The Perfect Wind Farm Storm in a teacup

Recent newspaper stories about Wind Farms creating downpours have been a perfect example of how myths are formed.

Little wonder that yes2wind often meets people who tell us “it’s so hard to know WHAT to believe” when irresponsible journalists appear willing to distort the facts to fit the story – especially if the story happens to be about one of the pet bêtes noires of the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail: Wind Farms.

Strange too that the very concept of man-made climate change comes under such ferocious attack on the one hand, and is then utilised as a phenomenon we should be deeply worried about when it suits the purpose. Very strange indeed!

An article in the Guardian’s Environment Blog has clearly illustrated the misleading nature of recent Sunday Times and Daily Mail stories linking wind farms with increased temperatures and rainfall. The Sunday Times article ran under the headline ‘Giant wind farms can alter weather’, and the Daily Mail’s under the headline ‘Wind farms can actually INCREASE climate change by raising temperatures and causing downpours, warn academics’. The articles featured research by Somnath Roy, an assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois.

When asked about the Sunday Times article, Professor Roy explained that whilst it contained a few paragraphs which were a reasonable representation of PART of his work, the headline wasn’t. His work has explored the effect of wind turbines at a localised level, not on higher level weather patterns.

So far as the Daily Mail headline is concerned, Roy said: “I am already getting emails on this. I will have to categorically say that the headline is not an accurate representation of my work. But I guess there is little I can do now.”

“And lo” concludes blog writer, Leo Hickman, “a myth was born”.

Click here to read the full blog.