'Wind energy in the U.S. "is like Europe was years ago," says Xavier Viteri, head of Iberdrola's renewable-energy business. "There's a lot of room for development there ...."' (Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2007, page A1)
That raises the question, Why isn't Europe like Europe was? Clearly, the momentum has slowed. Even "showcase" Denmark hasn't added new wind capacity since 2004. Doubts have arisen about the utility of wind energy on the grid. Adverse impacts (to wildlife, landscape, and human health) can no longer be denied. Instead of repeating Europe's mistakes, the U.S. and Canada ought to consider the limits of wind energy that European countries have already discovered.
There's a good reason Iberdrola and other European wind developers are moving their efforts to North America. Europe doesn't want them any more. Let's learn from that experience instead of repeating the same boondoggle.
wind power, wind energy
July 10, 2007
July 9, 2007
Health benefits of moderate drinking
"An extensive body of data shows concordant J-shaped associations between alcohol intake and a variety of adverse health outcomes, including coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure, stroke, dementia, Raynaud’s phenomenon, and all-cause mortality." O’Keefe JH, Bybee KA, Lavie CJ, "Alcohol and cardiovascular health: the razor-sharp double-edged sword", Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2007;50(11) [in press].
Here are some graphs showing the "J-shaped curve", i.e., a drink or two every day reduces the risk of the outcome in question, but more than a few drinks returns one to the same level of risk as with abstention and then increases the risk.
These graphs examine only the effect of the alcohol consumed, not other benefits such as those documented for red wine.
One "drink" contains 10-15 grams of alcohol (ethanol): approximately 12 oz. of beer, 4-5 oz. of wine, 1.5 oz. 80-proof liquor, or 1 oz. 100-proof liquor.
Also: Bell S, Daskalopoulou M, Rapsomaniki E, et al., "Association between clinically recorded alcohol consumption and initial presentation of 12 cardiovascular diseases: population based cohort study using linked health records", The BMJ 2017;356 (Published 22 March 2017). doi: 10.1136/bmj.j909
July 8, 2007
Ridge Protectors Country Auction, July 12
AMAZINGLY HIGH QUALITY ANTIQUES AND OTHER ITEMS KEEP COMING IN FOR THE AUCTION IN SHEFFIELD THIS COMING THURSDAY AT 5:00!
REMEMBER YOU CAN HAVE SUPPER IN ONE OF OUR FOUR TENTS, LISTEN TO FIDDLING MUSIC, BUY FROM THE TREASURE TENT AND BID ON SILENT AUCTION ITEMS AS WELL!!
Hundreds of wonderful advertising ephemera, 1890s to 1900s; 1760 engraving of England/Wales framed & matted; 3 prs. important early andirons, 18th & early 19th cent, ornate brass & iron; Audubon folio of 26 prints, 1950s; hanging knife sharpening stone in tiger maple case. c. 1840; primitive lift-top desk/till, orig. green paint, c. 1850; Reed & Barton and Webster &Wilcox ornate silver plate trays; Rosenthal demitasse chocolate set for 6; 1870 Waterbury brass bucket 8" h x 12" diam., hand wrought bail; Bohemian lustre electrified mantle lamp, castle and deer pattern, orig. cut glass drops; Cape Cod lighter; 19th cent. sled in blue paint with flower; 2 Heidi Schoop peasant/Dutch girl planter/vases; early primitive rope bed, Mercersburg, PA; cultured pearls, with appraisals, 16" strand and 14K gold ring; Flexible Flyer sled, c. 1940; folio containing prints by Winslow Homer, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Delacroix; cut glass cruet, sawtooth & zipper design; cut overlay purple & clear bottle; advertising box, Colman's mustard, Paris Exposition 1878; vintage ephemera including ornate Valentines, postcards, paper dolls, and children's books; Harrison Fisher book "Beauties" 1913; oil on canvas, boy holding puppies 26" x 14.5"; ornate Victorian walnut tapestry chair; grain-painted frame with watercolor of baby; landscape, oil on canvas 16" x 20" by Walker; Dutch home scene print in good gilt frame; claw-foot bathtub; crystal frame and starburst centerpiece; 2 Art Deco mesh evening bags; wooden library ladder, ornate early spool bed, and much much more.
other items coming in:
2 matching trestle end tables, yellow birch, VT made, arts & crafts style
2 primitive strawberry crates
3 paintings of the same mystery woman, signed E. Mardeff, 1916, oil on canvas
Colored lithograph print young boy holding dog
Ogee veneer frame 26" x 17"
Guilt edged frame with wooden matte 25" x 18"
Oriental watercolor, figural garden scene with original teakwood frame
Contemporary oil on board, Fridtjof Schroder, "Beauty and the Beast"
Animal landscape, oil on board, signed William Mearns, 23" x 17"
Zeiss Ikon Contaflex 35 mm camera, light meter, flash, lenses, original manuals
Pictorial book of New York, 1905, Whittemann
Pictorial book of Western Pacific Railway
Group of vintage magazines c. 1890-1900 The Delineator, Babyland, others
Group of vintage children's book, Raphael Tuck and others
Period pastel, peasant girl and dog, c. 1895 24" x 18"
Silver plate, William Rogers, round serving plate
Period magazines, Collier's and Life
Still life, oil on board, c. 1940 9" x 7"
Detailed vintage porcelain figural planter
Venetian gold glass cornucopia
3 piece group colored blown glass, small, highly decorative, floral
Sawyer print, Willoughby Lake, VT
Pressed glass footed compote 8" diam
Portable Singer sewing machine, c. 1940 with original table
3 nesting tables, c. 1900 Duncan Phyfe Style
Collapsible wooden sewing table
2 large leather suitcases, c. 1930s
Brass spittoon
Big crock with lid for pickles or sauerkraut
Dining room and foyer matching chandeliers
Hand-crafted big, hope chest by Mike Michaud and Sean Foley
Lamp by Highbeams
Antique Dollhouse (made out of old wooden "sharp cheese" boxes)
Antique spool bed
School desk with lift top, inkwell and attached swiveling chair
Dark mission-style arm chair with cane backs restored
2 mission style rocking chairs
Old piano stool, upholstered
Small red painted Sheridan chair
3 canebottom chairs, one fully restored
2 mule-ear ladderback chairs with cane seats
White painted splint seat (splat? seat?) low chair
Antique Kilim runner in browns, tans and a little blue. 38" x 109"
Victorian leather settee for a gentleman's library
P.S. More sterling silver has come in, an inlaid chess table, Irish porcelain, a practically new horse cart, brass candelabra, Victorian needlepoint lady's arm chair, wonderful rustic porch chairs made by Gerry and Paul Bednarz, rustic wooden out building (maybe 15 feet x 10 feet?), Lenox china, a 1900 clothes wringer on a wooden stand in working order, handmade baskets by Linda Kozak, cedar hope chest by Sean Foley and Mike Michaud, plus at least 30 more items donated I apologize for leaving out.
Vermont
REMEMBER YOU CAN HAVE SUPPER IN ONE OF OUR FOUR TENTS, LISTEN TO FIDDLING MUSIC, BUY FROM THE TREASURE TENT AND BID ON SILENT AUCTION ITEMS AS WELL!!
Hundreds of wonderful advertising ephemera, 1890s to 1900s; 1760 engraving of England/Wales framed & matted; 3 prs. important early andirons, 18th & early 19th cent, ornate brass & iron; Audubon folio of 26 prints, 1950s; hanging knife sharpening stone in tiger maple case. c. 1840; primitive lift-top desk/till, orig. green paint, c. 1850; Reed & Barton and Webster &Wilcox ornate silver plate trays; Rosenthal demitasse chocolate set for 6; 1870 Waterbury brass bucket 8" h x 12" diam., hand wrought bail; Bohemian lustre electrified mantle lamp, castle and deer pattern, orig. cut glass drops; Cape Cod lighter; 19th cent. sled in blue paint with flower; 2 Heidi Schoop peasant/Dutch girl planter/vases; early primitive rope bed, Mercersburg, PA; cultured pearls, with appraisals, 16" strand and 14K gold ring; Flexible Flyer sled, c. 1940; folio containing prints by Winslow Homer, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Delacroix; cut glass cruet, sawtooth & zipper design; cut overlay purple & clear bottle; advertising box, Colman's mustard, Paris Exposition 1878; vintage ephemera including ornate Valentines, postcards, paper dolls, and children's books; Harrison Fisher book "Beauties" 1913; oil on canvas, boy holding puppies 26" x 14.5"; ornate Victorian walnut tapestry chair; grain-painted frame with watercolor of baby; landscape, oil on canvas 16" x 20" by Walker; Dutch home scene print in good gilt frame; claw-foot bathtub; crystal frame and starburst centerpiece; 2 Art Deco mesh evening bags; wooden library ladder, ornate early spool bed, and much much more.
other items coming in:
2 matching trestle end tables, yellow birch, VT made, arts & crafts style
2 primitive strawberry crates
3 paintings of the same mystery woman, signed E. Mardeff, 1916, oil on canvas
Colored lithograph print young boy holding dog
Ogee veneer frame 26" x 17"
Guilt edged frame with wooden matte 25" x 18"
Oriental watercolor, figural garden scene with original teakwood frame
Contemporary oil on board, Fridtjof Schroder, "Beauty and the Beast"
Animal landscape, oil on board, signed William Mearns, 23" x 17"
Zeiss Ikon Contaflex 35 mm camera, light meter, flash, lenses, original manuals
Pictorial book of New York, 1905, Whittemann
Pictorial book of Western Pacific Railway
Group of vintage magazines c. 1890-1900 The Delineator, Babyland, others
Group of vintage children's book, Raphael Tuck and others
Period pastel, peasant girl and dog, c. 1895 24" x 18"
Silver plate, William Rogers, round serving plate
Period magazines, Collier's and Life
Still life, oil on board, c. 1940 9" x 7"
Detailed vintage porcelain figural planter
Venetian gold glass cornucopia
3 piece group colored blown glass, small, highly decorative, floral
Sawyer print, Willoughby Lake, VT
Pressed glass footed compote 8" diam
Portable Singer sewing machine, c. 1940 with original table
3 nesting tables, c. 1900 Duncan Phyfe Style
Collapsible wooden sewing table
2 large leather suitcases, c. 1930s
Brass spittoon
Big crock with lid for pickles or sauerkraut
Dining room and foyer matching chandeliers
Hand-crafted big, hope chest by Mike Michaud and Sean Foley
Lamp by Highbeams
Antique Dollhouse (made out of old wooden "sharp cheese" boxes)
Antique spool bed
School desk with lift top, inkwell and attached swiveling chair
Dark mission-style arm chair with cane backs restored
2 mission style rocking chairs
Old piano stool, upholstered
Small red painted Sheridan chair
3 canebottom chairs, one fully restored
2 mule-ear ladderback chairs with cane seats
White painted splint seat (splat? seat?) low chair
Antique Kilim runner in browns, tans and a little blue. 38" x 109"
Victorian leather settee for a gentleman's library
P.S. More sterling silver has come in, an inlaid chess table, Irish porcelain, a practically new horse cart, brass candelabra, Victorian needlepoint lady's arm chair, wonderful rustic porch chairs made by Gerry and Paul Bednarz, rustic wooden out building (maybe 15 feet x 10 feet?), Lenox china, a 1900 clothes wringer on a wooden stand in working order, handmade baskets by Linda Kozak, cedar hope chest by Sean Foley and Mike Michaud, plus at least 30 more items donated I apologize for leaving out.
Vermont
July 1, 2007
Reduce your carbon footprint by replacing meat
Today's New York Times "Style" section takes a dubious look at "ecoconsumption". ("Green consumerism" is an oxymoron.) It includes a sidebar of more substantive suggestions from The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook for reducing one's carbon footprint. Number 1:
Whenever possible, replace meat with soy or other vegetable protein in your diet. It takes eight times as much energy to produce a pound of meat as it does a pound of tofu.environment, environmentalism
War is for making money
"I think most wars are to make money, and this one's no different. There are a lot of companies over there making a ton of money, and the only ones suffering are the soldiers and the Iraqi people."
June 29, 2007
The Vandals that support industrial wind energy
This is of a piece with the industry they support. (Click on the title of this post.)
Also see:
Pro-wind violence on Skye
Industrial exploitation in Mexico and China
Forest dwellers of India losing their land to wind energy development (like the Zapotecas in Oaxaca, the Maori in New Zealand, the Aborigines in Australia, and rural communities everywhere)
This is a predatory effort of industrial possession of the last peaceful places, all under a "green" cloak, the engines of the juggernaut fanned by hysterical "environmentalists" clamoring for the symbolic triumph of giant erections waving from every hilltop while ignoring their impotence and the real destruction below.
It is a senselessly violent gesture in the name of -- and very much against -- the environment and people.
wind power, wind energy, environment, environmentalism, human rights, animal rights, Vermont, anarchism, ecoanarchism
Also see:
Pro-wind violence on Skye
Industrial exploitation in Mexico and China
Forest dwellers of India losing their land to wind energy development (like the Zapotecas in Oaxaca, the Maori in New Zealand, the Aborigines in Australia, and rural communities everywhere)
This is a predatory effort of industrial possession of the last peaceful places, all under a "green" cloak, the engines of the juggernaut fanned by hysterical "environmentalists" clamoring for the symbolic triumph of giant erections waving from every hilltop while ignoring their impotence and the real destruction below.
It is a senselessly violent gesture in the name of -- and very much against -- the environment and people.
wind power, wind energy, environment, environmentalism, human rights, animal rights, Vermont, anarchism, ecoanarchism
June 26, 2007
Cape Wind insignificant player in energy future
To the Editor, New Yorks Times Book Review:
The subtitle of Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb's book about Cape Wind claims that it is a "battle for our energy future." But wind will never be a significant -- let alone major -- player, for the simple fact that the wind is inconstant and can't be called up on demand.
In his June 17 review of their book, Robert Sullivan repeats the misleading impression that Cape Wind's 468 megawatts of capacity would also be its contribution. In fact, its average production would be only a fifth to a third of that, much of the time when it is not needed (at night) and often idle when demand is at its peak, as on hot summer days.
In other words, the grid would still have to depend on the same sources as it did before, with very little impact on conventional fuel use. In fact, the company behind Cape Wind is also trying to build a new quick-response diesel-fired plant, which would be sorely needed to balance the variable and intermittent production of its wind turbines. An offshore wind energy facility proposed in Delaware would be tied to a new natural gas plant for similar reasons. Thus wind drives a need for more fossil fuel use, not less.
Citing wind's rare peaks, as Sullivan does, only underscores its inconstancy. Wind development in Denmark has virtually halted since 2004, because even there its benefits appear to be elusive.
Yet the impacts are substantial and increasingly documented. Cape Wind would fill 24 square miles of shoal -- an important ecosystem -- with 440-feet-high moving machines. Each set of "slowly" rotating blades (made of petroleum-based composites) would be sweeping a vertical air space of 2.4 acres at tip speeds up to 200 mph. There is no question that such a machine would creates noise and vibration (despite the hundreds of gallons of oil in each housing). Inevitable impacts are obvious -- not just aesthetically, but especially on bird and sea life.
Sullivan says that criticism "has been mitigated by increasingly efficient turbines and more bird-sensitive placement." That is industry spin. Wind turbines have simply got bigger, not more efficient. Their space requirements and blade area per megawatt remain essentially constant. Last month, the first-year report of bird and bat deaths at the sprawling "Maple Ridge" facility on the Tug Hill plateau in Lewis County, N.Y., was released. Even that company-backed study estimated that 2,200 to 4,094 birds and bats were killed in 5 months by 120 turbines. That would extrapolate to 8,580 to 15,967 birds and bats killed by the currently operating 195 turbines over a whole year. Efficient indeed.
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound regrettably opens itself to the NIMBY charge by trying to promote other locations. But many of its members and others fighting Cape Wind recognize that the substantial negative impacts of wind energy facilities anywhere cannot be justified by the very small benefit they may provide.
NIMBY more typically describes the developers and facilitators of these facilities. They are not the ones whose peace and quiet is destroyed. They are not the ones who can no longer sleep in their own homes or enjoy their back yards, who develop migraines, dizziness, and worse from the strobing shadows and noise. A team in Portugal is currently studying evidence of vibroacoustic disease in people who live near wind turbines.
Cape Wind is unique in threatening an enclave of the rich rather than the usual rural poor or otherwise disenfranchised (such as indigenous peoples of Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, India). But the reasons for opposing it are the same. This battle is being fought in thousands of communities around the world, for very good reasons. Giant wind turbines are a symptom of our energy problems, not a solution.
wind power, wind energy, wind farms, wind turbines, environment, environmentalism, human rights, animal rights, vegetarianism
The subtitle of Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb's book about Cape Wind claims that it is a "battle for our energy future." But wind will never be a significant -- let alone major -- player, for the simple fact that the wind is inconstant and can't be called up on demand.
In his June 17 review of their book, Robert Sullivan repeats the misleading impression that Cape Wind's 468 megawatts of capacity would also be its contribution. In fact, its average production would be only a fifth to a third of that, much of the time when it is not needed (at night) and often idle when demand is at its peak, as on hot summer days.
In other words, the grid would still have to depend on the same sources as it did before, with very little impact on conventional fuel use. In fact, the company behind Cape Wind is also trying to build a new quick-response diesel-fired plant, which would be sorely needed to balance the variable and intermittent production of its wind turbines. An offshore wind energy facility proposed in Delaware would be tied to a new natural gas plant for similar reasons. Thus wind drives a need for more fossil fuel use, not less.
Citing wind's rare peaks, as Sullivan does, only underscores its inconstancy. Wind development in Denmark has virtually halted since 2004, because even there its benefits appear to be elusive.
Yet the impacts are substantial and increasingly documented. Cape Wind would fill 24 square miles of shoal -- an important ecosystem -- with 440-feet-high moving machines. Each set of "slowly" rotating blades (made of petroleum-based composites) would be sweeping a vertical air space of 2.4 acres at tip speeds up to 200 mph. There is no question that such a machine would creates noise and vibration (despite the hundreds of gallons of oil in each housing). Inevitable impacts are obvious -- not just aesthetically, but especially on bird and sea life.
Sullivan says that criticism "has been mitigated by increasingly efficient turbines and more bird-sensitive placement." That is industry spin. Wind turbines have simply got bigger, not more efficient. Their space requirements and blade area per megawatt remain essentially constant. Last month, the first-year report of bird and bat deaths at the sprawling "Maple Ridge" facility on the Tug Hill plateau in Lewis County, N.Y., was released. Even that company-backed study estimated that 2,200 to 4,094 birds and bats were killed in 5 months by 120 turbines. That would extrapolate to 8,580 to 15,967 birds and bats killed by the currently operating 195 turbines over a whole year. Efficient indeed.
The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound regrettably opens itself to the NIMBY charge by trying to promote other locations. But many of its members and others fighting Cape Wind recognize that the substantial negative impacts of wind energy facilities anywhere cannot be justified by the very small benefit they may provide.
NIMBY more typically describes the developers and facilitators of these facilities. They are not the ones whose peace and quiet is destroyed. They are not the ones who can no longer sleep in their own homes or enjoy their back yards, who develop migraines, dizziness, and worse from the strobing shadows and noise. A team in Portugal is currently studying evidence of vibroacoustic disease in people who live near wind turbines.
Cape Wind is unique in threatening an enclave of the rich rather than the usual rural poor or otherwise disenfranchised (such as indigenous peoples of Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, India). But the reasons for opposing it are the same. This battle is being fought in thousands of communities around the world, for very good reasons. Giant wind turbines are a symptom of our energy problems, not a solution.
wind power, wind energy, wind farms, wind turbines, environment, environmentalism, human rights, animal rights, vegetarianism
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