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Noise Matters: Wind Farms, Nuisance and the Law

4th May 2022

by Binoy Kampmark, World News, International Policy digest

Source: https://intpolicydigest.org/noise-matters-wind-farms-nuisance-and-the-law/

For years, the Australian wind farm has been reviled as ugly, noisy, and unendearing by a certain number of prominent figures. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott pathologized them, calling wind turbines the “dark satanic mills of the modern era,” being not merely aesthetically problematic but damaging to health.

The latter view has been rejected by the National Health and Medical Research Council, which found “no consistent evidence that wind farms cause adverse health effects in humans” though it accepted at the time “that further high-quality research on the possible health effects of wind farms is required.” Literature examining the nature of wind farm complaints also notes “large historical and geographical differences in the distribution of complainants in Australia.”

Current Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is another figure who never misses a…