I remember reading somewhere (probably my high school textbook) that one of the reasons people don’t like wind power being built is they cause visual pollution.

In my opinion, I think it would be pretty cool to just look out my window and see a giant windmill there, the opposite of visual pollution.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    “Visual pollution” is a bullshit term that rich people came up with to keep them from being built near their vacation resorts. It means “ugly”

    • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.me
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      9 months ago

      Sometimes “ugly” is even “not pretty and wealthy looking”.

      Wind turbines aren’t pretty but they’re not any more of an eye sore as overhead power lines or whatever. And at least it’s a symbol of caring about being sustainable.

      A lot of people like to move all the “ugly” elsewhere out of their sight and then call those places shitholes. It doesn’t bother them they’re just moving the infrastructure where the less wealthy have to deal with it. They’d rather a coal plant destroy a lower class city in pollution than see wind turbines near their upper class neighbourhood.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I think any place that rejects renewables should get a coal fired power plant instead. Let them reconsider it as their kids grow up with heavy metals and all the other shit these things spew out.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      We stayed at a private beach resort once and I never want to again. Sure it was nice for a bit having so much space to yourself, but I miss you guys. I missed the +90 year old couples holding hands, the kids hopped up on ice cream and youth and BEACH, the young families holding a newborn, the middle aged bikers, the weird guy driving a model T, teenagers being sullen and prodding jellyfish, dogs who look like they are in heaven, hipster bicycles, processed meat fried in sugar somehow, arcades that still take coins run by crooked carnies, the 12 guys who decided to dig a really deep hole, the weird religious ethnic immigrant group just chillin…

      I missed humanity in all its loud happy glory. This is the way we are meant to have fun, together. Not alone on some beach chair while someone underpaid changes our towels.

  • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    They look better than smoke stacks

    And in all honesty they remind me of like a leisurely creek or small waterfall in that they kinda just keep going on in a pleasant consistent kind of way ya know?

    Basically what I’m saying is that they’re pretty IMO

    • macaroni1556@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Let alone power plants billowing steam and smoke

      And they don’t damage the environment as much as a hydro dam

      And nowhere as ugly as giant farms of solar

      Honestly its probably the BEST looking power source

    • themelm@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Ah pump jacks are satisfying to watch too. And I mean derricks are temporary. But I’ve always liked windmills.

  • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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    9 months ago

    I find them comforting in a reassuring, kinda awe inspiring way. Like, they’re a visual sign of at least trying to address climate change, and there’s something about having a giant, obviously artificial moving structure towering over the landscape that just gives me a sense of thrill and wonder that we are capable of building that. Those things are pretty massive if you get anywhere close to one, after all.

  • A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I think they’re pretty tbh. There’s a huge stretch of them in a field I drive through sometimes, and at night I like to just stop for a second and watch 95% of them all flash their light on top in sync across an impressive distance.

    And sometimes there’s one or two flashing out of sync in a weird rhythm and I assume it’s like an error code which I think is pretty interesting

  • HububBub@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    No, I like the rhythmic visual quality. And on a conscious level they make me feel happy about clean electricity. I see windmills every single day and they do not get old for me.

  • MaxHardwood@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    I think they look really cool. I can’t get the rage about a friggin’ giant electricity producing machine but they’re fine with billboards everywhere.

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Once The Man figures out that windmills would make good persistence-of-vision displays to play adverts on, I’m going to start burning them down.

  • stoy@lemmy.zip
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    9 months ago

    Like with anything, too much of it will look/taste/smell/sound bad.

    Is that a reason in and of itself to not build wind power plants? No.

    Personally I find wind power plants to look cool, a bit sci-fi and futuristic.

    The argument that they are ugly is dumb, using a term like “visual pollution” is just a way to try and make a subjective oppinion sound like objective fact.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      people arguing about visual pollution never had to worry about their kids growing up with asthma induced by exhaust fumes.

  • Onii-Chan@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    This complaint about wind power has always come across as the kind of thing people say because they heard somebody else say it. imo, it’s just stupid people who desperately want to have an opinion on the topic weighing in with the only piece of criticism they’ve overhead some Sky News host parrot at some point in the past, and because that host had authority on the matter in their minds, it gives them some kind of false confidence to then go forward and proclaim the visual pollution argument, as if it has any real basis in anything.

    • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I have actually heard the “original person” complaining about this… but the original person is also the kind of person who wants a picture-perfect ocean view every single day. Wind turbines? Visual pollution. Ships passing by? Visual pollution. Their neighbor has too many holiday decorations up? Visual pollution.

      They just genuinely expect the rest of civilization around them to comply to their demands for a fantasy-perfect oceanside existence.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Sounds like my dad. We don’t talk anymore. Remember his irrational anger to the idea that other people were using HIS highway when he was driving on it. Also he had a war against a neighbor who sublet to his cousin “cause it is zoned for single family and a cousin is a different family”. Just fucking admit you don’t want a brown family on your block, I would honestly respect honest bigotry more.

  • xkforce@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    People didn’t seem to mind fugly coal plants but now that weve got a clean energy source usually built in the middle of nowhere they suddenly have a problem with “visual pollution.”

    To me it sounds a lot like those dudes that spew smoke out the back of their truck for no other reason than to “trigger” anyone they think might not approve.

    • Delphia@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The solution to this is so simple its insane.

      You offer anyone whose home is within sight of a wind turbine say… 5000kw/h a year in free electricity. With a little careful planning and given that your average turbine produces around 6 million kwh a year. Id imagine they shut up pretty fucking fast.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Makes sense to me. If people who have to deal with something are invested in that thing they will defend it. Never miss an opportunity to take someone outside pissing in and put them inside pissing out.

    • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I’ve tended to find people against them want the same skyline their grandparents had 50 years ago, ignoring that even the trees changed shape. So to them its change and conservative rural people abhor anychange that doesn’t have an immediate and tangible benefit.