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Ignorant statement 1
Wind turbines save lives
Wind turbines and health
Wind turbines and birds
Ignorant statement 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Clean energy and jobs
Choice quotes
Turbine hosts
Senate speech of 2014/06/17
Pie in the sky
Good side of the Senator
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Senator John Madigan and wind power facts

One of the Wind Power Ethics pages*

Senator Madigan has set himself up as the People's Hero in the fight against the evil scourge of wind turbines. (Don Quixote comes to mind – and there is a close similarity; both being deluded men dedicated to a fight against an 'enemy' that is not only harmless, but actually beneficial.)

 
The reputable Australia Institute provides the facts on Wind Enegy, Climate and Health
Senator Madigan favours coal-fired generation over clean renewable wind power. Coal-fired power stations are one of the main causes of climate change and ocean acidification and the air pollution that they produce is directly responsible for millions of deaths and serious illnesses each year.

It is a simple fact that, by displacing polluting coal-fired power stations wind farms save lives.

Written 2012/08/28, modified 2016/06/16
Contact: email daveclarkecb@yahoo.com
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As with all my pages, informed feedback is welcome. If you are disagreeing with some point please supply evidence in support of your argument. ©

Wind energy opposition

The author of these pages has no financial connection to either side of the wind power 'debate' and is entirely independent.

Most of the links on this page lead to further explanation and supporting evidence.

Introduction

 
Mike Barnard lists, and debunks, ten 'whoppers' in the 364 words of Senator Madigans Web page on wind power.
Senator Madigan invited climate science denier 'Lord' Monckton to Ballarat in late 2012. (More on 'Lord' Monckton and climate science denial elsewhere on these pages.) Should we ask, is Senator Madigan in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry?
Senator John Madigan was the only member of the Democratic Labor Party in any Australian Parliament before leaving that party; he is a Senator for Victoria.

By his campaign against wind power, Senator Madigan is harming the fight against climate change. At another time and under other circumstances, his ill-informed campaign might be little more than comical; at this time, when we must move away from burning fossil fuels or irreparably damage the planet, we cannot afford to allow nonsense to stand in the way of intelligent and much-needed action.

I might have used the word 'error' rather than 'ignorant statement' below; but to make claims, as Senator Madigan seems to have done, such as 'carbon dioxide is not a pollutant' is more than an error, it is ignorant.



 
Arctic sea ice extent
Image credit: Arctic Sea-ice Monitor
Note that the extent of Arctic sea ice at 2012/08/27 was the lowest ever measured, and declining.

Ignorant statement 1: "Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant"

The DLP Submission to the Inquiry into Australia's Clean Energy Future stated that "Carbon dioxide – unlike its deadly cousin carbon monoxide – is not a pollutant."

This is in denial of the fact of climate change and ocean acidification, two of the greatest environmental disasters of the age.

It is true that carbon dioxide is a natural, and indeed essential, constituent of the atmosphere. Oxygen is also essential, but if the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere was to be increased by 40% (as has the amount of CO2), that too would be a disaster. Among many other problems, forests would become so flamable that they would cease to exist.

The catastrophic loss of sea-ice in the arctic (as shown in the graph at the right) is one of the most conspicuous signs that climate change is very real and is happening, not in a hundred or two hundred years, but NOW. It is, of course, largely due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A quote from Senator Madigan:
"The climate changes, we all know that. It's been changing for thousands of years. The degree to which man can influence the change of climate, well I don't believe the jury is in on that yet. For all the people of the world, scientists who say it is, there's probably an equal body who says it isn't – the verdict is not in. Science has always been something that's been open to question.
Of course Senator Madigan is quite wrong here; the vast majority of the published science and of the world's climate scientists agree that the climate is changing largely due to Man's activities.

Yes, science is 'open to question', but some things, like whether or not the Earth is flat and whether or not anthropogenic climate change is a fact, are pretty thoroughly settled.

Climate change damage closer to home

 
Climate change damage near my home in the Clare Valley
Dead red stringybark at Clare
Dead red stringybark Eucalyptus macrorhyncha in the Spring Gully Conservation Park near Clare
It is arguable that the exceptionally hot and dry summer that was responsible for the damage in the Sping Gully Conservation Park shown on the right may not have had anything to do with climate change. What is undeniable by any well informed and honest person is that exceptional weather events such as this will become more common as climate change progresses unless we get serious about taking action such as replacing fossil fuel fired power stations with wind farms and other forms of benign renewable energy.

The red stringybark trees in the Clare area are in the coolest gullies and on the tops of the highest hills; they can be found nowhere else in South Australia. As temperatures rise and droughts become more common they will probably become locally extinct.






 
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Wind turbines can be shown to save lives and save many people from serious illnesses


Apparently Senator Madigan is ignorant of the fact that wind turbines save many lives and many more serious illnesses by replacing polluting coal-fired power; or perhaps he is aware of it but chooses to ignor it.

The world's most prestigious medical science journal, The Lancet, publised a paper puting numbers to the annual toll of deaths and serious illnesses in Europe due to the air pollutants from burning coal to generate electricity. Air pollution from coal fired power stations result in 24 deaths and 225 serious illnesses per Terrawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity generated. Based on these figures, it can be calculated that something like 50 lives are saved each year by Australia's wind farms, and more than 500 serious illnesses avoided.






Wind turbines do not cause health problems

 

Report unavailable

Senator Madigan gives the name of Thorne's report as "Waubra & Other Victorian Wind Farm Noise Impact Assessment". Searching for this on the Internet failed (2012/08/29), although there was some indication that there might be a confidential report by this name.

How can anyone check on Senator Madigan's claim if there is no access to the report?

In his "Just Stop" press release Senator Madigan wrote of a report writen by Dr Bob Thorne. Senator Madigan said: "The report gives clear and scientific proof of adverse health effects of wind farms on humans."

All this proves is Senator Madigan's poor grasp of how science works. Before something can be considered to be scientifically accepted it must be published in respectable peer-reviewed science journals. There have been 17 reviews of the research literature and all have concluded that there is no acceptable evidence directly linking wind turbines to health problems.






 
Bird mortality
Graph from the UK Centre for Sustainable Energy, data from A Summary and Comparison of Bird Mortality from Anthropogenic Causes with an Emphasis on Collisions; Wallace P. Erickson, Gregory D. Johnson and David P. Young Jr.

Wind turbines and birds

Senator Madigan wrote an article that was published by Wind-watch in which he predicted a disaster to birds if the Bald Hills Wind Farm is built. He claimed that building the wind farm would breach international agreements for the protection of migratory birds, without giving any any evidence for his claim.

Both the Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth Australia support wind power and recognise that its net environmental impact is positive. While the ideal in regard to energy and the environment would be greatly reduced energy generation and consumption, replacement of fossil-fuelled electricity by renewables like wind is next best.

In an effort to show, by example, that wind turbines do much more good than harm for birds – by reducing greenhouse gas production and therefore slowing climate change – the UK Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) plans to build a big wind turbine at its headquarters.

The main US bird protection association, Audubon, states that while badly sited wind farms can kill a lot of birds, "On balance, Audubon strongly supports wind power"; see Audubon policy statement on wind power. The statement goes on: "If we don't find ways to reduce these [greenhouse gas/carbon dioxide] emissions, far more birds – and people – will be threatened by global warming than by wind turbines."

Also see Bird deaths from wind turbines.






 
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Ignorant statement 2: "Wind farms will not deliver"


The DLP's policy statement on wind farms states that "wind farms will not deliver the power required to drive us forward either in the short or long term". The South Australian experience, in just a few years, has shown this to be quite false.

In March 2012 Adelaide-based energy economics group EnergyQuest chief executive Dr Graeme Bethune produced a press release which stated, in part:

"... a massive 26% of South Australian electricity was generated [in 2011] by wind, up from 18% in 2010 and less than 1% five years ago. Since 2006-07 the share of gas in power generation has fallen from 58% to 49% but the big change has been in coal, which has fallen from 42% to 25%. Wind is effectively replacing coal."
By 2015 the proportion of South Australia's electricity supply being generated by renewables (mostly wind) was around 40%.

Obviously wind farms are delivering.






Ignorant statement 3: "Wind turbines are being abandoned"

The DLP policy statement on wind farms states:
"We have already seen the failures around the world where thousands of wind turbines have been abandoned."
In fact the wind farms that have been abandoned or dismantled are those that have become technologically outdated or closed down for reasons quite independent of effectiveness. For example, the only wind farm in Australia that has been closed down, at Salmon Beach, Esperance, WA, was dismantled because of urban encroachment and the 60kW turbines having been superseded by much larger and more efficient 225kW models.

No country, anywhere in the world, is abandoning wind power; most are building exponentially more and more wind turbines.

The World Wind Energy Association has recorded worldwide growth from 18GW of installed wind power at the end of 2000 to 215GW in June 2011. That is an annual growth rate of more than 25%.



Global cumulative installed wind power capacity
Graphic credit: Global Wind Energy Council
 
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Ignorant statement 4: "Coal-fired power generation is safe"

This statement appears in the DLP submission to the Inquiry into Australia's Clean Energy Future.

As mentioned above, a paper published in the prestigious health science journal The Lancet stated that air pollution from coal fired power stations result in 24 deaths and 225 serious illnesses per Terrawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity generated. This is due to a combination of particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen that are released into the atmosphere when coal is burned.

And then, of course, we must consider the damage to the Earth's systems due to climate change and ocean acidification.






Ignorant statement 5: "There are many organisations that claim wind farms are the saviour of Australia's energy needs"

Senator Madigan said this in his 'Just Stop' press release. I challenge him to name one organisation that has made this claim.





Ignorant statement 6: "Wind farm have limited output due to weather conditions"

Senator Madigan produced a press release criticising renewable energy on 2014/01/17; it included the statement:
"We have heard from spokespeople this week that wind farms have limited output because of weather conditions."
He has been rubbishing wind power for years, but it would seem from this statement that he has just realised that they produce less power when wind speeds decline!

He didn't specifically mention solar power which was, of course, generating massive amounts of electricity during the heatwave. Climate Spectator did an analysis that indicated solar power reduced peak demand by 4.6 per cent.

No one with any intelligence has ever claimed that Australia can run on wind power alone.






"Clean energy must not compromise jobs"

This statement appears in the DLP submission to the Inquiry into Australia's Clean Energy Future. It was intended as an argument against renewable energy. As such it is counter-productive.

Renewable energy provides at least as many jobs per unit of electricity generated as does coal and gas, with a tiny fraction of the pollution as well as less consequent illnesses and deaths.

 
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Altered 2012/12/4

Choice quotes

Aparently Senator Madigan has had second thoughts about the statements below, and deleted them from his Net pages.

"First up, let me say this. I am not and never have been against wind farms, wind energy or green technology"

"wind farms ... fast becoming one of the greatest scandals in Australian political history."

"There are many organisations that claim wind farms are the saviour of Australia's energy needs."

"Their environmental propaganda is a cover for a sinister, powerful and dangerous wind industry."

I copied this one from one of Senator Madigan's pages on 2012/11/27:

"The DLP will push for the retention of our cheap, clean and efficient coal fired power stations and look to a more transitional model of using coal gasification and other clean coal technologies that would be far less costly to the taxpayer, while producing a secure and solid baseline for our grid."
Some more quotes from Senator Madigan. These were published in The Age:

"A lot of people feel like they are a mouse in a Ferris wheel in a big pond of water and if they so much as stop and smell the roses, they are going to bloody drown."

"I don't doubt there is climate change. We know there is, because the dinosaurs aren't here any more. But I didn't cause it and you didn't cause it and once again, we get back to bloody assumptions, but assumptions don't pay the bills."

To quote Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man". Or is Puck's "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" more apposite?

 
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How do turbine hosts feel about turbines?

The article below was written by Neil Barratt and published in the Bendigo Advertiser.

Not holding out hope for senator to give answers
Jan. 26, 2013

Senator John Madigan is reported to have told the meeting about the proposed Baringhup community wind farm, "Most people I've spoken to who are hosts of wind turbines wished they never signed up for them" ("Baringhup wind farm closer", by Josh Fagan, Bendigo Advertiser, January 24).

I would like to know the evidence for this statement.

I've visited wind farms in Germany and Australia and talked to many turbine hosts and other residents. I've never met a host who had any misgivings. Take the large 128-turbine Waubra wind farm for example. I've been studying this wind farm for the past eight months. In that time I've spoken at length to all the 27 turbine hosts in the area. All are strong supporters of the wind farm, nearly all of them appear to be in robust good health (despite living and working very close to turbines) and those who have significant health problems do not blame them on the turbines. As none of them have gag clauses in their contracts, they feel totally free to speak out if they need to.

Waubra is not a perfect wind farm. Some mistakes were certainly made during the pre-construction phase and two families have left their houses since the turbines started up. However, given that all the turbine hosts and the great majority of the local population strongly support the wind farm, it's not doing too badly.

So, Senator Madigan, please supply evidence for your extraordinary claim; I will be fascinated to see it. But I won't be holding my breath. I've asked you questions before but never received a response.

Neil Barrett, Castlemaine

While I have not spoken to many turbine hosts, all those I have spoken to had no regrets about their decision, so my experience, while much less broad than Neil's, is similar to his.

To give Senator Madigan the benefit of the doubt, it is possible that this is not an outright lie. Senator Madigan travels around Australia seeking out people who oppose wind power; he talks to many wind power opponents and very few people who are supportive of turbines; so if there are turbine hosts who are opposed to wind turbines it is quite possible they have talked to Senator Madigan.

 
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Senate speech of 2014/06/17

It seems that Senator Madigan made statements concerning Professor Simon Chapman (Professor of Public Health, University of Sydney) during a radio interview with shock-jock Alan Jones that brought on a claim of libel. On 2014/06/17 Senator Madigan gave a speech in the Senate on his views about Professor Chapman and wind power.

Australian parliamentarians have a legal right to say anything about anyone in Parliament without fear of prosecution for libel; it is called Parliamentary Privilege.

The Senator made a number of statements about Professor Chapman that, if made outside of Parliament, would quite probably bring on another claim of libel. For example, protected by Parliamentary Privilege, Senator Madigan said that Professor Chapman was "devoid of any decency and courage".

However, this page is about Senator Madigan's claims against wind power. In this speech he repeated a number of fallacies that we have heard from him previously.

  1. He claimed that wind power "does not decrease carbon dioxide". This is a ridiculous claim that I have refuted elsewhere.
  2. He claimed that wind power "does not improve the environment"; overlooking the fact that wind power displaces coal-fired power which produces air pollution that is directly responsible for millions of deaths and serious illnesses each year and released carbon dioxide that is causing ocean acidification and is one of the main causes of climate change.
  3. He again makes various claims about wind turbines causing illnesses, ignoring the fact that nowhere in the respectable peer-reviewed literature is there any evidence to support this claim and the fact that both the NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council) and the AMA (Australian Medical Association) have said that there is no evidence that wind turbines cause illness.
  4. He quotes Annie Gardener who lives near the Macarthur Wind Farm in Victoria at length about health problems that she ascribes to infrasound. In this Senator Madigan is totally ignoring the fact that there is no evidence in the science and health literature that moderate levels of infrasound harm anyone and that the South Australian EPA conducted a study that showed that there is no more infrasound near wind turbines than in other urban and rural environments.
In this speech Senator Madigan showed how desparate he is for evidence in support of his claims. He quoted a 2004 PowerPoint presentation from Vestas (a company that makes wind turbines) saying that 'noise from wind turbines sometimes annoys people even if the noise is below noise limits.' Senator Madigan, that noise from wind turbines 'sometimes annoys people' is far from being justification for any of your many claims about wind turbines.

I could go on, but I think that is sufficient for the present.

 
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Pie in the sky

The DLP net site, presumably with Senator Madigan's approval, him being the only DLP Federal parliamentarian, supports Polywell Plasma Fusion.

Controlled nuclear fusion has been an aim of scientists ever since they discovered that the fusion of hydrogen to helium power the Sun and most stars. Billions of dollars have been spent in trying to get it working commercially. Yet after fifty or so years, nowhere in the world has a nuclear fusion device been built that consistently produces more energy than it consumes.

It is understandable that Senator Madigan wants to show that he is supporting a sustainable form of energy generation, but what the world needs is sustainable energy now, such as wind or solar, not something that might or might not become viable in fifty years time.

 
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The good side of the Senator

In fairness to Senator Madigan, I will add this section.

Support for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation

In early December 2013 Senator Madigan voted with others in the Senate to defeat the Abbott Government's attempt to destroy the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.


Waubra noise compliance

Much of what the Senator says about wind farms is nonsense, but there may be grounds for this complaint. In a speech to the Senate on 2013/12/10 Madigan provided information suggesting that the operation of the Waubra Wind Farm was not complying with noise limits.

Lenore Taylor wrote an article in The Guardian on 2014/01/08 that included this excerpt:

"The claim that wind farms are 'non compliant' is usually based on the fact that the Victorian government has not made a final determination on Acciona's Waubra wind farm compliance with noise regulations, despite having had the company's compliance report since 2010. The anti-wind campaigners say that because the compliance report has not been formally signed off, the wind farm is 'illegal' and therefore engaged in a 'fraud' and improperly receiving renewable energy certificates under the federal subsidy scheme."

A few days after the Senator's speech I sent an email to Acciona asking for their side of the story. On 2014/01/09 I sent another inquiry. I have received no reply as of June 2014.

It is not clear whether the alleged problem is with one or several turbines and/or homes.






Index

On this page...

Choice quotes
Clean energy must not compromise jobs
Good side of the Senator
Ignorant statement 1: "Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant"
Ignorant statement 2: "Wind farms will not deliver"
Ignorant statement 3: "Wind turbines are being abandoned"
Ignorant statement 4: "Coal-fired power generation is safe"
Ignorant statement 5: "... claim wind farms are the [energy] saviour"
Ignorant statement 6: "Wind farm have limited output due to weather conditions"
Introduction
Pie in the sky
Senate speech of 2014/06/17
Support for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation
Top of this page
Turbine hosts
Waubra_noise_compliance
Wind turbines and birds
Wind turbines do not cause health problems
Wind turbines save lives
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