Parade Magazine: Wind Power Disrupts Local Climate

Hard facts often trump breezy liberal logic supporting renewable energy. 

Parade Magazine columnist Marilyn Vos Savant, once considered the smartest person in the world [1], wrote on May 11 that wind power may actually disrupt local weather [2]. While this information contradicts climate alarmist attempts to reduce extreme weather to a consequence of global warming, it adds to the list of environmental problems with wind turbines. 

Vos Savant claimed that wind turbines “will have an impact on the weather,” in addition to causing “ground warming and drying.” 

She pointed out that wind turbines “remove energy from the wind” which logically has an impact on local climate. Vos Savant also said that this problem will increase “the more widespread [turbines] become” and that “improved engineering” will not change the basic fact that they affect the air around them. 

This is not just a fringe claim. On February 14, Scientific American reprinted an essay [3] detailing studies that explored how wind power affects the climate. This essay discussed recent which found that increased wind turbines throughout Europe changed temperature and rain patterns. This study found “a mix of more rain and less rain, and warming and cooling, depending on where you are around Europe.” 

Researchers also found that “the climate impacts of wind farms extend beyond the farms themselves,” impacting local communities or ecosystems. 

This is not the only way that wind farms disrupt ecosystems or harm the environment. Notably, wind turbines kill thousands of birds, including rare and iconic species like America’s own bald eagle. 

Even the liberal Mother Jones reported [4] on January 6 that “Hundreds of thousands of birds and bats are killed by wind turbines in the US each year, including some protected species such as the golden eagle and the Indiana bat.” In addition, some conservationists have attacked the Obama administration for allowing wind farms to “lawfully kill bald and golden eagles,” according to the New York Times [5].