Energy's Backyard Bugaboo

"No wind here! No wind here! No wind here!" This was the chant coming from the crowd behind us one rainy fall evening in a standing-room-only hall in Manvers, a small town near the Kawartha Lakes northwest of Toronto. The meeting was being held to discuss the prospect of wind turbines coming to the area. While the earnest and seemingly well-meaning renewable energy entrepreneurs tried in vain to assure the crowd of over 500 locals that their project would be good for the environment and the local economy, their comments mostly drew scoffs from the unbelieving crowd. When the floor opened for questions, members of the audience let their concerns be known: What would the wind turbines mean for their property values and their health? What about noise, shadow flicker and their loss of local autonomy over energy planning? No amount of discussion about greenhouse gases, climate change or energy resiliency was going to persuade them that this was a project worth pursuing...