Ask Lemmy

"Visual pollution" is a bullshit term that rich people came up with to keep them from being built near their vacation resorts. It means "ugly"

They look better than pump jacks and oil derricks.

They look better than smoke stacks

And in all honesty they remind me of like a leisurely creek or small waterfall in that they kinda just keep going on in a pleasant consistent kind of way ya know?

Basically what I'm saying is that they're pretty IMO

They look pretty sweet and they generally aren't near populated areas

Windmills look so much better than rural Indiana

Other power sources also cause visual pollution and I like windmills better than columns of smoke.

Gray smoke is a worse type of visual pollution imo

I think they're pretty tbh. There's a huge stretch of them in a field I drive through sometimes, and at night I like to just stop for a second and watch 95% of them all flash their light on top in sync across an impressive distance.

And sometimes there's one or two flashing out of sync in a weird rhythm and I assume it's like an error code which I think is pretty interesting

Windmills look pretty nice. I've only ever seen the "visual pollution" argument made by rich, entitled Karens and Fox News drones.

I find them comforting in a reassuring, kinda awe inspiring way. Like, they're a visual sign of at least trying to address climate change, and there's something about having a giant, obviously artificial moving structure towering over the landscape that just gives me a sense of thrill and wonder that we are capable of building that. Those things are pretty massive if you get anywhere close to one, after all.

I think they look really cool. I can't get the rage about a friggin' giant electricity producing machine but they're fine with billboards everywhere.

Its fossil fuel lobby propaganda.

No, I like the rhythmic visual quality. And on a conscious level they make me feel happy about clean electricity. I see windmills every single day and they do not get old for me.

Like with anything, too much of it will look/taste/smell/sound bad.

Is that a reason in and of itself to not build wind power plants? No.

Personally I find wind power plants to look cool, a bit sci-fi and futuristic.

The argument that they are ugly is dumb, using a term like "visual pollution" is just a way to try and make a subjective oppinion sound like objective fact.

I love seeing them on the horizon. I genuinely get excited to see them.

No, I cannot comprehend someone who'd rather just look at the endless fields of corn in Iowa.

This complaint about wind power has always come across as the kind of thing people say because they heard somebody else say it. imo, it's just stupid people who desperately want to have an opinion on the topic weighing in with the only piece of criticism they've overhead some Sky News host parrot at some point in the past, and because that host had authority on the matter in their minds, it gives them some kind of false confidence to then go forward and proclaim the visual pollution argument, as if it has any real basis in anything.

It causes visual pollution like a politician telling the truth too much.

It's a load of bullshit

I think they're quite attractive

I'd rather wind generators than the thousands of billboards

People didn't seem to mind fugly coal plants but now that weve got a clean energy source usually built in the middle of nowhere they suddenly have a problem with "visual pollution."

To me it sounds a lot like those dudes that spew smoke out the back of their truck for no other reason than to "trigger" anyone they think might not approve.

I live in the middle of a sprawling wind farm. Every direction I turn, I can see wind turbines looking ominously over my neighbor's houses. It's awesome, and way more interesting than the hundreds of square miles of corn fields they otherwise occupy.

The strobe effect is a thing but it really doesn't impact a lot of people since you know windmills are usually not by apartment buildings. Being very kind to that point of view seeing things that are new can put you out of sorts.

Personally I think they look cool, that doesn't mean I can't see other POVs. Still, people will adapt when they get more common and frankly I am not into NIMBY anyway.

A little bit, in the same way that any man made structure does. But they're quite peaceful to look at and compared to a nuclear or coal plant they're way better to look at.

I wouldn't like to see them in an area of outstanding beauty, but I'm cool with them anywhere else.

Slight nitpick: they're wind turbines, not windmills. Windmills are used to grind things down, like wheat into flour.

I would much rather look at wind turbines than smog.

You get used to them, and in a way look very cool because of their use and what they represent. Although I wouldn't like to see them in a natural reserve.

I have another neat use for them. Since I can see some out of my window and use this sight to check wind direction and plan my bike route to have tail wind on the end of the route!

It's a made up word for fossil-fuel execs.

I would anytime put up a wind turbine in my yard and enjoy the free energy then complain about how it looks like.

In fact I am planning to power my side building/garage, utility rooms, freezer box and yard lights (basically everything except my house) by wind power. Domestic wind turbines are super cool and you can even make one yourself or just get a smaller one with super easy installation.

Windmills are awesome. While traveling in Europe, I saw a massive wind farm off the coast of Sweden, cool as hell. Then I took a hike, and ended up at the base of one of these giant behemoths! Still cool.

The only visual pollution that irritates me is advertisements and billboards. I hate them passionately.

Better than normal pollution though or visual pollution from smoke and smog. It's a tradeoff and a good one in my mind.

Im not sure I even agree that visual pollution should be a real thing. People like to pretend that there is a divide between man-made structures and "nature" but humans are animals and we construct our environment out of natural materials. Humans ARE natural and the things we make are not separate from nature. Obviously that doesn't remove our responsibility to avoid causing overall harm with toxic chemicals that pollute or structures that destabilize equilibriums, but that being said I dont think we should have this mentality about our structures being an inherent detriment to the area we make them in, and wind farms seem like a good example of good structures in a good environment to me. End rant.

Whenever someone brings up that argument (windmills are ugly), which is quite a controversial topic in the country I live in, I take them to the open pit coal mines of the area. Those are really ugly.

I do understand the argument that the intermittent shadows the rotating blades may cast on residential areas are annoying.

Hmm...

Windmills (yeah, turbines, whatever) are beautiful. I think they enhance the view.

Personally I like the look of windmills🤗

I think it looks good, personally. Definitively less ugly than radio towers or pylons.

Yeah they do. I live somewhere where they are adding a lot to the bluffs in the area it is not as pretty as it was before. But so does the giant ass strip mine nearby. It is just that the mine has been here longer than most of the people so they think of it as part of the landscape. Instead of the giant ass hole in the ground full of toxic water that it is.

They look fine to me. Same as windmills creating a certain aesthetic in the places they are built.

It's much better than having a giant power plant blocking the view of the landscape.

Id say that they arent exactly picturesque but they provide clean energy. So like sure... maybe dont put them everywhere, lets leave out the Unesco world heritage sites and National parks but theres an awful lot of otherwise unremarkable land that Id rather see a bunch of windmills on than the currently existing "fuckall"

Ehhhh I can see it. It's usually out in nature where people might want to just see nature... but I also usually see it in places where people aren't going sight seeing as much. It's fields. Which are nice. Those are nice to see. But it's not the thing people are seeing in the towns as much. But if they were, I don't see how it could really ruin the view of a neighborhood.

If it was something like in campgrounds, going out to the lake and it's just right there in front of the view of the mountains, right off to the side of hiking trails, I would hate it. But over all I don't see it as that huge of a deal. They tend to find the best places for it with causing the least amount of trouble for others.

It's difficult to consider them pollution even if we were to accept the subjective opinion on displeasing aesthetics.

The pollution we're all concerned about tends to be:

• Physically harmful
• Difficult to confine/localize/avoid/reverse
• An externality the economy doesn't sufficiently account for
• A burden that's unevenly/unfairly distributed across society

Even light pollution, which is arguably barely physically harmful, has all of the remaining qualities (or nearly) for sure.

If these qualities even apply wind generators at all, they do so very weakly. They can be moved/unbuilt, the "free market" is pricing them cheaper by the day, and if you really don't like looking at them, it's not impractical to avoid them.

BS. I wanted to build one on my property, but here in Germany you need a permit if you wanna build a birds house (I'm not kidding, in some areas you do), I didn't get one, neighbors and shit, so I sold the house, we're moving to Denmark this year. No neighbors, no problems. Especially not German neighbors! As long as you have a Danebrog (Danish flag) on your property, you can build a lot. It's your property at last.

Nah, they are cool.

Dude. They're so fucking cool. I wish I had a wind turbine in my backyard or something. A feat of engineering I tell you.

I think they're cool as hell, I could watch those big fuckers go round and round all day.