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Environmentalist groups are squabbling amongst themselves over the merits and ugliness of windmills.
"I can't believe how large and hideous they are," Mr. Collins said. "When you hear the word `windmill,' you think Holland and Don Quixote. That's wrong. They look like alien monsters coming out of the ground."
I've believed that ever since I saw my first windmills in the movie Mac and Me. I'm certainly not opposed to cleaner, greener technology. All throughout elementary school I would religiously chant "reduce, recycle, reuse, reduce, recycle, reuse, ..." It got so bad that I wanted a tatoo of the recycle triangle (with the three arrows). But when it comes to windmills, it's great to see all the self-righteous, anti-SUV, pro-lumberjack death people get all in a tizzy because they don't want to spoil the view from their Cape Cod, Nantucket home. It's okay for people in less afluent areas to look at windmills, but not the limousine liberals. Also, there is some truth to the allegations that windmills cause problems to migratory bird populations. But I guess that's just one of the wonderful ways that evolution works.
That said, I do think it's kind of cool to see huge windmills in the barren, mountainous desert of Southern California. It's very apocalyptic and surreal. And it makes the land value so cheap it's probably the only place I could afford a home right now.
Posted by Owen at June 5, 2003 10:20 AM | TrackBack