs where many Wind farms are built. Yet, the English government intends to spend £100billion on the construction of 10,000 or more of these turbines in the next few years plus another £40billion on connecting them all to the national grid to ensure that we hit the 15% renewable target by 2020.
60% of Cymru is within the TAN 8 area and we know that there are planning applications for the construction of Wind farms put forward in areas than are not within the TAN 8 designated area so one can immediately envisage what Cymru will look like in a few years time if this ‘lunacy’ is allowed to continue.
Every community in Cymru has got more than enough in natural resources to provide the needed ‘green’ energy for its community, and If you would like to contact me Mr Baker, I can show you proof of how an individual in my home town of Blaenau Ffestiniog has been doing just that for the last thirty five years but no, our ‘London masters’ have dictated that our nation must be ripped apart, again, and every acre filled by gigantic turbines and their pylon infrastructures to provide electricity for the U.K.’s hungry national grid, and as has been the case with our water, they’ll take it and make the Welsh Gwerin pay for the development of it through hidden costs in their electricity bills just as we’ve had to pay the highest water rates in the U.K. for decades for our own water!
And if you seriously care about the effects of war Mr Baker, please wake up to the realisation that global corporate international capitalism really does needs a plentiful supply of ‘cheap’ energy to power its armaments industry. Yes Mr Baker, I’m referring to that armament industry that is currently supplying the bombs that is being dropped on three Islamic nations and that will continue to supply arms and planes to tyrants all over the Third World to enable them to further wars so they may continue to exploit native peoples of their natural resources.
Your response to my letter Mr Baker is just the sort of hysteria we expect to witness from such arrogant 'green fascism' as increasingly, the fallacy in regards to the effectiveness of wind farms is challenged and exposed world wide. Westminster is well aware of this fallacy which is why they are currently considering the advice of Centrica and other energy companies that 17 gas -fired power stations, at a cost of a further £10billion to the tax payer, will be needed by 2020 to provide electricity to back up wind power when the turbines don’t produce or when they over produce and have to be turned off!.
I am not a ‘nimby’ Mr Baker; I do not regard Cymru as my back yard but rather as a beautiful garden that I must assist to protect from the swine that will devour it so that it will survive as a legacy to hand down to future generations. And, for the record, I do oppose ‘open Cast mining’ and have supported Native Americans in their campaigns against ‘strip mining’. I support the campaign against badger culls and most certainly oppose factory farming and all forms of cruelty to animals and peoples where ever they occur.
Siân Ifan
C.E.O. Embassy Glyndŵr.
