As many countries scramble to find a plausible solution to the global energy crisis, many individuals across the United States find themselves unable to deal with the side effects of renewable energy resources and their means of production.
A popular form of renewable energy, wind farming, seems detrimental only to those who live in proximity to the insistent hum of the turbines and within eyeshot of offshore wind farms.
Though only measured at a noise level just above that of a humming refrigerator, wind-power turbines often frustrate residents of rural areas that have agreed to host wind-power facilities, as many of the dissenting voices claim that the turbines mar the otherwise natural vista and that the noise disrupts the area's otherwise noiseless tranquility.
To city residents, such an enthusiastically negative reaction to a little bit of white noise seems absurd, as main road residents train themselves to sleep through fire truck sirens and street sweepers. As Buffalo student residents, we scratch our heads at such curious opposition to something that is much quieter than the constant drone of city noise.
With the environmental benefits of wind energy far outweighing the drawbacks of its minimal emissions, noise and visual appeal should be non-factors, and dissenting voices should save their wind.
It is foreseeable that wind turbines will become, one day, like lighthouses, which have lost most of their practical use, and exist mostly for their aesthetic charm. The modern turbine design is not ugly, and in a relatively young environmental enterprise, it is not unreasonable to expect advances in the prototypal design.
Understandably, an oceanfront view from a beach house on the Cape probably looks better without a series of giant pinwheels grinding clockwise over the horizon, but conventional means of producing electricity via fossil fuels are on their way out, and it is important that we all make sacrifices for the greater good of the next generation.
Not all residents in earshot of the noise consider it a nuisance, as it sometimes rarely raises itself above the sound of the gusting wind or the crash of the ocean at high tide. Some even welcome the turbines, as they claim to enjoy lower energy costs and new area business endeavors.
Many recognize that wind power is constantly building a new and lucrative economy, in which environmental sciences, environmental law and engineering will all have a stake in the ultimate prize.
They are the true team players.
Aesthetic appeal holds little basis under the shadow of necessity, and as the demand for energy remains steady and resources continue their constant depletion, our collective need for renewable wind energy comes second to an individual's Nantucket ocean view.
