Ethics Ignored? Business as Usual on Wind Turbines

Curt Devlin finds plenty of bias in statements by Falmouth Board of Health chair Jared Goldstone as quoted by Ariel Wittenberg in South Coast Today on July 10. Devlin takes on Goldstone’s facts and attitudes (Falmouth official gives curious lesson in ethics July 22, 2013).

Goldstone says town decision are “‘based on some finding in fact that is scientifically and legally defensible.'” Devlin refutes both the science and the logic of official actions related to siting, running, and failing to silence wind turbines–which residents charge are disrupting sleep and more. He points to the 1987 work of N. D. Kelley, funded by the U. S. Dept. of Commerce, which identified low frequency pulses as one emission of wind turbines. (To date, all official approaches to measuring or mitigating turbine noise have addressed only audible levels).

Devlin goes on to discredit one of Goldstone’s comments.

Goldstone went on to say that a potentially conclusive study of the Falmouth turbines would involve turning them on “during the dark of the moon without warning and seeing if we have a sudden increase in complaints.”

Goldstone’s statement is utterly false and misleading. Anyone who is actually familiar with the scientific method will tell you that a test conducted on a single night would prove nothing, because it is purely anecdotal.

Goldstone’s next comment would be laughable, if it weren’t so pathetic. He claimed that his proposed experiment “would be entirely unethical and we would never do that.” How strange that Goldstone’s conscience bothers him about turning the turbines on without warning people.

Yet he apparently has no ethical qualms whatever about bombarding neighborhoods in Falmouth with intense infrasound night and day for more than three years. Just as in Fairhaven, no one in Falmouth was told that turbines cause sleep deprivation; seasickness-like symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and vertigo; or cognitive impairment severe enough to prevent someone from doing everyday things like gardening, shopping or work.

Related articles:

Curt Devlin, Your View: Falmouth official gives curious lesson in ethics July 22, 2013

Ariel Wittenberg Fairhaven, Falmouth deal with similar wind debate July 10, 2013