I wish people who care about conservation really think about impact before they go on “banning” campaigns.
For example, reducing paper use actually leads to less trees - since lack of demand forces tree farmers to sell their land to developers. Happening a lot on Europe now.
Wind farms in the certain areas are killing birds - turns out they are smack dab n the middle of migration routes. Ditto solar arrays blinding birds.
I feel like some activists just find fun in being activist, without looking closrly at what their are advocating.
Wind farm off the coast in Hawaii is really an eye sore.
When those who claim their is a crisis, live their personal lives like the crisis exist, then I’ll believe them.
What wind farm?
Have you been to Hawaii, it was right directly across the view of the hotel I was in.
Hawaii is a big place. You’d have to be more specific about where you were, Doc.
I don’t remember because I’ve been to Hawaii a few times in the last few years.
I’m not aware of any wind farm “off the coast” in Hawaii. Maybe if you just noted where you went on those few occasions, we could nail it down.
I’ve been to the Big Island and Maui recently.
Our groceries mostly come from Costco, and we put them in reusable collapsible baskets. I guess buying in bulk and the fact that I have not bought a paper towel roll in 15 years entitles me to a plastic grocery bag once in a while (those bags don’t get recycled - I have cats; nuff said.). 
I use kitchen towels that come form a Costco mega pack and wash them as a single load in my water-saver washer. Our garbage can is the smallest in the neighborhood, and it is usually not completely full. I am not bragging. I know we can do better.
I think DrGoogle means the Maui wind farm. It has been eye soring there for a while:
Birds get killed by airplanes and skyscrapers and anything made of glass they might fly into. I wouldn’t ditch wind farms just yet. I thought it was possible to use sonar to get the birds to redirect away from the windmills?
The Kaheawa wind farm is on dry land.
Yes, it is on dry land. From some points, it does look like it could be in the water.
It’s 2,000 feet above sea level on a barren ridge.
Wind farms are rather ridiculous. For the amount of money invested in the wind turbines (which cost beaucoup bucks), one would be able to build better commuter rails in areas that really need them–or any other venture that would actually yield useful and effective results. Even Holland is starting to shy away from wind power, considering despite having over 2000 turbines, it only offsets about 7% of their energy use.
A wind farm represents millions of gallons of petroleum products which do not have to be transported to Hawaii and burned (creating CO2). That is both useful and effective.
There is a giant industrial type solar installation near the California-Nevada border that is actually FRYING birds. The heat is so intense that the birds catch fire in the air and fall to the ground. And now there are plans to ruin the landscape of the Owens Valley and the Antelope Valley with more solar and wind factories. The word ‘farms’ is some sort of Orwellian euphemism.
So much better to just conserve, use less electricity, limit growth, or use natural gas. Natural gas does not create eyesores on the landscape like wind turbines and big solar.
I think its wonderful when buildings put solar panels on top. The solar panels over parking lots are great ideas. But these giant blights on the beautiful desert landscape are not ‘green’.
Industrial production is almost always ugly. Driving through WV once, there was coal mining activity on one side of the road and giant windmills on the other. I’ll take the windmills in that case.
The problem is that most of us are not usually confronted with the ugliness of energy production in our daily lives. Natural gas extraction may not look as bad as any type of coal mining, but it involves fracking which causes its own set of problems.
I say we figure out how to build a better mousetrap - one that doesn’t fry any birds (unless they’re chickens) and switch more to solar and wind power.
*Natural gas does not create eyesores on the landscape like wind turbines and big solar.
*
http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/exxon-fracking-zw0z1403zwea.aspx
The sad secret, which (almost) nobody likes, is that the only long-term energy solution is more nuclear energy. Well, the other option is a return of something like the Black Plague that kills off a huge part of the population. Barring that, there won’t be enough energy from either fossil fuels or other renewables to power anything like our current world economy over the long term, much less one in which people in developing countries have lifestyles like those we enjoy.