Onshore wind farms in UK receives government support

“The climate is changing and so it seems is political thinking.  The government’s decision to support onshore wind farms by allowing them to bid for price support is just one of a few recent signals that at last the climate emergency is being taken more seriously.  Wind farms have generated strong feelings of both love and hate with the ‘haters’ dominating the debate with their arguments on landscape aesthetics, localised noise pollution and even questionable statistics on bird strikes.  Often, the resistance has been of a NIMBY nature, with local people coming together to fight against the roll out of this sustainable, and potentially cheap energy.  While the government has signalled that the siting of wind farm developments will still be carefully monitored, today’s announcement is surely an indication that short-term, localised considerations should not stand in the way of progressive sustainable energy policies.  Hopefully, it is also a sign that people are beginning to understand the threat that climate change poses for us all and that their distaste for wind farms is nothing compared to the disquiet we all feel when faced with images of the consequences of ‘energy’ as usual.  Wind farms might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect British landscape, but all of us would surely agree that they are preferable to the flood-stricken landscapes and images that have dominated our television screens in recent weeks.”