LETTER: Have the effects of wind power been studied enough?

One of my former physics professors told me “you don’t get nothing for nothing.” He was explaining that when we transform energy from one form to another, there is always something given up. An example might be that when we are pushing a lawnmower, we are converting calories in our body to kinetic energy that is moving our body and the lawnmower. One of the losses is productive energy in the form of heat.

The lawn gets mowed, but we have to rest to cool off and replenish some of those calories with a cold high-carbon beverage. Beer?

Our government’s push for alternative energy sources has me concerned. Wind energy, for example, is a major concern. I am concerned because research is not being done to study the effects on the loss of energy downwind that must have an impact on the environment. For thousands of years, the energy in the wind has been used by nature for all types of purposes. I am concerned about what is or is not happening in nature now that the windmills are sucking so much energy.

I think some questions need to be answered, such as:

Wind helps with evaporation. What about the lack of evaporation that has produced rain downwind of the windmills for thousands of years? More drought?

What about the drying effect of the wind as a result of the evaporation that has prevented mildew and rust on plants growing downwind? What about pollen distribution which is needed to help plants produce?

What about wind currents that have helped and guided migrating birds for thousands of years?

What about the endangered birds that are hit by the windmill blades?

These are just a few of the questions that I think need to be answered. We need to start seeking answers soon so we do not repeat mistakes we have made with other attempts to develop new methods of meeting our human power needs. Think ethanol for instance. What an environmental disaster that has been.

My hope is that our government, through research, will find the answers to the above questions and others before we are forced to look back at the windmill experiment with regret.

—Richard “Grif” Griffin, Kalispell