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
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    12711 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”

    • @Shard
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      3211 months ago

      Even if we agree that it causes visual pollution, I’d argue that visual pollution from fossil fuels is many multitudes worse. Case in point, major chinese and indian cities.

      • @technojamin
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        311 months ago

        I was in New Delhi when the AQI was ~700, that is MUCH worse than visual pollution. My lungs started hurting within 20 minutes of being outside, and a huge amount of people on the domestic flight I was on (mostly local residents) had coughs.

    • Max-P
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      1111 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
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        211 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
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      311 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      111 months ago

      That’s how they’ve been restricting multi home buildings for years. They don’t want it to lower their resale value by obstructing the skyline.

  • Nomecks
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    4311 months ago

    They look better than pump jacks and oil derricks.

    • @[email protected]
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      911 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

      • @HerrBeter
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        111 months ago

        Wind needs energy storage but it generates a ton of electricity 👍⚡

    • @[email protected]
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      211 months ago

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

  • Gormadt
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    4011 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

  • @captainlezbian
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    2711 months ago

    Windmills look so much better than rural Indiana

    • @Salad_Fries
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      611 months ago

      Would suggest a driving trip on I65 just north of Lafayette Indiana…

      It is a flat boring patch of rural farm land just like the rest of rural indiana, but they added hundreds of wind turbines to the fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. It is truly a marvel to look at…

      In essence, i drive through rural indiana every so often… i can definitively confirm that the section with windmills is far more interesting looking than the rest.

      • @captainlezbian
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        311 months ago

        Yeah I drove from central ohio to Chicago once. The thing that struck me most was how little renewables ohio had. The wind farms were exactly what rural America needed to look fine.

        But yeah also I advise against driving through rural Indiana because you still have to be there to do it

  • @spittingimage
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    2411 months ago

    Other power sources also cause visual pollution and I like windmills better than columns of smoke.

    • @Mango
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      511 months ago

      Yeah and blurry vision is pretty shit.

  • @Delta_V
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    11 months ago

    Its fossil fuel lobby propaganda.

  • @[email protected]
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    1911 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
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      411 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.

    • @afraid_of_zombies
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      311 months ago

      They weren’t there was a big campaign against them in the 60s. Which led to the Highway Beautification Act.

  • 𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍
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    11 months ago

    Windmills look pretty nice. I’ve only ever seen the “visual pollution” argument made by rich, entitled Karens and Fox News drones.

  • @A_Very_Big_Fan
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    1911 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

  • @[email protected]
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    1911 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.

  • HububBub
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    1811 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.

  • Ixoid
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    1711 months ago

    I love seeing them on the horizon. I genuinely get excited to see them.

  • @[email protected]
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    1711 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
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      911 months ago

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