The Sept. 1 letter of Claire Jones hits a key point. Ms. Jones apparently is a regular visitor to the Thousand Island area from far away. I too am a regular visitor, and like so many, we cannot believe how some local town officials are seriously prepared to transform the area in a most profound way. Having seen the Maple Ridge Wind Farm many times on my way to the Thousand Islands, I am shocked that efforts are under way to bring such visually dominating infrastructure to the Thousand Islands.

Before you slap a down payment on your own bucolic corner of heaven, look around you carefully -- because, trust me, there's almost always trouble of some sort brewing in paradise. If it isn't a landfill proposal, it's a gravel pit or a giant hog farm or a communications tower or biosolids being sprayed on the field next door. And now, a new danger: Dalton McGuinty's wind farms are sprouting all over rural Ontario.

The National Post ran a story today about a group of Manitoulin Island residents who are attempting to take on a Toronto-based energy company, Northland Power Inc. The residents are accusing the company of fast-tracking a wind farm project without proper consultation. What that means for those not up to snuff on their provincial consultations, is that any company building wind farms is required to conduct what the province calls an environmental screening.

It's really quite easy to dismiss opponents of wind farms as suffering more from the "not-in-my-backyard" (NIMBY) syndrome than any particular health problem. Wind farms are the cleanest form of energy we have, consuming no fuel and emitting no pollution. They are one part of the solution to wean the world off fossil fuels. And they are being built as quickly as the turbines can roll off the assembly lines ...But for the Ontario government to dismiss what appears to be growing concern about potential health problems generated by wind farms is folly.

If you promise something, you should deliver it. And sooner rather than later-especially if you engage in questionable PR tactics to win your case. I have argued in favour of governments financing both wind generation and nuclear generation, but not because both are equally capable of providing zero-carbon electricity. They are plainly not equal: nuclear provides large-scale, cheap, on-demand power; wind provides small-scale, expensive, erratic power. Comparing the two is like comparing a top-level NHL hockey player to a mosquito-level beginner.

‘Wind Power Monthly' (The Editor, September 1998), the magazine for the wind industry and its supporters, actually recognized almost 11 years ago that the reason for the growing unpopularity of wind power is that a de facto heavy industry has tricked its way into unspoiled countryside in "green" disguise. The editor stated that: "Too often the public has felt duped into envisioning fairy tale wind parks in the countryside. The reality has been an abrupt awakening. Wind power stations are no parks."

Let's hope the provincial government will move quickly to have a comprehensive epidemiological study on the impacts of industrial wind turbines conducted prior to having any other industrial wind turbines installed anywhere in Ontario.

The wind turbines on Wolfe Island in Canada can be seen in Watertown, 30 miles away. How many times can a man turn his head, and pretend that he just doesn't see, The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, The answer is blowing in the wind.

While Prowind, on behalf of New Denmark Wind Farm Inc., held an open house earlier this year to outline its proposal for the installation of same in the beautiful hills and valleys of New Denmark, this was a sparsely attended event leaving much of the proposal for an industrial wind turbine array shrouded in secrecy and obfuscation. Indeed, this single event does not constitute "consultation", nor does impromptu visits to opponents of the project by those sponsoring or potentially profiting from it. Ditto unsolicited and anonymous letters to residents of New Denmark in clear opposition to this project disparaging Wendy Todd, the guest speaker from Mars Hill at the June 9 open house.

The placement of wind turbines near homes is an international problem that can in no way be likened to living near a train or an airport. It is not just what you hear but what you don't hear (low frequency vibration) that causes well-documented health problems. It's insidious that way. Also insidious is the quiet creation of the Ontario Green Energy Act -- a piece of legislation that removes all rights of local municipalities to take part in critical planning decisions for their own communities.

This weekend I entertained people from Toronto at our property on Big Island in the Bay of Quinte. They were appalled to hear about the plans for an industrial wind farm that would cover a large area of Big Island and Sophiasburg in Prince Edward County. They could not believe at how undemocratically this wind farm is being forced on the local residents.

In the area of environmental action, there's recycling newspapers to save forests, and then there's Erecting The Biggest Wind Turbine In B.C. to reduce your carbon footprint. The latter example of look-at-me symbolism is becoming a reality this summer at the summit of Grouse Mountain, where engineers are installing a giant, propeller-like machine.

This year, things have changed utterly. The future has arrived on Wolfe Island with a wind-turbine vengeance. And many ferry passengers will surely lament this summer that one of Ontario's more tranquil refuges has been turned into a wind-turbine theme park. ...Whatever the technical merits of the project, there's no question about the aesthetic impact on the island. The turbines have tilted its ambience from the pastoral to the industrial.

Recently, I've been reading up on Alberta's oil sands development because that's going to be a huge issue in determining Canada's response, or lack of one, to reducing man-made greenhouse gas emissions. But anyone who believes this means the rest of us can self-righteously look down our noses at Alberta, doesn't understand the science or the reality. In Ontario, for example, Premier Dalton McGuinty can't call out his Alberta counterpart, Ed Stelmach on the oil sands, until he shuts down Ontario's coal-fired electricity plants, a promise he's been breaking since first making it in 2003.

Whether or not you agree with wind farms is not the argument surrounding the opening ceremonies of the West Cape Wind farm. ...The wind farm is here and it's not going anywhere. Those landowners that were never notified of the plan will never be given a voice. The turbines do make noise, they do generate flicker and they represent the biggest change to lifestyles that ever came to the west end of P.E.I.

Local MPP John Gerretsen stated in an interview with the CBC that the new setbacks are needed "to best protect the health and safety of Ontarians," and that where turbines are shown to cause negative health effects, "the towers will be moved." Ministry of Environment officials who attended the public forum on the Green Energy Act held on June 25 in Toronto proposed that 5% of Wolfe Island residents in close proximity to the turbines could experience such negative health effects as dizziness, tinnitus, headaches and sleep disorders due to noise and vibration. There are many islanders who are now quietly coming to terms with the reality ...

We are writing to express concerns about the health effects from the placement of industrial wind turbines adjacent the residential areas on the shoreline of Pigeon Bay in Kingsville, Union and Leamington and requesting the Ontario Ministry of Health conduct epidemiological studies prior to construction.

So people on Manitoulin can't handle change or that we think that turbines are monsters. I would suggest to Martin and Northland Power that people on Manitoulin are not children to be condescended to. We know turbines are not monsters and we would accept change as well as anyone, provided that it is to the benefit of all of residents, adjacent landowners, farm owners who are leasing their land. We want the concerns clearly addressed, not just reassurances that turbines are not monsters and that everything will be fine. Islanders deserve better then that.

No one should feel guilty about questioning industrial wind. Regardless of how big the turbines get, the ability to produce meaningful energy for consumers is extremely limited. To understand the limits of industrial wind power there needs to be an understanding of how our grid works. Energy must be maintained at all times. Drops or increases in voltage can cause the grid to fail.

The presence of these overwhelming techno-energy giants brings to mind a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. ...It's hard to see anything else. When I look towards the water, I don't see the natural beauty of Kingston's harbour anymore. I don't see Garden Island, Simcoe Island or even Wolfe Island, as my vision is drawn to these massive propellers waiting in rest or whirling away, depending on the breeze. If the daytime view isn't bad enough, the blinking red warning lights on the towers at night light up the sky like a runway at Pearson International Airport.