A lot of wind
Tam Dalyell’s usually excellent Thistle Diary was sullied by the inclusion of
a number of hoary old chestnuts attacking onshore wind energy
(22 August, p 48).
As a former British correspondent for Windpower Monthly magazine, I
must declare a previous interest in the subject鈥攂ut I cannot entirely
agree with the unsubstantiated claim that a majority of “planning professionals”
are opposed to onshore wind farms. Certainly, it has been shown by a number of
opinion polls that most ordinary people support wind farms, but a significant
proportion of recent British wind farm proposals have nevertheless failed to
obtain planning permission.
The only thing “well-documented” about noise from wind farms is that it is
rarely a problem (the sound made by a modern wind turbine usually disappears in
the general rushing noise of wind shear across the landscape).
Visual intrusion is more of a personal matter: some like them, others loathe
them. Much of the “natural” landscape of Britain is a result of historic land
enclosure, agricultural and forestry policy, and it is already full of
artificial structures, from dry stone walls to grain silos and
telecommunications towers.
Access tracks to upland wind farms may indeed extend for “hundreds of
metres”, but then so do many farm tracks across moorland. I have witnessed some
excellent restoration work on access tracks, and cannot believe this to be a
serious issue. Together, wind turbine foundations and access tracks typically
occupy less than 1 per cent of the land area of a wind farm.
As for the old one about how many square kilometres will be paved over to
generate 10 per cent of British demand, the wind industry is clear that such a
level of output would be met by a combination of both onshore and (larger)
offshore turbines, with many future onshore developments moving into sites with
lower wind speeds in less sensitive areas than upland moorlands. The total area
required would probably be less than that occupied by the ten thousand
traditional windmills which dotted the British landscape in the late 19th
century.
Heal thyself
Evidence that chiropractic treatment is more effective than hospital
outpatient treatment for managing low back pain
(Forum, 29 August, p 45) is
merely evidence that hospital outpatient treatment is particularly ineffective
for the treatment of low back pain, which is hardly news to sufferers.
Pain is notoriously subjective and extremely susceptible to placebo effects,
so it should not surprise anyone that the personal care and comfort offered by
most chiropractors almost certainly makes sufferers feel better than the often
cold and clinical, even negligent treatment received from most hospitals. Worse
still for the performance of outpatient treatment, many physicians still
recommend bed rest for back pain, despite the fact that it has been repeatedly
shown that continuation of normal activity, as far as is possible, is better for
patients.
The overwhelming majority of back pain cases resolve themselves given time.
Revealingly, a very similar recovery pattern can be seen in the gradual
spontaneous healing of back pain and in the typical chiropractor’s treatment
schedule of twice or thrice-weekly “adjustments”, which decrease with time to
once-weekly or fewer.
This pattern of decreasing treatments, a hallmark of many alternative medical
treatments, allows both alternative healthcare purveyors and their patients to
delude themselves into attributing recovery to the treatment when, in fact, only
the natural process of our bodies healing themselves takes place.
We should always keep in mind that, with the exception of a very few chronic
conditions, we always recover from illnesses鈥攅xcept the last one.
Cold comfort
The report on the energy wastage of household appliances fails to consider
that all the “waste” energy ends up as heat
(This Week, 29 August, p 10). In a
cold country such as Britain, this is not wasted鈥攊t warms the house up. As
a substantial amount of this usage is night-time base load, it is quite
efficient in this regard.
Conversely, in a hot, rich country such as Australia or the US in summer, the
electricity is worse than wasted as the air conditioning must work even harder
to remove the excess heat.
This argument applies to some degree to all household electrical appliances,
be they light bulbs or fridges.
Letter
An energy-efficiency label鈥攖he Energy 2000 label鈥攁lready exists
in Switzerland for PCs, monitors, photocopiers, printers, fax machines, TVs and
video recorders. The labelling criteria are defined in such a way that between
20 and 30 per cent of all models available on the Swiss market qualify for the
label. Each year the criteria may be tightened. Therefore the corresponding year
is indicated on the label.
The list of devices currently bearing the label can be found on the Energy
2000 label’s home page at: http://www.energielabel.ch. Details about the
criteria are available at http://www.energielabel.ch/criteria.htm.
Material world
David Moss
(Letters, 5 September, p 57) rails against the poor pay of British
academics, but fails to understand the basic reason for this: the oversupply of
candidates, and the lack of a market mechanism to control their pay.
If academics are poorly paid (and I have no experience in the field, being a
filthy capitalist self-employed businessman), it is because there is an
oversupply of candidates for the positions available. If the oversupply were to
be reduced, and a shortage of candidates for posts were to develop, pay and
conditions would quickly improve.
The sooner universities start charging customers (in other words students and
firms for whom they carry out research) rather than relying on government
handouts, the sooner they will be free to pay the salaries necessary to attract
and retain the calibre of staff they require.
If students had to pay for their tuition, they would start to demand better
education from universities and their academic staff. In turn, universities
would perhaps be more selective about whom they took on to fill their academic
posts, and would pay more to attract the best candidates. Academic pay would
then find its true level, rather than being controlled by the government funds
available. The same would apply to research staff, from whom one hears many
complaints about short-term contracts and poor pay.
Personally, my heart does not bleed excessively over low academic
pay鈥攎y income is not guaranteed beyond next week, as it depends on my
attracting enough customers to pay the bills, and customers pay me only if they
consider that I am providing value for money, that someone else is not doing the
same thing better or cheaper, and that they want or need what I am
providing.
Don’t get me wrong鈥擨 would love the government to provide a high salary
every month to enable me to do what I enjoy doing without any of the above
worries鈥攂ut I won’t hold my breath.
Letter
I have the misfortune of being unemployed and having to attend my local
Jobcentre on a fortnightly basis. On my latest visit, a very junior civil
servant asked me how my job searching was progressing and what my normal
occupation was. When I said that I was a research scientist, I was surprised to
be asked, “Is that something to do with the media?”
Could it be that 18 years of postdoctoral work qualifies me for a new career
as a spin doctor, or is it that the public perception of science is at an
all-time low?
Mirror moves
Your recent correspondence regarding mayflies mistaking wet roads for rivers
(Letters, 29 August, p 50, and
Letters, 12 September, p 52) seems to have solved
one of my childhood curiosities, except that the letters have all dealt with
horizontal surfaces.
At my school we were lucky enough to have modern buildings and grounds,
including a large pond, and were unlucky enough to suffer from an annual (if
memory serves) plague of mayflies that were apparently attracted to the one-way
mirror coating on some of the windows. For a few weeks whole sides of the
building would be a seething mass of mayflies. This made opening windows and
walking along with one’s mouth open inadvisable.
Is this a manifestation of the shiny surface phenomenon? What powers can be
at work to disorient the mayflies so much that they believe water to be
vertical?
Poor paws
Further to your correspondence on food euphemisms
(Letters, 12 September, p 54),
while working in Africa, two of my Nigerian colleagues were ribbing a third
about “eating 404”. Being a curious chap, I asked what 404 was. I was told that
it was a regional delicacy prepared by stewing dog in kai-kai (the local palm
spirit).
The obvious question then was, why is it called 404? I was informed that the
meat is usually supplied courtesy of the Peugeot 404, the most common car on the
road.
Pouring over the facts
Feedback
(29 August) states that a Nature article at the beginning
of August suggesting it rains more often at weekends than on weekdays came as no
surprise, because the phenomenon had already been reported in The Annals of
Improbable Research in March/April.
Where does this leave a certain article which stated: “Ever noticed how it’s
always warm and sunny when you are at work but, come the weekend, the clouds
roll in and the temperature drops?” (This Week, 29 January 1994, p 5).
Given the frequent association of cloud cover and rainfall, it sounds like a
logical forerunner of this year’s articles. Remember, you read it here
first.