As renewable energy becomes more widespread in the United States, large and bipartisan majorities of Americans say they wouldn’t mind fields of solar panels and wind turbines being built in their communities, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.

    • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      People don’t object to them unless they are near them. There’s a phrase for it. Nimbyism. Not in my backyard

      I think windmills are beautiful, solar panels in fields a bit harder on the eyes, but there’s plenty of places to put solar without ruining outstanding areas of natural beauty

      • MelodiousFunk@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I’d love it if my backyard (or just beyond it) was a wind farm.

        • Open space
        • No traffic
        • No yappy dogs
        • No Karens/Kevins/Krotchgoblins pretending their backyard is a combination kitchen and living room, filling the air with wood smoke and sportsball shouting on an otherwise beautiful day/evening where I’d prefer to have my windows open and would if there wasn’t a perpetual party just outside of said windows (yes this is a very specific complaint and no I would not have thought this was something to be annoyed about until it became chronic and annoying)
        • Nighed@sffa.community
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          1 year ago

          The problem is that the people complaining already have that. Companies just want to make it ‘worse’.

          I don’t have a problem with wind turbines most of the time, I think they look cool, I have a bigger problem with power lines. At least they have some new designs here in the UK that are slightly better.

        • Lawdoggo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Getting out of Macomb County was the best decision I made in a long time. Although I won’t pretend Oakland is much better outside of like 4 cities.

    • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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      1 year ago

      I don’t mind windmills but I’d hate having them directly in my backyard. Between the noise and the constant moving shadows, I’d probably go mad.

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        truly a most unbearable ruckus, how will you live

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHFjLQuJhnc

        seriously people freak out about the nonexistent noise of wind turbines, meanwhile they merrily live next to high-traffic roads that not only have studies to show how much the noise harms you, there’s also the lovely air pollution to breathe in!

        • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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          1 year ago

          Screw me for having personal preferences and sensory issues I guess. The noise in the video is more than noticeable and I would hate having it to hear it 24/7.

  • naonintendois@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    Every time I’ve driven past a wind farm I think it looks amazing. I would love to just stare at them from my backyard if they weren’t all in the middle of nowhere.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      As someone who used to drive up and back from LA to the SF Bay Area in college all the time, I always enjoyed going through the Altamont Pass and all the windmills they stick up there.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Lol yeah maybe because that entire narrative was spun out of whole cloth, and nobody actually cares about having a wind or solar farm somewhat near to them…?

    • bluGill@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Wind turbines are noisy. You probably wouldn’t mind them in view, but you don’t want to live too close. The owners don’t want you to live too close either: while it almost never happens, if a blade falls off and it only kills some corn or a cow people don’t care too much, but if it destroys their house or kills a person they get mad.

  • Caketaco@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    “Oh god! Our house is living right next to a source of renewable energy! The horrors! People will gawk at the unsightly solar panels!”

    Nah man I’m just happy renewable energy is growing. Coat my house in windmills and panels, baby. Turn that shit into a functional aesthetic.

    • rem26_art@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      smh cant believe the Washington Post mistook solar and wind farms for UFOs. At least UFO’s are real /s

      (idk ive noticed sometimes the wrong thumbnail gets loaded in. Mine looks like that too)

      • DarkThoughts@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s kbin related but I still don’t get how it happens, because I doubt this thumbnail came even from another WaPo article, as it’s too fringe conspiracy bs & clickbaity. Honestly looks more like a YT video, especially with the black bars.

  • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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    1 year ago

    How did they define “near” and “in their community”?

    There’s a decent sized wind farm a few miles outside the town I live in and no one minds at all. If you tried to build that same wind farm right on the edge of town, or even inside it, I suspect the reaction would have been very different. A wind / solar farm 5 miles away is really NBD but one that’s literally on the other side of your back fence may hit different.

    • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Given how quiet solar farms are and how more appealing a windmill is vs smokestacks I’d say that even basically in your backyard isn’t bad.

      But I’d also like to know how they defined it here, or if they left it as asking people about it and leaving it up to each individual to use their idea of “near.”