Editor:
The rejected Terra-Gen Wind Farm was the only project capable of coming online quickly enough to help mitigate Humboldt County’s green house gas emissions as we do not have years to design and approve another project of that size quickly (“Supes Deny Controversial Wind Project,” Dec. 19). Wiyot sacred land is preserved but as was commented at the meeting, “All the land is sacred.”
All of Humboldt County was Indian land, there is no land where ancestors’ bones are not buried. By that criteria, forget about any mitigating power sources anywhere in the county, solar, wind or other.
Also, China not only emits twice the greenhouse gasses of the United States, they are building thousands of new coal power plants. They are also building 300 new coal plants in other countries along the silk road and elsewhere. That said, India is the fastest growing green house gas emitter in the world, with emissions rising 5 percent over just the last year. Brazil is emphasizing economic development by cutting down the Amazon at a breathtaking rate and no sign of ceasing.
We can preserve sacred land, though you’ll shortly burn to a crisp on that land and the formerly productive rivers will not have fish in a few short years.
I suggest activists go to China, if they’ll let you in, and protest the thousands of coal plants they are building domestically and in other countries in their aggressive bid to expand political influence. Perhaps they’ll give you a choice of sharing a cell with one of the thousands of Hong Kong protesters, perhaps you’ll get lucky and be assigned a cell in a Uighur “re-education” camp instead. We lost the war. Just make sure you have plenty of sunscreen.
John Dillon, Eureka
Editor:
I listened to our community voice feelings on the Terra-Gen project with a deep sense of sadness. Over time, as issues come and go, our community has gotten to know each other very well. We can all speak eloquently on our forests and wildlife. We know to insist that local labor be included in projects. We have learned the feelings and respect the peoples who have come here before us.
But as I listened to the reasons given for opposing a wind project, I could only see the same forces in play as what happens internationally. Sadly, even Humboldt has failed to respond to the threat of climate change, which far surpasses anything that we as individuals, cultures and a species have ever seen before.
For 11 years I was an observer in the international UNFCCC climate negotiations. I witnessed the disappointment of Copenhagen and the elation of the Paris Agreement, when the world finally acknowledged that every single party needs to set aside their own reasons for opposition, give something up and painfully contribute their share for the greater good of the whole.
Communities all over the world, from teeming cities in Asia, to rural villages in Africa, to Indigenous cultures in island nations, rainforests and far arctic regions already suffer climate impacts. Yet even they agreed to contribute what they could through their national pledges.
No project will ever be perfect. But replacing fossil fuels at scale is the most urgent action we can take. I saw this as Humboldt’s chance for our diverse communities to collectively cede a bit on the particular aspect they care about, and feel pride in making a contribution, for the good of themselves, their families and the rest of the planet.
I’m sorry, Greta.
Andrea Tuttle, Arcata
Editor:
To combat the terrifying acceleration of global warming Greta Thunberg begged us, “Do something now!”
Humboldt County just turned down a wind power project the effects of which would have equaled taking more than 80,000 gasoline-burning cars off the road.
Gordon Inkeles, Bayside
Editor:
I once thought it strange that the roadblock to Terra-Gen would be the Wiyot Tribe. They steadfastly refused any compromise to allow wind turbines on land they now say is sacred. Revenge is sweet. They learned from the Europeans who decimated them a century and half ago: don’t give an inch, take no prisoners.
It’ll be a pyrrhic victory. Within a few decades, Tuluwat Island, recently deeded back to the Wiyots as it should have been, will be underwater.
But I fault supervisors most. Perhaps plagued by guilt for what Europeans did long ago, supervisors voted to sacrifice our grandchildren’s future to protect sacred arrowheads hidden somewhere on the Russ Ranch.
Young people the world over have been at the forefront of halting the climate crisis. With a different outlook here, most of the young who spoke at the supervisors’ hearing opposed Terra-Gen. Even HSU students drank the Kool-Aid. They must know by now that those who are young now will suffer most from the climate crisis.
Decades, not even seven generations from now, after fire has scorched Bear River Ridge again and again so that it looks like Baja California, I wonder if those young folks by then turned old will remember the day they shouted down a solution to the climate crisis.
John Schaefer, Arcata
This article appears in Top 10 Stories of 2019.
Let’s get real. A little less guilt tripping and more facts are in order. Humboldt is 4000 square miles of mostly forest. We mitigate more CO2 than any place. In 2018 we consumed about 800 gigawatts of electricity. LA county consumed 68,000 gigawatts. Industrial wind turbines are a disaster wherever they are sited. https://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/wind-t… What would destroying the environment and peace in one of the most spiritual and ecologically remarkable places in Humboldt have accomplished? Generating 50 megawatts average the total Terra Gen project would have mitigated the carbon from one engine of a jumbo jet. On average there are 10,000 large planes flying every minute of every day and their number is increasing. There are 1,420,000,000 cars and trucks world wide and their number is increasing. Mitigating the carbon from 80,000 of them is .000056% of the solution. This project would have mitigated the carbon from just one Las Vegas casino. It would have mitigated the carbon from half of a cruise ship. There are over three hundred cruise ships. If we are going to slow CO2 emissions it will be done by billions of people slowing down consumption. Not by Terra Gen wreaking havoc in Humboldt. Solar panels have no moving parts. You own them. They’re silent. Don’t kill bats and birds. Everyone seems to like them once they have them. They help. They last.
In other words, Dan B, not our problem. No need to contribute proportionately to the resolution of the problem. Let magical others do it, because we have forests. You could move to absolutely any place on the planet and come up with great reasons to let others deal with the problem. Perhaps you will.
This wind farm would have replaced something between 1/3 and 1/2 of Humboldt’s present electricity. Yes, more is needed, but this was that rare time when a simple yes/no decision on one project had a large scale effect on Humboldt’s emission…. no matter how many links you can paste 🙂
Individual action is needed; this would have been collective action at large scale, which is also needed
John Dillon’s “love it or leave it” is beyond stupid. He has no idea that U.S. energy barons are also supplying China.
I wonder how much carbon would have been sequestered if Andrea, Gordon, both Johns and Mitch (above) decided to forgo those overseas flights to sample the Sardines in Spain for 10 days requiring one-ton of jet fuel for each person, round trip, (almost the same as the average U.S. commuter uses in a year)?
Sadly, the only way Greta will get flush-Americans to stop frivolous travel is by tearing their passports, SUV’s, Hummers, race cars, antique gas hogs and yachts, out of their cold dead hands.
Thanks to climate change, Humboldt County has many sunny days and miles of open spaces for massive solar arrays. Unfortunately, like the “freedom to travel”, Humboldt’s elite land tycoons like the Russ family have the “freedom to maximize profits”, (giant wind conglomerates generate far more lucrative leases than solar).
Sorry Greta.
Chuck,
Trick question, I guess. But let’s say the five of us had each saved that ton of jet fuel you assume we used, an assumption as thoroughly grounded in fact as a typical white house announcement. Looking at estimates online, I’d say it’s more like two or three tons of CO2 equivalent to fly from here to Spain. OK, fifteen tons. So how long would the wind farm have needed to operate to save fifteen tons of emissions? Using the Final EIR estimate, the 2020 reduction would have been 35,000 tons, or 100 tons per day. So the wind farm would have had equivalent impact by operating for about three hours.
About 8% of Americans travel to Western Europe each year; if Humboldt County residents’ travel patterns are similar, that would be about 12,000 trips, for 36,000 tons. So, if ALL travel of Humboldt County residents to Western Europe were eliminated, that would have almost the same impact on GHG as the wind farm, assuming they didn’t go to Hawaii instead. But, of course, that would mean everyone would voluntarily agree to not go on flights they would otherwise have taken, or flying would have to be made illegal (and not just to Western Europe, because people would change to alternative holiday destinations). If you want to pass a law making flying illegal, OK, you have my support and I wish you the best of luck.
Individual changes are required, but the way to get changes at-scale is by doing things at-scale. The wind farm would have been at-scale.