Titanic and teaspoon

[Martin Cassini]

Given the wasted energy and added emissions produced by spurious traffic controls, I've always seen as hypocritical government "advice" to switch to longlife lightbulbs, etc. Fresh proof that much environmentalism is fundamentally religious, writes Simon Hoggart (Guardian, 22 Feb 09), is like baling out the Titanic with a teaspoon (from David Mackay's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air). Switching off your phone charger for a day is used up in one second of car driving. Switching it off for a year saves the energy it takes to run a single hot bath ... The cathedrals of this new religion are wind turbines ... pointless monstrosities.

[Martin Cassini]

At a distance, or when they rear up suddenly from behind an incline as on a stretch of the A30 in Cornwall, they can certainly add visual punctuation and punch, but if you have to live with them in your backyard ... James Lovelock was the first I saw to condemn wind turbines for their self-cancelling energy "contribution". But they have their defenders, e.g. Mark Whitby. I will send Mark a link to this and hope he adds a post.

[Mark Wadsworth]

I quite like wind turbines, aesthetically, although economically they are nonsense and only get built so that people can cash in on the ludicrous subsidies.