The Wind and the Traveler

I was intrigued by a recent article in a magazine called the Traveler. A retired NOAA director and scientist David Goodrich, now bicycle traveler, wrote a short but encompassing article on the, in your face effects of climate change. Since bicycling is one of my favorite means to explore our blue-green sphere of life, I cruised though it.  His bicycling took him across North America from east to west which, by the way, ensures a lot of headwind pedaling.  He documents the victims of climate change droughts, fires, storms and floods.

He does not linger on the obvious pitfalls of burning fossil fuels. He notes that in 2011 when he crossed Kansas by bicycle it was rare to see a wind turbine. Only five years later, when he again bicycled across Kansas, it was rare not to have one of these spinning marvels in sight.

In the book, “Drawdown”, wind is identified as our greatest and least used source of power. And, it is the cheapest form of new electrical capacity. In the United States we have one of the world’s best wind power regions called the “Great Plains” *. If even less than 1% of the land area of Kansas, North Dakota, and Texas where fully utilized for wind energy production, we could power the entire United States.

As a retired helicopter pilot these beautiful wind-mills are dear to my heart. When I first started flying helicopters in the 1970s the helicopter was accurately defined as 10,000 rattling parts flying in loose formation. Keeping the rotor blades tracked and smooth was more art than science. New science and technology changed this. The technology that finally gave my passengers and I a smooth ride with less maintenance, is the same as the technology that makes these giant wind turbines possible, efficient, and our best energy source.

What an opportunity for a motivated man or woman to create a career! One of my favorite climate stories was written by Michigander Christopher Bruce. His odyssey from unemployed automobile employee to wind turbine technician is inspiring. **  

Fellow citizens, today we are pedaling into a headwind on an uphill trail. Our political system takes our tax dollars and directly and indirectly subsidizes coal, oil, and gas companies extravagantly. Despite this wind in our face, created by our fossil fuel funded politicians, wind-turbine generated electricity   is still the cheapest form of new energy capacity and, like solar, getting even cheaper.

With our help, we can reverse the headwinds and give our wind energy companies a tailwind. If you are an Xcell electric consumer you can add, for a small fee, wind electrons to the Xcell grid via the Wind Source Program. If your electric company does not have a program, you can contract with Arcadiapower.com to put wind electrons into the grid instead of coal electrons. This is what I do and it costs me about $3.50 per month as an additional fee. In some situations, depending on your power company, it may be a free conversion.

And why not do a little political research before you vote. If you hear a politician tell you that “Climate Change is a Hoax”, or, “The Earth’s Climate has always been changing”, or “I cannot comment on climate change because I am not a scientist”, you know that this is just a lot of hot smoky head wind blowing in your face.

*Michigan is not the Great Plains but due to a lot of factors, such as the temperature differential of Great Lakes and the adjacent land, we have wind power potential.

** Mr Bruce went to a Michigan Technical School called “Michigan Institute of Aviation and Technology”, in New Boston, MI. Listen to his story at sc.org/bruce.