Residents of Bishton, Wales, live in one of those villages that could well serve as a film location for the TV series Midsomer Murders. Their community lies in farmland, has a history associated with a Welsh uprising against English rule, is the site of an attack by Henry V’s forces, is named Bishton for “Bishop’s Town,” and has an small old stone church with a tetrangular bell tower entrance. Quaint by my standards, and I live in a rural community with two old (1850s) stone churches (one Episcopalian, thus “Anglican,” and the other Roman Catholic: Historic Register type churches, the latter commemorating the site of the Mass a French priest offered as the troops were off chasing George Washington at Fort Necessity—whew! Just had to give that digression)
Anyway some, if not all, of Bishton’s residents are saying, “Not in my backyard,” thus, Nimby or Nimbies, to a solar energy project that would cover more than 300 of their rural acres with grey panels. * The arguments for and against the project separate those who see Bishton as a convenient place for the panels because of its location near the grid and those who don’t want their somewhat picturesque community spoiled by the blanket of modern technology. Those who want to cover the ground argue that in forty years it will be returned to a pre-farming condition, that is, with enhanced soils not depleted of nutrients and with wildlife in abundance. The total property for the project covers more than 500 acres, with about 130 of them “planted in wildflowers.” Nimbies, in contrast, don’t want to wait forty years on the odd chance that those predicting the future will, with the Nimbies themselves, be dead or too old to wander the once pleasantly-rural scenery. The latter do have a point, don’t they.
Forty Years from Now: Promises Never Kept
You can imagine the future—four decades hence: Useless and broken solar panels perched on 500,000 rusting legs, all subject to vandalism by young people on drugs and alcohol and no public authority with the money to dismantle and reclaim. The world gone off green energy as an inefficient mechanism by comparison with fossil fuels, the future looks bleak for Bishton as it will fall into decay and declining population, almost, if not completely, returning to its condition post Welsh-English fifteenth-century war during the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, who sequentially and successfully fought the forces of Owain Glyndŵr, the last Welshman to claim the title of Prince of Wales.
And in the interim 40-year period, how will the people of Bishton profit from the field of solar panels? Well, that green power is going into the grid, not into the local community. That is, of course, the problem with all large power-generating plants. They produce energy for use outside there local environs.
But, of course, the same can be said for coal, oil, and natural gas power plants. Most of them feed into the general grid for a region. The locals see the production facilities; people far away simply turn on the lights. Ah! The dilemmas of modern civilization coupled with ever-larger populations and energy demands make us reveal our true feelings about the Green Revolution.
And as it happens in natural trophic environments where the exit of one species can precede the entrance of another, those Bishton residents who die or move away will be replaced by people of a different history and character. The replacements will move into a community with a solar field out their windows. They will move there either by opportunity or necessity. Some will see deteriorating homes as a cheap refuge in an inflationary economy; others will see a village in decline as their only refuge, possibly years from now the site of public housing. But that’s all a rather pessimistic view. There is the slight chance that someone, some company, some government agency will actually do what is now just a promise.
Nimbies Everywhere, Many of Them Hypocrites
The recent rejection of immigrants flown onto Martha’s Vineyard parallels the Koch and Kennedy families’ rejection of offshore windmills. Money talks, and really big money talks really loud. From Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy to GOP supporter William Koch, the wealthy have said, “Not in my backyard.” Thus, the green tech Cape Wind project and similar projects have undergone years of environmental reviews and untold pages of reports. The Koch family suggests that since they would be able to see the windmills from their estate, that the field of turbines constitutes “visual pollution.” Uppity, right?
Whereas the less economically secure bear the burden of power plants both green and dirty, the rich enjoy the power because of their power. They support green energy—as long as…Well, out of sight, out of mind.
In the meantime, Democrats, at least the anti-cheap-energy Democrats, proclaim a bright new future of endless power from wind, hydro, wave, tidal bore (Rance River, eg.), and in some instances, nuclear generators. That promise of endless green power like so many other promises of a utopian world will probably never materialize as planned. We have history to prove that. We have current events as well.
Green Energy Is Great for the Few, Not so Great for the Many
Short of a bottleneck event like the eruption of Toba 74,000 years ago or the Black Death of the 14th century, Earth’s population will continue either in current numbers or in larger numbers. There’s little chance of turning back to, say, a world population of half a billion people when the two King Henrys fought the Welsh near Bishton; there’s not even a chance getting back to 1950 numbers of 2.5 billion. The current eight billion people consume more energy in amounts that exceed mere necessity. Right now, you are probably running some entertainment system on standby, not realizing that it is consuming energy. Right now, you probably have an unnecessary light on, a second alarm clock in a guest room, or a computer you never turn off.
In Our Nature
It’s in our nature to overuse in times of abundance like bears preparing for hibernation. It’s in our nature to say “not in my backyard” when we can control the backyard. And it’s in our nature to impose on others that which we would not impose on ourselves, like power stations of any kind. It’s also in our nature to make promises we can never keep, promises that run into the distant future and its unpredictable circumstances of war, disease, political folly, economic depressions, and a distant asteroid like Apophis that might hit Earth in 2036, well short of 40 years hence, or in 2068, just about the same time that those solar panels at Bishton will cease to function.
*https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12661331/Fury-plans-Welsh-beauty-spot-UK-solar-farms-fears-kill-ecosystem.html
Anyway some, if not all, of Bishton’s residents are saying, “Not in my backyard,” thus, Nimby or Nimbies, to a solar energy project that would cover more than 300 of their rural acres with grey panels. * The arguments for and against the project separate those who see Bishton as a convenient place for the panels because of its location near the grid and those who don’t want their somewhat picturesque community spoiled by the blanket of modern technology. Those who want to cover the ground argue that in forty years it will be returned to a pre-farming condition, that is, with enhanced soils not depleted of nutrients and with wildlife in abundance. The total property for the project covers more than 500 acres, with about 130 of them “planted in wildflowers.” Nimbies, in contrast, don’t want to wait forty years on the odd chance that those predicting the future will, with the Nimbies themselves, be dead or too old to wander the once pleasantly-rural scenery. The latter do have a point, don’t they.
Forty Years from Now: Promises Never Kept
You can imagine the future—four decades hence: Useless and broken solar panels perched on 500,000 rusting legs, all subject to vandalism by young people on drugs and alcohol and no public authority with the money to dismantle and reclaim. The world gone off green energy as an inefficient mechanism by comparison with fossil fuels, the future looks bleak for Bishton as it will fall into decay and declining population, almost, if not completely, returning to its condition post Welsh-English fifteenth-century war during the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, who sequentially and successfully fought the forces of Owain Glyndŵr, the last Welshman to claim the title of Prince of Wales.
And in the interim 40-year period, how will the people of Bishton profit from the field of solar panels? Well, that green power is going into the grid, not into the local community. That is, of course, the problem with all large power-generating plants. They produce energy for use outside there local environs.
But, of course, the same can be said for coal, oil, and natural gas power plants. Most of them feed into the general grid for a region. The locals see the production facilities; people far away simply turn on the lights. Ah! The dilemmas of modern civilization coupled with ever-larger populations and energy demands make us reveal our true feelings about the Green Revolution.
And as it happens in natural trophic environments where the exit of one species can precede the entrance of another, those Bishton residents who die or move away will be replaced by people of a different history and character. The replacements will move into a community with a solar field out their windows. They will move there either by opportunity or necessity. Some will see deteriorating homes as a cheap refuge in an inflationary economy; others will see a village in decline as their only refuge, possibly years from now the site of public housing. But that’s all a rather pessimistic view. There is the slight chance that someone, some company, some government agency will actually do what is now just a promise.
Nimbies Everywhere, Many of Them Hypocrites
The recent rejection of immigrants flown onto Martha’s Vineyard parallels the Koch and Kennedy families’ rejection of offshore windmills. Money talks, and really big money talks really loud. From Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy to GOP supporter William Koch, the wealthy have said, “Not in my backyard.” Thus, the green tech Cape Wind project and similar projects have undergone years of environmental reviews and untold pages of reports. The Koch family suggests that since they would be able to see the windmills from their estate, that the field of turbines constitutes “visual pollution.” Uppity, right?
Whereas the less economically secure bear the burden of power plants both green and dirty, the rich enjoy the power because of their power. They support green energy—as long as…Well, out of sight, out of mind.
In the meantime, Democrats, at least the anti-cheap-energy Democrats, proclaim a bright new future of endless power from wind, hydro, wave, tidal bore (Rance River, eg.), and in some instances, nuclear generators. That promise of endless green power like so many other promises of a utopian world will probably never materialize as planned. We have history to prove that. We have current events as well.
Green Energy Is Great for the Few, Not so Great for the Many
Short of a bottleneck event like the eruption of Toba 74,000 years ago or the Black Death of the 14th century, Earth’s population will continue either in current numbers or in larger numbers. There’s little chance of turning back to, say, a world population of half a billion people when the two King Henrys fought the Welsh near Bishton; there’s not even a chance getting back to 1950 numbers of 2.5 billion. The current eight billion people consume more energy in amounts that exceed mere necessity. Right now, you are probably running some entertainment system on standby, not realizing that it is consuming energy. Right now, you probably have an unnecessary light on, a second alarm clock in a guest room, or a computer you never turn off.
In Our Nature
It’s in our nature to overuse in times of abundance like bears preparing for hibernation. It’s in our nature to say “not in my backyard” when we can control the backyard. And it’s in our nature to impose on others that which we would not impose on ourselves, like power stations of any kind. It’s also in our nature to make promises we can never keep, promises that run into the distant future and its unpredictable circumstances of war, disease, political folly, economic depressions, and a distant asteroid like Apophis that might hit Earth in 2036, well short of 40 years hence, or in 2068, just about the same time that those solar panels at Bishton will cease to function.
*https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12661331/Fury-plans-Welsh-beauty-spot-UK-solar-farms-fears-kill-ecosystem.html
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