The meaning of a wind turbine reversal

One thing that won't be on the warrant for Wellfleet's upcoming town meeting is a wind turbine. The selectmen unanimously nixed the idea.

It will be interesting to see whether anything is made at the meeting of this striking reversal of the unanimous endorsement only a year ago of the erection of not one, but three 400-foot turbines on town land surrounded by National Seashore over by the ocean.

At the time it seemed clearly the right thing for a progressive little town to do in these times of concern over climate change, especially if it makes the town a bunch of money. No brainer for a brainy town.

So what's changed? A persistent group of opponents, mostly nonresidents, seem to have been successful in reminding us that some land is better used when not used at all in the practical sense. That sometimes aesthetic and recreational value trumps even a virtuous, green use.

The proposed 400-foot tall tower - two of the original trio were put on the back burner - would have towered over the low hills and stunted growth of our sandy end of the Cape. As people are noticing now that it is up, our new water tower, part of a controversial water system, looms, visible from many parts of our low town, and it is only a quarter of the height of the proposed turbine.

Other factors have muddied a picture that seemed so clear a year ago. Claims were made about noise and flicker effect at least for those living closest to a turbine. (Few in our town live near the proposed site). These claims were disputed and as far as I know no firm conclusions were arrived at. Since the original proposal, especially with the reduction to one turbine, we have been hearing more modest estimates of profit to the town.

After the selectmen's vote, in a triumphal "My View" piece, the president of Save Our Seashore called the idea of wind turbines in or near the Seashore a "terribly ill-conceived idea." Well not quite. It was in fact well-conceived and might well have been worth some sacrifices if the original estimates of the savings to the town - proponents claimed that three turbines would underwrite the town's whole utility bill and maybe more - had held up. And of course there was the value to the world as a small contribution to the climate change fight.

Insofar as that original enthusiastic endorsement of wind power in our back yard contained a significant dollop of liberal conscience, the turnaround suggests the limits of that motivation. Surely a deeper concern - urgency, panic - about climate change and that turbine and more like it would be going up despite our fondness for undeveloped land for recreation.

Going on 20 years into general awareness of the great climate change emergency, there continues to be a strange lack of urgency, even a certain languidness, about our reaction. Even among the majority of right-thinking people who believe in the science. We conjecture about the chunks taken out of the east-facing dunes by recent storms and wonder about the actual spring we've been having. (Spring? On Cape Cod? Something's obviously out of whack.)

But we don't seem deeply worried; we don't act like people who feel really threatened. Our choice of the spiritual over the practical in the matter of wind turbines is another indication that we are disinclined to be as exercised about climate change as we are repeatedly told we ought to be.

I certainly don't mean to be chastising; you can tell from the tone of this column that, for better or worse, I share this, um, leisurely approach to the predicted catastrophe. I'm happy to be supported by fellow citizens in my dislike of being loomed over.

In an earlier column, I asked why there was, as an expression at least of curiosity, if not fear, no official yardstick established in the tidal flats somewhere to measure the rising seas surrounding this vulnerable peninsula. Water, being water, must rise everywhere if it is rising anywhere, and threatening, say, the Maldives and other low-lying places. I've yet to hear of the existence of any such climate change meter.

Brent Harold of Wellfleet, a former English professor, is the author of "Wellfleet and the World." E-mail him at kinnacum@gmail.com.