Those who have followed the rollout of wind energy in Australia would have heard of the quaint Victorian town of Waubra–the location of one of Australia’s largest wind farms. Producing enough clean electricity for 143,000 households, more than enough to power Ballarat, Waubra’s 128 wind turbines offset a massive 635,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year which would have been generated by burning coal in the LaTrobe Valley.
While the town should be known for its leadership role addressing climate change and repowering Australia with renewable energy, its name has been tarnished by anti-wind farm lobbyists.
In 2010, the Waubra Foundation was formed by Peter Mitchell–a fossil fuel investor and wind farm opponent–and has unleashed a scare campaign about the alleged health risk of wind energy ever since. The organisation coopted the town’s name without consent of it residents. Unfortunately for locals, the town is linked to a so-called wind farm noise disease rather than its strong community and quality produce.
This all could be about the change.
Over a year in the making, independent filmmaker Neil Barrett has interviewed Waubra wind farmers, neighbours and locals to test the prevalence of negative views. Barratt has produced a short film entitled The Way The Wind Blows which counters the myths and gives locals a voice for the first time. The short film is a must view.
Friends of the Earth commend Neil Barrett for his commitment to the truth and courage to engage with the issue in a sensitive and respectful way. His efforts stand as a fine example of leadership to counter the spin of the anti-wind/renewable energy campaign. Hats off to the Victorian Wind Alliance for assisting Neil.
yes2renewables.org 
I hope these videos spread far and wide to reveal the blatant distortions of fact peddled by Sarah Laurie and her fellow quacks.
Let’s set the record straight.
Neil Barrett is a far-Left green activist, not an “independent” film maker.
In 1977 he co-authored an anti uranium book, “Red light for yellowcake”.
More recently he has been constantly involved in the promotion of wind energy, including close connection with the Hepburn Wind Farm. He is behind the on-going attempt to build a wind farm in the western part of Mt Alexander Shire.
He is the founder of the Mt Alexander Sustainability Group, and although he generally keeps a low profile, is extremely active in the background, preferring to let others cop the flack.
Barrett talked to some of the not-so-happy residents of Waubra, but naturally they didn’t get a look-in on any video; that would be too much like balance and fairness.
Barrett makes and sells “environmental” DVDs from a web site, Environment Audio Visuals, which includes titles such as ECO FASHION, GOING CARBON NEUTRAL, THE HOUSE WITH NO BILLS – A Case Study on Renewable Energy, RENEWING HOPE – Solar, Wind and Biomass in Germany and Australia (Barrett visited turbine maker Vestas in Germany some time ago), GOING CARBON NEUTRAL – The Ashton Hayes Example, Global Warming – Taking Action in Castlemaine.
As well as MASG (in which his wife still takes a visible role while he remains in the background) he is involved with Mount Alexander Community Wind (an MASG offshoot) and VicWind, all of which have offices in the same Castlemaine building.
Barrett has written many letters, articles and papers all strongly supporting wind farms. He is also a strong denier of any harmful effects from turbines.
Barrett is as entitled to make propaganda videos pushing the barrow of Big Wind and “Community” Wind (a.k.a. Small Commercial Wind) as anyone, but to even remotely suggest he is “independent” in any way, is committed to the truth and has engaged with the issue in a sensitive and respectful way isn’t just bending the truth, it’s breaking it half and throwing away the pieces.
Vote 1, Neil Barrett.
Gerri, you haven’t watched any of the videos, have you?
And how, exactly, does this invalidate the words of people living next to wind turbines, in some cases surrounded by more than 20 of them?
These are people who host wind turbines, and also their neighbours. They are farmers and rural dwellers.
There are more people saying clearly, plainly and bluntly in their own words that they are not experiencing any issues whatsoever than all recorded complainants related to Waubra.
What exactly does Mr. Barrett’s apparently excellent background have to do with what these people say? You and GeoPap seem to think he’s some sort of hypnotist, forcing people to say things that they don’t mean, or that the fact that as a film maker he’s greener than you are somehow makes the people’s words lies.
Please explain your reasoning.
Oh yeah, I the “bully” am forcing poor Barrett to say things he should have said…
Mike you and Chapman do such a wonderful job assassinating characters and identifying every possible cause to discredit someone, but when a devoted pro-wind figure produces a video, makes it sound like an independent investigation, discloses everything but fails to mention his role in promoting wind energy you see it perfectly normal…
Double standards seems your art-form.
Thanks for providing Mr Barrett’s CV. Hopefully I get to meet Mr Barrett one day. Sound’s like a great bloke.
FAR left. OMG! How dreadful to be concerned for the future of this planet, and to dare to write and make films about that. Why are so many people firmly sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that we don’t have a major climate disaster threatening us. All possible renewable energy sources should be explored. Or perhaps you’d prefer a nuclear power plant in your vicinity!
I don’t know who this Mr Barrett is but on the basis of the above testimonial, I would not be surprised if he were to be nominated for the next Australian of the Year award.
Haha John P Morgan you are a class act.
Now onto Gerri:
Independent: not subject to another’s authority or jurisdiction; autonomous; free: an independent filmmaker.
I don’t think anyone would deny that he has an opinion on wind power, why else would an independent filmmaker make a film highlighting the appropriateness of wind power?
I look forward to your next flaming comment because you are of course #neverwrong
Thanks for the bio, Gerri. Neil Barrett… What a guy!
`Gerri’, (who lives in Castlemaine and writes under many different names and prefers to get his information from tea party websites), I don’t think you would last long in ASIO with that many gross errors on just one file. I’ll deal with one of them. The word ‘independent’ in filmmaking relates to the financing of the film. I am in fact completely independent because I finance my (very low-budget) films myself. I hate to think what your sort of independent filmmaker would be like! But what really disturbs me `Gerri’ is that you don’t mention my pesky dalmation Goodie, my family connection with Hoadley’s Violet Crumbles, my aunt Trixie’s gender identity problems or the trouble I’m currently having with magpie swoops. As always, lots of room for improvement Gerri.
Neil, in your video your clearly created an illusion of “independence”.
And at the end of your video you carefully avoided mentioning any such disclosures (unlike those in your Senate submission) that would automatically reveal your patent bias on this matter.
Everyone needs a hobby, I suppose, and who am I to question Gerri’s need to stalk people and write dossiers on them. I don’t think you’re cut out for ASIO though. Your attention to detail sounds much more like a Soviet era Stasi agent.
And given that you’ve listed all the things you don’t like, does that make you a far Right, pro nuclear, anti solar, climate sceptic?
Oh yes the “independent film maker”, Neil Barrett states his independence in his Senate submission:
“I write to you as a former economist with the State Electricity Commission and Monash University and as the founder and owner of the company Video Education Australasia Pty Ltd which produces and distributes most of the videos and DVDs used in Australian educational institutions. More recently I was the founder and for three years the chair of the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group (MASG) in Castlemaine, Victoria. I have had a strong interest in wind energy since the 1970s. In recent years I have worked in a voluntary capacity with the Windpower Subcommittee of MASG. The group is hoping to instal a 12MW community –
owned windfarm along the lines of the Hepburn Community Windfarm near Daylesford.”
How about we get someone from the nuclear power lobby to do an “independent” video on the Waubra wind energy plant?
And how, exactly, does this invalidate the words of people living next to wind turbines, in some cases surrounded by more than 20 of them?
These are people who host wind turbines, and also their neighbours. They are farmers and rural dwellers.
There are more people saying clearly, plainly and bluntly in their own words that they are not experiencing any issues whatsoever than all recorded complainants related to Waubra.
What exactly does Mr. Barrett’s apparently excellent background have to do with what these people say? You and Gerri seem to think he’s some sort of hypnotist, forcing people to say things that they don’t mean, or that the fact that as a film maker he’s greener than you are somehow makes the people’s words lies.
Please explain your reasoning.
George; If having a strong interest in wind energy means a person is not independent then both you and I could not claim independence. The only independent people would be those who don’t care one way or the other.
Please remind us of how far you live from the nearest wind turbines?
David, do you have any human concern? Why would someone living 35km from wind turbines drive off in the middle of the night to sleep in his car a further 40km or so west twice in one week? Mass hysteria or nocebo? Maybe I’m not being paid to put up with all the low frequency noise these useless industrial machinery create!
Can you post a copy of the landowner agreement and the section where it says the landowner can only speak with the wind companys permission and will only speak in a positive manner.What a joke they cant say how they are felling even if they wanted to!!!!!!!!!.
IT would be good if the short version could be put up on Youtube
George, did you read what I wrote about what it means to be an `independent filmmaker’?
Neil, so you were the “independent” film maker that went out to Waubra with an open mind, but couldn’t make sense of anyone who felt that the wind turbines were making them ill?
Sorry but I think your definition to independence is totally flawed. You should have declared at the beginning of your video who you are and what you do with reference to wind energy. Instead you gambled on the public believing in your “independence” and “objectivity”.
George, your paranoia is getting the better of you. If you had bothered watching Neil’s videos, you would have seen he provides adequate background information for the viewer.
Oh yes he discloses everything apart from the juicy bits – his prominent role in promoting wind energy…
So what if Neil takes a prominent role in promoting clean energy/wind turbines? At least he is upfront about his interests and expertise. You on the other hand have no real knowledge about wind energy, the physics of sound or what it’s like to live next to a wind farm, you only excel in flogging pseudoscience and demonstrating the Dunning Kruger effect.
Christina and chris, I hope to be able to do that within a few days.
George, it seems pointless to argue so this is my last response to you. My background is clearly stated in the credits on the 12 min version of the videos and…you have misquoted me re my dealings with complainants. Enough’s enough.
Neil and one last comment back to you. You could have been a little clearer at the beginning of your video that you are a prominent local pro-wind figure who prior to the Waubra “investigations” already had formed the opinion that wind turbines are not associated with health problems
Your own words again:
I have had a strong interest in wind energy since the 1970s. In recent years I have worked in a voluntary capacity with the Windpower Subcommittee of MASG. The group is hoping to instal a 12MW community –
owned windfarm along the lines of the Hepburn Community Windfarm near Daylesford.”
Guys, accept Neil at his word, he is an independent film maker and has received no funding from wind farm companies. However we can say he is biased towards wind farms and will not publish or film any negative comments because they are not in his interests as a potential wind farm proponent himself (through MASG). Ergo we can take his film with a grain of salt keeping in mind his self professed support for wind energy.
With the world economy looking to find commercial, industrial, renewable energy solutions, why is it that individuals who think its a good idea too are labelled as radicals????
Countries around the world are powering cities with renewables today. It’s not radical – it’s science. It’s not radical – it’s evolution.
The Climate-Energy era is here. Those in the first world who work it out early will be setting the advantage for this century. While America sleeps Australia has an extraordinary opportunity to be part of defining the biggest economic game in the world – energy. This isn’t lefty thinking, this is the basis of genuine capitalist market economy and product life-cycle.
You think China is still going to be buying coal in 20 years time?
Yes, I think China will be buying coal in 20 years time and possibly in a 100 years time because it is reliable source of energy unlike wind which is really just green washing. Energy production has evolved from wind energy used for grinding grain to oil and coal in the 1800s because it is far more efficient and reliable and actually makes electricity when you need it unlike intermittent wind.
PS if China is not using coal in 20 or 100 years time it is because they will be using nuclear or thorium or some other source of reliable energy not wind.
I stopped using electricity based on burning coal back in 1992.
Since then I have saved a small fortune and right now I enjoy a zero emissions lifestyle.
My place is powered by a thermo-nuclear fusion reactor located at a safe distance from the nearest population centre.
My energy is delivered free every day so I store it for future use.
I don’t understand why so many prefer to pay for energy when it is available free!
John, I too opted for the “thermo-nuclear fusion reactor” many years ago. I paid a good price to get the system installed. On cloudy days, however, the diesel generator and gas stove still comes handy even though there are plenty of lead batteries in my storage system.
Now I am also paying the daily price of wind energy. I spent two nights this week sleeping away from home in my car to escape the horrors of the low frequency noise from the local “green” wind farms of the region. They are noise polluters like no other and frankly should be torn down off the landscape.
Sleeping in the car to avoid the “horrors” of a wind farm which is apparenty 35km away… That smacks of hyperbole.
For those who might be tempted to feel some sympathy for George P, the local wind farms he is referring to are 35 KILOMETERS away.
“Should anyone wonder why I am so against wind turbines, it is because the recent installation of 40 of them 35km away at times has turned the quiet rural area of the northern hills of Yass into a rumbling mess. The contraptions are a disaster. Anyone who doubts should consider living in my situation.” – GeoPap
He has indicated a downright magical ability to sense them from 50, 70 and 100 kilometers as well.
If any of this were in any way plausible or provable, Mr. P would be appearing on Stan Lee’s SuperHumans show with his amazing senses.
Occam’s Razor suggests a much, much simpler explanation, especially when you add in Mr. P’s sideline chasing EMF ghosts for money.
Mike, certainly I have the “magical” ability to be a recipient of something called low frequency noise. Even your favourite, pro-wind professor Colby agrees that the lowest frequencies of sound travel around the globe. I am only claiming to be annoyed 35km away.
GeoPap, since you have once again managed to say something completely barmy and attributed it to someone completely non-barmy, I’m going to request — as always — a reference. To ensure you know what I am requesting, I want a link to Colby’s statement where he agrees with this nonsense: “Even your favourite, pro-wind professor Colby agrees that the lowest frequencies of sound travel around the globe.”
I can save you some time if you like. You won’t be able to find it. If you find the link you think says that, you will find it doesn’t say anything like what you assert. If you post it, I’ll point out your error in excruciating, humiliating detail with references.
Please do try however.
For people unfamiliar with Dr. Colby, he’s a public health professional in Ontario who was one of the original health reviews performed. Great guy, and sane, unlike some people who misattribute things to him.
Mike here it is: The interview where Colby feels infrasound of the lowest frequencies goes around the globe.
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/player/rnmodplayer.html?pgm=Breakfast&pgmurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fradionational%2Fprograms%2Fbreakfast%2F&w=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fradionational%2Fmedia%2F4199202.asx&r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fradionational%2Fmedia%2F4199202.ram&t=Health%20effects%20of%20wind%20farms&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fradionational%2Fprograms%2Fbreakfast%2Fhealth-effects-of-wind-farms%2F4199202&p=1
And here are Colby’s exact words: “Infrasound or extremely low frequency sound travels very long distances; around the world really. And there is no evidence that infrasound is any greater in the vicinity of wind turbines than it is elsewhere”
There is certainly plenty of evidence however that demonstrates that infrasound/low frequency noise is qualitatively different to other environments such as the beach
Like any moderately rational person, when confronted with a quote from a respected figure such as Dr David Colby that seems to be mild hyperbole for the purpose of driving home a point, I asked Dr Colby for clarification. Here’s what he replied (with permission to quote him of course):
“The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is policed by less than 60 infrasound detection stations which cover the entire globe. Perhaps “around the world” is a technically a bit of an exaggeration in terms of propagation of wind turbine generated infrasound, but not in terms of the ubiquity of infrasound from all sources.”
So parsing that, he’s pointing out that infrasound FROM NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS travels thousands of kilometers detectably, not around the world. He makes clear, humorously, but I’ll be humorless for GeoPap’s sake, that comparing nuclear weapons to wind turbines is an idiots’ game.
And he makes clear again that we are awash in infrasound at all times.
As Geoff Leventhall pointed out in his most recent paper during the Wind Energy and Noise conference in Denver, you have to have external sources of infrasound at 120 dB or so to equal what is already present in the human body.
Mike have you ever studied cloud patterns and earthquakes? It might broaden your horizons a little…
http://www.earthquakesignals.com/zhonghao296/A991003.html
George, have you ever realized that you didn’t know what you were talking about when you were busted miserably for nonsense?
Oh yes, BUSTED by Mike Barnard! I could spend the rest of my life presenting facts and opinions and Mike will have me BUSTED for trying to expose the shoddy wind industry!
Unfortunately, you don’t actually have facts underlying your opinions. That’s why your opinions are immaterial.
If you actually stuck to facts or even remotely, faintly, barely possible physical reality, then you wouldn’t be embarrassed like this so often.
35 km is BS. Whatever you are feeling, it has nothing to do with wind farms. I can believe you are annoyed by them, but it has nothing to do with anything you are able to ‘sense’ at that distance, and everything to do with whatever is going on inside your brain.
I see Mike, you feel I am annoyed by wind farm 35km away, but you feel I can’t hear them – I certainly do hear them. Mind you I certainly struggle to see them so the visual factor is not part of my annoyance. So let’s agree it is auditory…
You also find this paper enlightens you about what happens at least 10km away: http://waubrafoundation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DavidA.-ThorneB.-Underpinning-Methodology-to-Derive-Stand-Off-Distances-from-a-Wind-Farm1.pdf
Ummm… No, let’s not agree. You are delusional about this George. Why do you think I would start agreeing with you?
Mike, I had few hopes you would ever agree to anything but stuffing up the landscape with monstrosities called wind turbines…
Hey, there are tons of things I assume we can agree upon. I’m pretty sure we can agree that gravity works, the world is roundish and oxygen is necessary. I’m pretty sure we can agree on how to spell many words, and some basic rules of grammar.
I presume we can agree that wind turbines exist, generate electricity and emit noise, both audible and infrasonic. Where we can’t agree is that a wind farm is audible to a human being at 35 km because physics.
We can even agree that you are annoyed, and that wind turbines annoy you. But that you are annoyed by wind turbine noise at 35 km we cannot agree upon. And apparently you don’t like the idea that you are either deluded, mistaken or lying. Pity, as those really are the only three real choices.
“Where we can’t agree is that a wind farm is audible to a human being at 35 km because physics. ”
Maybe Mike you need an expert to explain to you how cylindrical projection of noise is what applies to wind turbines – not the inverse square law. And you also should accept the evidence that wind turbines do emit low frequency noise at least out to 10km.
George, you do realize 10 and 35 are different numbers don’t you? And that you understanding more about sound than I do is as likely as me actually taking pills you dispensed?
I’m happy to defer to the several acousticians who graciously fact check me when I write about their area of expertise, but i think you are once again in a deluded and megalomaniacal place if you think you are able to fact check a ten year old deaf child on the subject.
And Mike I look forward to seeing you repeat your same assertions sooner or later…
Hold your breath tight – your hold of physics and your acoustician experts may have got it totally wrong…
Or more likely physics will continue to be physics, you will continue to pretend/ lie / be deluded that you can hear a wind farm at 35 km and the Geovital Academy will continue to be a snake oil sales force trying to con money out of cancer victims.
Mike, I am afraid to say – the highway noise 14km away is sometimes audible – over the hills on the opposite side facing north. The jumbo jets in Sydney are audible 50km away on the Blue Mountains on some days as they take off…
Whoever told you 35km is too far away to hear wind turbines is in fairy land or pure denial.
Conversation terminated – enough wasted time! You refuse to get it – because if you did it would mean that your blind fascination with horizontal-axis wind turbines would be over.
So you are trying to say that you believe you can hear wind turbine noise over highway noise that’s 2.5 times closer? And all of the local traffic, air conditioners and cats as well? Do I understand you correctly?
“I spent two nights this week sleeping away from home in my car to escape the horrors of the low frequency noise from the local “green” wind farms of the region.”
Prove it.
Not a particularly good promotion for the powers of those miracle Geovital Mattresses that George advertises, is it. I was most taken by their additional claim to have ‘anti-aging’ properties – I thought they might erase some of these deeply etched laughter lines that I’ve recently acquired.
Sarah, the Geovital™ mattresses are only intended to be taken orally. That way, you choke to death and hey presto, no more ageing. George isn’t anybody’s fool…
So, no proof George? Not surprising considering you claim to be able to detect something that is physically impossible for humans to do. If you truly could detect the infrasound of a wind farm from 35 km, there would be whole medical books devoted to your ability and more importantly, you would have convincing evidence. I don’t supposed you have considered the possibility that you’re a hypochondriac or, more likely, just a junkie for pseudoscience and seeing your name spread around the Internet for the sake of your underdeveloped ego?
Disappointing to read the rather paranoid nonsense from George and Gerri etc. There have been plenty of studies by health experts to show this is all in the minds of a few people with probably invested interests, such as The Foundation – how can they get away with that? I’d rather go with the science!
Thanks Neil and congratulations on your film.
Merle, I can see from the tone of some of the comments and your tight clinging to “scientific papers” that human decency and concern is gone in your minds.
It just so seems that despite having raised the matter of my suffering now for two years, no one of religious devotion to their tri-bladed spinning “deities” seems to dare keep an open-mind about my claims…
Just a display of plenty of ridicule, ha ha, mocking and other similar ape-like instincts.
Sorry George – I don’t have any deities. But I do have a deep connection with & concern for our environment and if we keep pumping our air, water and soil with pollution, we certainly will all be sick. Sorry to hear you are unwell, but it’s doubtful if it’s anything to do with windmills.
Science offers evidence-based propositions. I hope you are not a climate skeptic too!
Merle, if you had a sincere concern for the environment then my allegations should have drawn your concern. Published literature is the last place where someone will hear of problems like what I am experiencing.
Do you really think that wind turbines are a benign feature of the environment when they are 150m tall, whiz around at +240km/h, kill birds, particularly raptors, attract bats to their deaths, alter the local microclimate for up to a 30km radius, and create endless grief wherever they go?
Your health problems can only be addressed by trained medical people. But science tells us that your concerns for birds etc is far outweighed by the really serious problems of ambient lighting in cities and towns. All sorts of species die because their natural light source is interfered with by street lighting, illuminated office blocks and house and just the accumulated twilight effect which disrupts their sense of day and night.
If you’re looking for a good cause (and there are so many!) you could protest Ballarat Council’s plan to illuminate around Lake Wendouree for early morning joggers. It would be cheaper to give them head torches! And the rest of us could enjoy the natural ebbs and flows of light.
Merle, I can leave those campaigns to more appropriate people – got enough problems of my own…
At 35 kilometers, there is a 0% chance that your real or imagined problems have anything to do with the remote wind farm, and a 100% chance that they are caused by something else. And there’s an extraordinarily good chance that something else doesn’t exist outside of your head.
George, you have no idea the harm you do to the possibility that anyone might actually be really annoyed by wind farms every time you open your mouth or flex your fingers and make this assertion. Thank you for that deep ignorance.
Mike I need not rely on your opinions thanks you very much. Have you carefully read the article that I wrote?: https://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wind-turbines-and-low-frequency-noise-implications-for-human-health/
George,I think your suffering is complete and utter bollocks. People starving to death suffer, people trapped under buildings courtesy of earthquakes suffer, many people with incurable diseases suffer. The only suffering being done here is the rest of us putting up with your whining, complete lack of transparency and blatant dishonesty.
Of course you could prove us all wrong by providing irrefutable evidence of what you claim but we all know you haven’t got it. The only apelike act you mirror is throwing textual excreta at those who don’t believe your nonsense, but that’s all you have isn’t it. Move on George, get a life and think about those who truly suffer and those who will suffer because of climate change. Who knows, you might discover there is a whole other world out there of people displaying dignity you will never know in genuine hardship needing genuine assistance and it might even make you feel better about yourself, should you help them.
Sorry to say but your rudeness deserves no response
“Sorry to say but your rudeness deserves no response”
Translation: you have caught me out, I have no evidence, I’m just self-centred and really believe pseudoscience
George, if you could drag yourself away from your own self-importance for a few moments and provide some credible evidence to support your anecdotes, I’m sure everybody here would be more than happy to assess your evidence. Trouble is, you provide nothing of substance but come across as a rather flatulent windbag who cherry picks quotes and real science for your own selfish purposes. If you want people to respect your claims, try having some respect for them.
Oh, I am awfully sorry – seems like a have hit the rare nerves of a wind turbine fanatic…
You are the one whining about wind turbines at 35 km so I think it’s you who has the raw nerves.
I see you still haven’t provided any evidence to back up your claim.
Really I think we are just encouraging irrational ranting. It’s a great film and I congratulate those involved.
Wind energy opponents cannot reasonably argue against Neil’s videos or the message they contain, so they attack the man.
Like any moderately rational person, when confronted with a quote from a respected figure such as Dr David Colby that seems to be mild hyperbole for the purpose of driving home a point, I asked Dr Colby for clarification. Here’s what he replied (with permission to quote him of course):
“The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is policed by less than 60 infrasound detection stations which cover the entire globe. Perhaps “around the world” is a technically a bit of an exaggeration in terms of propagation of wind turbine generated infrasound, but not in terms of the ubiquity of infrasound from all sources.”
So parsing that, he’s pointing out that infrasound FROM NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS travels thousands of kilometers detectably, not around the world. He makes clear, humorously, but I’ll be humorless for GeoPap’s sake, that comparing nuclear weapons to wind turbines is an idiots’ game.
And he makes clear again that we are awash in infrasound at all times.
As Geoff Leventhall pointed out in his most recent paper during the Wind Energy and Noise conference in Denver, you have to have external sources of infrasound at 120 dB or so to equal what is already present in the human body.
And here is an opinion from Professor Alec Salt about internal and external infrasound sources – I hope it sheds some light on the limitations of Leventhall’s opinion:
“when low frequency and infrasound enters the ear via the stapes, it causes fluid movements throughout the
entire ear between the stapes in the vestibule, through scala vestibuli and
scala tympani to the compliant round window membrane at the base of
scala tympani. It is these fluid movements that drive sensory tissue
movements and cause stimulation.
In contrast, pressure fluctuations generated by the body, such as by
heartbeat and respiration, enter the ear via the cochlear aqueduct, not
through the stapes. The cochlear aqueduct enters the ear adjacent to the
round window membrane in the very basal part of scala tympani, so the fluid
flows are localized in this tiny region of the ear. As the rest of the ear is
bounded by a bony shell which is not compliant, fluid flows in the rest of the
ear are substantially lower so that displacements of sensory tissues are
negligible. Infrasound generated by the body, because it enters through the
aqueduct, therefore does not cause stimulation of the ear.”
George, can you prove or provide any independent verification of your claims?
Nick, given that you work for the wind industry, are you happy for me to pay an professional acoustician to prepare you a report on my saga?
George, two straightforward questions:
Would you be prepared to provide further detail on the noise monitoring you mention?
Can you prove or provide any independent verification of your claims?
Whether or not you pay a “professional acoustician” is neither here nor there. Either you have proof of your claims or they remain assertions. If the latter case, your testimony is substantially diminished and I suggest should be ignored.
Either provide independent verification or keep your own counsel. Alternatively your pronouncements will be treated disparagingly.
Your multifarious utterances I find rather bombastic and rhetorical, which in turn further diminishes your credibility.
To reiterate, I refer you to my questions above and trust that you won’t resort to petty diversions.
Your serve, George
Well, Nick, my “petty diversion” was a question to you: do you expect me to spend thousands on an acoustician to do monitoring and write me a report that says something that your pig-headed bunch will certainly reject?
So, George, you can’t prove or provide any independent verification of your claims then? Just thought that should be cleared up so people understand that you are making it up as you go along.
Nick, your industry has a shocking track record of ignoring the problems it creates. I will not pay one cent towards any independent verification for the sake of handing that report over to someone like you!
George; how do you know that your problem, whatever it is, is due to the wind turbines 35km away, which you could certainly not hear, nor would any sound (including infrasound) be detectable by any scientific instruments at your location? Have you looked at other possible causes?
Yes, I too would be interested to know exactly how it has been ascertained that George’s alleged symptoms are caused directly by wind turbines. George?
David, because it started simultaneously in many individuals after the completion of the Gunning Wind Farm, similar temporal and qualitative perception of noise and sleep disruption on the same nights, there are no other industrial sources of low frequency noise, the problem correlates very neatly to the operation of the wind turbines, and noise monitoring has revealed a doubling of low frequency noise levels out at my farm on the nights that I am suffering from noise nuisance and/or the impacts of ground vibration.
Correlation does not equal causation
George there is also a very neat correlation between the increase of global warming and the disappearance of pirates on the high seas. Let’s bring the pirates back to mitigate climate change!
Yes, Thomas. There also appears a neat correlation between stupidity and dogmatically blinded fanaticism. I suggest you put a bit of doubt in your mind that maybe wind turbines aren’t as green as you’d expect.
“There also appears a neat correlation between stupidity and dogmatically blinded fanaticism.”
You do own goals very well. Look in the mirror and see if you recognise that which you criticise.
George, would you be prepared to provide further detail on the noise monitoring you mention?