Different leftist organizations in Norway seem to have different stances.

Tjen Folket referred to opposition to wind turbines as a “just campaign”, but it’s not clear to me in context whether this is referring to opposition to wind turbines in general or just opposition to specific wind farms. The Communist Party of Norway seems to support floating wind turbines but does not mention wind turbines on land. The Young Communists, its youth wing, does not appear to have anything about wind power on its website. The Red Party is opposed to wind turbines in general, on land and on sea; however the Red Youth, the Red Party’s youth wing, supports the construction of wind turbines provided that this is done in a “responsible” way. Revolusjon.no and marxisme.no seem to oppose the construction of wind farms in general, focusing on Norway’s relationship to the EU in general and Germany in particular, saying that these wind turbines are essentially being built to generate profits for capitalists to the detriment of locals in these areas. They have a number of articles that I would like to eventually read in full.

So there seems to be a range of opinions within the Norwegian left, but the general trend seems to be against the construction of wind turbines.

Wind turbines are a topic of growing prominence in Norway as plans for more and more wind farms are unveiled across the country. I was recently introduced to this blog post that presents a number of arguments against the construction of wind power in general, providing sources for everything and even some responses to common counterarguments. However I am of course skeptical to this blog post, because sourced or not, it is a lot of claims to reflect on and research, and the single brief remark about “population growth” (apparently quoting the UN) seems a bit sussy. I would also like to look more into the organization Motvind and criticism against it, and get through everything on the Wikipedia article “Environmental impact of wind power”.

Still, interim, I figured I should hold a “fact-finding meeting” to see if anyone here has any thoughts on when the construction of wind turbines should be supported or opposed, especially if you have experiences with wind turbines being built or opposed in your local area. When is opposition to wind turbines “NIMBYism in environmentalist clothing”, and when is there more to it? What do you all think?

  • jack [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    15 days ago

    The only meaningful environmental impact of wind and solar are:

    1. Material and transportation cost to build
    2. Land required
    3. Disposal at end of life

    For solar, which I’m an expert on, 1 and 3 are no big deal. You do need a lot of land for large scale solar production, but there are many areas to place it that will have minimal environmental impact: deserts, grasslands, floating (expensive), etc.

    For wind, it’s reverse. Much more effort to build, maintain, and decommission, but much denser energy generation per acre.

    Either way, both are extremely good and should be built more basically everywhere.

    • Runcible [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      2·
      15 days ago

      My understanding is that wind turbines also kill a shit ton of birds but that recent groundbreaking efforts like “painting a stripe” help a lot. I mostly point this out because of how little forethought it shows is being put in.