Wind Farms
The truth is out there!
Things are looking desperate in Australia. The present Rabbott government continues to ignore science and the benefits of policy decisions based on scientific evidence.
The latest example of stupidity is that the Prime Minister has announced a review of the health problems linked to wind farms.
Maybe he, or at least his infamous chief of staff, should learn to read rather than just respond to lobby groups. The media share a lot of responsibility on this issue. Despite the case being closed by scientific evidence that there are no health problems, the media will still take any nut job and allow them equal time in any debate. This keeps the false debates alive.This keeps the case for ‘there remains doubts’ alive.
Fiona Crichton recently in The Conversation said:
Despite at least 19 reviews of the scientific evidence universally concluding that exposure to wind farm sound doesn’t trigger adverse health effects, people continue to report feeling unwell because they live near wind turbines.
We’ve known for some time that exposure to negative messages about wind farms makes people more likely to report feeling sick after exposure to turbines. And new research, published by my colleagues and I this week in the journal Health Psychology, shows positive messages about wind farms may have the opposite effect – improve perceptions of health.
and finished her piece with:
The fact that negative expectations in the current study were once again formed by watching television material, extracted from the internet, raises important issues about the way in which the media portrays wind farms.
If expectations about infrasound were framed in more neutral or benign ways, then reports of symptoms or negative effects could be ameliorated. Interestingly, framing expectations about wind farms in a positive manner could have a positive impact on the subjective experience of wind farm sound.
The onus falls on the media to report on health fears about wind farms cautiously, particularly given strong evidence that it is the discussion itself that may be creating and perpetuating health complaints.
read the full article here – click here.
and, also in The Conversation, another writer has expressed his frustrations about this silly debate continuing and that the Rabbott government is now prepared to spend money on reviewing all the stories again.
Michael Vagg says:
So it appears we are to be treated to another pointless examination of a manufactured controversy in the name of health science. One can only guess at the motivations for the Federal Government announcing a NHMRC-led review of the science around the purported health effects of wind farms, but you can be sure it’s not being driven by scientific curiosity.
In fact this review is probably the most futile bit of spending yet announced in the term of the Abbott administration and is exactly the sort of tomfoolery you might expect of a cabinet which has no room for science. Why? Because there is no controversy about the so-called Wind Turbine Syndrome. It doesn’t exist as a thing. It has not, as the philosophers might say, been reified.
Read his full article – click here.
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Paul Costigan, 8th February 2014