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Another ‘astro-turf’ organisation exposed

Meredith Doig / 04 October 2012

Great piece of investigative journalism on who’s behind the opposition to wind power from Mike Seccombe in the Global Mail.

“… what we have on the side of climate-change denial and wind-farm abolitionists is a small number of contrarian scientists, some think tanks with strong links to the carbon economy, conservative politicians eager to exploit the issue of climate change for partisan advantage and a NIMBY constituency. We have fake environment groups. We have international slush funds. We have lots of media releases and op-ed pieces, particularly in the Murdoch press.

What’s missing of course is real people, genuine public involvement. Grass roots.

It’s one thing to make noise in the echo chamber of climate-change denialists

and alternative energy opponents; it’s another to mobilise public opinion. If you really want to get a campaign going, you have to get people emotionally involved.

And the way the anti-wind lobby has set about doing that is by drumming up concern about the effect of wind farms on human health.”

All the more reason.