Six New Papers Reveal A Hushed-Up ‘Green’ Reality: Wind Turbines Destroy Habitats

Scientists (Krekel and Zerrahn, 2017 ) report that the installation of wind turbines near human populations “exerts significant negative external effects on residential well-being” and a “significant negative and sizeable effect on life satisfaction” due to “unpleasant noise emissions” and “negative impacts on landscape aesthetics.”

“We show that the construction of wind turbines close to households exerts significant negative external effects on residential well-being …

In fact, beyond unpleasant noise emissions (Bakker et al., 2012; McCunney et al., 2014) and impacts on wildlife (Pearce-Higgins et al., 2012; Schuster et al., 2015), most importantly, wind turbines have been found to have negative impacts on landscape aesthetics (Devine-Wright, 2005; Jobert et al., 2007; Wolsink, 2007). … We show that the construction of a wind turbine within a radius of 4,000 meters has a significant negative and sizeable effect on life satisfaction. For larger radii, no negative externalities can be detected.”