Madam, - In response to Mary Harte's complaint about wind farms in Donegal (May 3rd), I would love to see more wind farms around Irish coastlines and uplands.
The more wind farms we commission, the less we pollute our country with visible and invisible poisons; the less we damage our peatlands, and the less we damage the other natural resources in Ireland.
It is grossly inaccurate to equate wind turbines with chimneys - wind farms don't generate or pump smoke into our atmosphere, they don't increase the ambient temperature, they don't pour off warm water into the local waterways, and they don't contribute to the continued degradation of the global environment.
They don't produce a by-product that is measured in half-lives of millions of years, that is responsible for the genetic mutation of entire populations in Eastern Europe, and can be used for the production of weapons of evil. If an extremist decides to fly an airplane into a wind turbine, there is no great consequence, except the loss of one turbine, a serviceable airplane, and one misguided idiot. The same cannot be said for the consequences of the same idiot flying into Sellafield.
Wind turbines stand as a brave marker of how modern technology doesn't have to be destructive, that we can provide modern comforts while significantly reducing our real impact on the environment. As for the visual impact, this is a personal value judgment, and one person's meat is another person's poison. I like how they look, and I like what they signify. - Yours, etc,
CORMAC MacGOWAN, Delgany, Co Wicklow.