Quite a controversy has developed on the southern tip of Canada where I live in Leamington, Ontario overlooking Lake Erie. We're actually south of Detroit and on the 42nd parallel, the same as northern California.
At the Margaret Atwood website, internationally renowned author and owner of a cottage on Pelee Island, Ms. Atwood provides an overview of the problem.
"This is a radar image of birds (see below) massing on the south shore of Erie and flying over the lake where the islands are and where Point Pelee is. You will not see many flying across the wider part of the lake. The part where the birds are flying is exactly where they want to put 700 windmills. So the birds are one problem.
The others are: What’s on the lake bottom (ie. heavy metals from decades of industrial and domestic pollution) and how much of it would be stirred up by drilling 700 windmills and putting the huge concrete platform for the wind towers into the lake bottom? The sediment would go into the water intake for a dozen communities along the shore. Put another way: Would you want your baby or child eating the bottom of Lake Erie? Leamington is where the big Heinz plant is — and a huge number of greenhouses that use a lot of water.How endangered would they all be?"
Would you like a wind farm in your neighbourhood? Does it matter whether it is on land or over your water way vistas? Should one support 'green' initiatives like this wholeheartedly?
