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That was an interesting piece on wind power by Phil Thompson from a recent posting. Certainly we have to move away from fossil fuels and wind is a great alternative, but to be truly sustainable the newer wind generators have to be local like yours, not gigantic offshore platforms built on the same economies of scale ad infinitum principles (bigger is not always better). If we were to follow that plan we'd be switching from one set of super-power TNCs in control of fossil fuels to other super-power TNCs that "manage" wind energy as they see fit. This solution seems to reproduce the some of the same contradictions of the present system which inevitably seeks to remove local control, to centralize it and to profit from it. Furthermore, wind may be a wonderful source of energy that can be transformed into electricity relatively cleanly, but it is unrealistic to suggest that we adopt a wind bias in order to replace our exorbidant level of usage of fossil fuels. In that event wind generators might be as serious a problem as the automobile (covering thousands of acres of land or sea, rendering much of it off limits to the public). In at least the mid-term, I believe that nothing will sustainably "replace" fossil fuels. What needs to be replaced is the continual creation of new "needs" through the ever increasing branding of the world. (Here is our cultural taboo) We need to use less stuff, including energy. Wind could provide essential energy for communities, but it must not "fuel" the illusion of another economy freed from fossil fuels but still committed to infinite economic growth. I have also seen a bit of information by advocates of sail power for transport ships (again the same ecomonies of scale critique applies). In fact outside of our hyper-growth economies sail power is still used for large amounts of regional trade which never gets counted as economic rents because the trade is mainly for locally self-reliant communities. Paul Shreenan Ecolos, CKDU -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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