What Ontarians Know

To The Right Honourable Dalton McGuinty, Premier and our Ontario Liberal Cabinet Members:

I've been a passionate advocate of green causes all of my adult life.  I was a vocal proponent of wind generation for many years as well, but...this was before I understood the true cost and impact of these very large, invasive and worst of all, ineffective machines.

I've visited them in many parts of Ontario,  including as a crew member on a television commercial about wind power.  While shooting this pitch for wind power, boosting wind generation, local residents came up to us, unbidden, to describe their sleepless nights, headaches, and loss of quality of life.  They described low frequency vibrations and noise as well as light shadows caused by the windmills near their homes.

Coupled with the fact that wind power requires a constantly running conventional backup, making it carbon neutral, why push windmills on all of us in such an irresponsible and very undemocratic way?  It is great to want to close coal generation, as you've bravely promised.  So how about Nukes?

Check out France: they invested in nuclear technology and are now energy independent.  Nukes add nothing to their greenhouse gas loads.  This will prove a major advantage in the coming era of cap and trade...

Please read the enclosed article by Dr James Lovelock, the originator of the Gaia concept.  He realizes, as I and many other enviros have, that wind generation only looks good without changing anything in real terms.  Oh, and it wastes so much in the mean time!

Backing wind power full blast is also a poor choice as it diverts precious financial and other resources to a weak solution when we all agree that time is short.

C'mon Libs, be reasonable:  local communities should decide where these immense industrial installations should go instead of having them jammed down their throats.

In the case of the Toronto Hydro Bluffs proposal, these massive pieces of industrial machinery will be closer than any other major wind farm in the ENTIRE WORLD to a major population centre, blocking migratory flight paths for birds and polluting both the fresh water resource and view that Lake Ontario provide us.

I do appreciate the Liberal greenbelt initiative and other wise choices and understand that these are complicated and hard choices you and we are all faced with.

All the more reason to proceed with an abundance of caution.

Yours very sincerely,
Scott Bell

19 Scarboro Beach Blvd
Toronto M4E 2W9