The Ontario provincial government, complicit in deception, has effectively sanctioned the wind power industry to prejudicially reform planning policy, willfully and knowingly, not only supporting, but utilizing industry proffered guidelines, fundamentally biased and flawed at the most basic level. Increasingly, unacceptable human impacts transpire, the aftermath of profit skewed noise and setback policies.

Geronimo (1829-1909), venerable Chief of the Southern Chiricahua Band of the Apaches, was captured, ironically, by Apache scouts employed by the U.S. Army, in September 1886, to be confined on a reservation in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, until his death. In his last years, Geronimo, defeated and dispirited, reduced to posing for pennies in a top hat, renders a sadly enduring image of a people, their fate determined from behind a desk, their land and freedom lost, not in battle, but to unscrupulous government policy.

Bureaucratic arrogance and deceit, timeless, a constant, now threatens not only a people, but all people. Collusive energy policies, in Ontario's case, the provincial government's abetment of the wind power industry, represents a self serving pretense, squandering billions, better spent elsewhere, on a bona fide, proven, non answer to global warming. Misinformed, yet proselytizing, predominantly urban and not coincidentally un-impacted, "Greenies", conscripted to the cause, have, in their knee-jerk support of corporate "high level messaging", been reduced to unwitting marionettes, performing in a grand, subsidy grabbing, vote seducing scheme, GREEN-X, a heinous offence to our global environment.

Industrial wind power energy, marginal and intermittent, with minimal fossil fuel displacement, accrues negligible emission savings, more apparent when one considers the life cycle of the turbine. The manufacture of the steel towers, the substantial enlistment of the emission-rich concrete industry, the transportation and assembly of components, construction and maintenance of new road systems, and the deforestation of CO² consuming vegetation, must all be considered, terminating with the decommissioning, though unlikely, of derelict turbines. Germany, the highly touted flagship of this industry, has not only failed to close a single coal-fired plant, but currently fosters plans to erect eight more.

Like Monty Python's tragically absurd Black Knight, steadfastly declaring his combat prowess undiminished after each successive loss of limb, the wind industry perseveres with almost comic boasts of overstated benefits, despite increasingly documented, reproducible evidence to the contrary.

Naked, in the face of science, this industry must now garner support through creative imagery, "merry children dancing beneath the turbines", sloganeering and wordsmithing, "the wind is always blowing somewhere", and irrelevant, meaningless, and misleading statistics.

The Ontario provincial government, complicit in deception, has effectively sanctioned the wind power industry to prejudicially reform planning policy, willfully and knowingly, not only supporting, but utilizing industry proffered guidelines, fundamentally biased and flawed at the most basic level. Increasingly, unacceptable human impacts transpire, the aftermath of profit skewed noise and setback policies.

Compliance, on the part of the wind industry, with environmental guidelines, already enfeebled and lacking prerequisite potency, is submissively "suggested" by the Ministry of the Environment. Misrepresentations,non-disclosures, non-compliance and resulting environmental impacts, are policed predominantly by affected rural residents, then presented by the Ministry and the media as, "NIMBYs holding up another project."

In a "High Level Message" to the wind industry and the McGuinty Liberals, take heed: We are not the NIMBYs of yore. We are educated, we are organized and well financed, we know the law, and we have the internet. We know the true data, we know your motives, and we know that GREEN -X is sordid and shameful. Your castle is crumbling. Just ask your investors. Proceed if you must, but of this you can be certain: We are well armed and we are ready. The element of surprise is no longer on your side - and know this: We will not wear your top hats.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR : Dr. J. B. Nichols lives and practices on Ontario's Niagara Escarpment. He is a vocal advocate of Escarpment protection, and supports tangible, as opposed to symbolic measures to address climate change. Since 2003, he has been active in identifying the flaws and conflicts within Ontario's wind energy policies. His opinions have been published in newspapers throughout the province. Dr. Nichols continues to network with citizens' groups in an ongoing effort to establish a more honest, transparent, and responsible wind energy policy.