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Parade Magazine: Wind Power Disrupts Local Climate
NewsBusters.org ^ | May 13, 2014 | Sean Long

Posted on 05/13/2014 11:18:14 AM PDT by TexasCajun

Hard facts often trump breezy liberal logic supporting renewable energy.

Parade Magazine columnist Marilyn Vos Savant, once considered the smartest person in the world, wrote on May 11 that wind power may actually disrupt local weather. While this information contradicts climate alarmist attempts to reduce extreme weather to a consequence of global warming, it adds to the list of environmental problems with wind turbines.

Vos Savant claimed that wind turbines “will have an impact on the weather,” in addition to causing “ground warming and drying.”

She pointed out that wind turbines “remove energy from the wind” which logically has an impact on local climate. Vos Savant also said that this problem will increase “the more widespread [turbines] become” and that “improved engineering” will not change the basic fact that they affect the air around them.

This is not just a fringe claim. On February 14, Scientific American reprinted an essay detailing studies that explored how wind power affects the climate. This essay discussed recent which found that increased wind turbines throughout Europe changed temperature and rain patterns. This study found “a mix of more rain and less rain, and warming and cooling, depending on where you are around Europe.”

Researchers also found that “the climate impacts of wind farms extend beyond the farms themselves,” impacting local communities or ecosystems

(Excerpt) Read more at newsbusters.org ...


TOPICS: Government; Outdoors; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: energy; turbines; uhoh; weather; wind; windpower; windturbines
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To: All

Interesting. I wrote about this effect and that of the planet’s increased albedo from solar panels here:

https://mononymous1.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/so-full-of-hot-air/


21 posted on 05/13/2014 12:39:04 PM PDT by mononymous (http://mononymous1.wordpress.com)
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To: thackney
But do the wind turbines disrupt the low-level wind patterns that in turn disrupt the jet stream?

There is a "redistribution" of the earth's kinetic wind energy.

I'm no scientist but this question has intrigued me.

22 posted on 05/13/2014 12:44:27 PM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: TexasCajun

I do not see this making any changes that effect the jet stream.

I don’t see it as significant on the low-level wind either. From what I remember, it likely will have a slight increase in rain fall immediately past the turbines, and farther past that a slighter decrease in rainfall. Slighter because a larger area was given a smaller impact, total moisture fallout would be relatively unchanged. But these were very small changes.


23 posted on 05/13/2014 12:48:21 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: All

I agree with MarilynV; anyone who didn’t think there were real side-effects to wind turbines is a dumb-stick. All energy usage has pros/cons, but the _environment_ folks are populated with sticks.


24 posted on 05/13/2014 12:49:15 PM PDT by veracious
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To: thackney

Thanks for the insight.


25 posted on 05/13/2014 12:52:46 PM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: DownInFlames

Someday a F-5 tornado will put a direct hit on a wind farm and we’ll see what the tops of these things do when they go flying down wind and hit something...


26 posted on 05/13/2014 1:21:44 PM PDT by CIDKauf (No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.)
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To: jonno
And if the above is true, how then could they contribute to “ground warming and drying”?

Good question!

The turbulence they introduce to the smooth wind stream breaks up the relatively calm layer near the ground. If this blanket is cool moist air trapped near moist soil and the average humidity and temperature in the air column is lower, it will tend to warm and dry the ground.

27 posted on 05/13/2014 1:40:20 PM PDT by null and void (When was the last time you heard anyone say: "It's a free country"?)
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To: null and void

Gah. ...if the average air column above the ground is drier and warmer...


28 posted on 05/13/2014 1:43:08 PM PDT by null and void (When was the last time you heard anyone say: "It's a free country"?)
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To: GraceG

I was just going to post the part about vanity but the whole thing is appropriate. Global Warming is all about vanity and man thinking that he has control.

Ecclesiastes, chapter 1

« introduction | next chapter »

1
The words of David’s son, Qoheleth, king in Jerusalem:* a

2
Vanity of vanities,* says Qoheleth,

vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!b

Vanity of Human Toil

3
What profit have we from all the toil

which we toil at under the sun?* c

4
One generation departs and another generation comes,

but the world forever stays.

5
The sun rises and the sun sets;

then it presses on to the place where it rises.

6
Shifting south, then north,

back and forth shifts the wind, constantly shifting its course.

7
All rivers flow to the sea,

yet never does the sea become full.

To the place where they flow,

the rivers continue to flow.

8
All things are wearisome,*

too wearisome for words.

The eye is not satisfied by seeing

nor has the ear enough of hearing.d

9
What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!e
10
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.f
11
There is no remembrance of past generations;g nor will future generations be remembered by those who come after them.*

Twofold Introduction.
12
I, Qoheleth, was king over Israel in Jerusalem,
13
and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun.h

A bad business God has given

to human beings to be busied with.

14
I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind.* i

15
What is crooked cannot be made straight,

and you cannot count what is not there.*

16
j Though I said to myself, “See, I have greatly increased my wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has broad experience of wisdom and knowledge,”
17
yet when I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly, I learned that this also is a chase after wind.k

18
For in much wisdom there is much sorrow;

whoever increases knowledge increases grief.*


29 posted on 05/13/2014 1:52:17 PM PDT by tiki
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To: TexasCajun

Wow, wind turbines cause the drought in Texas and the Tax payers get to pay the Production tax Credit!

Too bad eagles and bats don’t get to vote.

I wonder how many Whooping Cranes have be hauled off and buried in the middle of the night?


30 posted on 05/13/2014 1:52:21 PM PDT by hadaclueonce (Because Brawndo's got electrolytes. Because Ethanol has Big Corn Lobby)
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To: TexasCajun

But the things are a sacred object for the left! They’ll never let this get into print.


31 posted on 05/13/2014 2:48:04 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: TexasCajun

This was obvious years ago. The only information you need to understand the affects is basic physics knowledge.


32 posted on 05/13/2014 6:32:31 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: cripplecreek

By weakening the wind, you also make the extreme points driving the wind, more extreme. The wind is following pressure differentials and trying to balance them out. Slow the wind and you affect its ability to balance pressure differentials. So you are making a more or less permanent change to the entire pressure systems. Everything that liberals do, exacerbate the problem they are trying to solve. Everything.


33 posted on 05/13/2014 6:36:22 PM PDT by justa-hairyape (The user name is sarcastic. Although at times it may not appear that way.)
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To: TexasCajun

Does this mean that if an attorney could prove a client suffered damages because of a wind farm’s impact on local weather that the client could collect damages?


34 posted on 05/14/2014 10:32:57 PM PDT by kathsua (A woman can do anything a man can do and have babies besides;)
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