By Tilde E., grade 9
Destruction. Death. Defeat.
Humankinds’ destiny. Because of our own human actions.
We are destroying Earth, slowly dying. Overusing. Stealing resources. No more left.
What I am talking about is fossil fuels, non-renewable energy. What will we do in a hundred years when we have used it all? When our planet has turned into a real-life dystopia?
In the attempt to find a solution to this problem, scientist have worked on alternative energy sources, as the current sources of energy the world relies on drives social and environmental problems, such as destruction of ecosystems and human rights abuses. Scientists started discovering things such as solar, water, and wind energy, the topic of this article. Something which is good in theory, but bad in practise. Something which the media has manipulated. Something which is following the lead of former energy sources: Pollution.
Deforestation. Premature deaths.
Now you say ‘But I’ve been told and taught that wind energy is our future. It is the future of saving earth and a finally achieve a green planet.’
And let me tell you, this is exactly the problem. The media has manipulated you. Your friends. Your family. The World.
‘But why would they do that. This is not true.’
Yes, it is. The media chooses what they want you want to see. You are bought by companies for you to see what they want you to see. Manipulated. You have only seen the positives and how brilliant it is because it is what the media wants you to see, all for profits.
Lately, mental health has been a growing subject. According to Dr. Bromed, depression affect 121 million people world-wide and is responsible for 850,000 death every year with growing number. (Layton and Gleim, 2019)
But what most people don’t know is that wind energy adds onto this.
A theory called ‘wind turbine syndrome’ has been a growing subject in energy science, saying that the infrasound released from wind turbines, a sound lower than 20Hz, have a direct effect on humans including changes in blood pressure and respiratory rates. This causes health problems; headaches, sleeping problems, tinnitus and issues with equilibrium; dizziness and nausea.
Besides infrasound, the sounds wind turbines emit which humans can hear, has led to noise pollution, especially when the wind turbines are operating at full capacity. This can be a problem for people living near wind farms as it can affect their quality of life due to things such as sleep disruption and therefore impacting overall health and wellbeing.
Isn’t it obvious now that wind energy is nothing we should have in society? Because clearly it will only impact humanity on the worse end. Sure, it clean and renewable, but is that really true?
Lately in Sweden, and other countries, the electricity bills have risen dramatically. And why is that? Well, mostly because of wind energy. Wind energy does not produce enough energy to sustain its country and hence the increase in electricity bills, no streetlamps on, and cold water.
The increase has been so tremendous that many people don’t have enough money for food, warm showers or lights turned on. Complaint has been unreal. Therefore, to save inhabitants trouble, Sweden has had to loan energy from other countries. Countries which produce their energy through fossil fuels, the energy leading to Death. Destruction. Defeat. So, not only is wind energy insufficient with 50% of the energy lost in the process of converting wind into energy, but also lead to a greater fossil fuel print.
The catastrophe in Sweden is also due to the inconsistent power output of wind energy. The energy production is dependent on wind speeds, which varies significantly over time and from place to place, thus making it more challenging to rely solely on wind energy to meet the energy needs of countries and the world, as there may be times when wind turbines are not generating enough power to meet the energy demands.
So, wind energy produces energy intermittently; cannot be relied upon to provide a consistent supply of energy.
To overcome this challenge, scientists discovered energy storage solutions which store energy during periods of high wind speeds and release it during periods of low wind speeds to create more energy. However, these energy storers can only be used a certain number of times, like a car battery, before it stops working. These storers are then recycled, but improper processing and disposal has led to contamination of air, soil, and water. The chemicals from the batteries do not only affect the ecosystems, but also us, entering our waterways, and food supplies.
Location. Were are wind turbines placed? There is only one place wind tubines can create sufficient energy; a flat open landscape. Of course, this means that wind farms can only be built in certain locations, which may not be close enough to population centres to be an effective source of energy, or in worse case scenarios, they make the landscape appropriate by deforestation.
While wind energy is a clean and renewable source of energy, the construction of wind farms has huge environmental impacts, such as habitat destruction, with deforestation included with the fact that one wind turbine is as large as seven football fields, and bird mortality, having a big impact on the ecosystems.
A fun fact about wind energy and wind turbines, which the big companies like to hide and is their little secret, is that when the wings are worn out form long winters when they freeze (in which big pools of water are heated up, using fossil fuel, to then be flown over the wind turbines by a helicopter and splashed down on the wings to melt the ice and make the wind turbine function again) they are buried underground. Yes. Underground or underwater. 52 meters, eight-ton wings taking up hectares of landfill sites from the failure of recycling companies on how to deal with them. Miles long graveyards for wind turbines wings.
It has been predicted that by 2050, the world will need to dispose two million of wind turbine blades every year which will then be abandoned on the landfill stations as the world don’t know what to do with them.
The U.S. governments Environmental protection agency has described the sheer size of the windmills, along with the difficulty of disposing them, as a ‘towering promise of future wreckage.’ And there is no sign of the problem coming to an end, as more and bigger turbines are erected across the globe.
So now, I ask you, is wind turbines really the saviour of our world? Or is it the murder?