Wind Farms and Scenic Places

The current controversy over whether or not to tolerate wind farms in the vicinity of Oregon's Steens Mountain is especially interesting to me, as a photograph of a wind farm graces the cover of the second edition of Environmentalism, my survey of nature loving in the western world which appeared last summer.  An editor at Pearson gave me a choice between a beautiful mountain or canyon and a wind farm.  I chose the wind farm because it meshes with the story I open the book with, a story which reveals the complexities and ironies of modern environmentalism.

That story is of a controversy over a wind farm in a much more celebrated and well-known scenic area than Steens Mountain: Nantucket Sound.  Residents and sympathizers raised some 3 million dollars to oppose the proposed wind farms.  "Our national treasures should be off limits to industrialisation," remarked Walter Cronkite, the famous retired news anchor--and a resident whose view of the sound would be marred by the electricity-producing turbines.

My problem with Cronkite's argument--that scenic areas should be off limits to industrialism--is that industrialism has everything to do with his enjoyment of Nantucket Sound.  Massive economic development made possible his career and wealth and allowed him and others to purchase expansive homes that consume a great deal of energy on the rim of this "national treasure."  Where is that energy going to come from?  Advocates of wild and scenic places often elide that inconvenient question.

The thesis of Environmentalism is that nature loving has more often than not distracted us from the hard work of establishing a sensible and sustainable relationship with the non-human world.

To see my op-ed on Oregonlive on this subject, published April 29, go to:
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/04/steens_mountain_debate_is_bigg.html