As a longtime Rehoboth homeowner I recently received an appeal from a group opposing offshore wind turbines on the basis that they want to “save our beach view.”
While I appreciate their love of our view from the beach, they totally miss the big picture: Unless we stop burning fossil fuels and shift to renewable power, including wind, quickly, in the future there may be no beach from which we’ll have any view.
We are heating the earth by burning fossil fuels and pumping CO2 into the air. That warming is leading to many forms of harm, including rising sea levels, stronger hurricanes and major disruptions in sea life. While much of the harm is already “baked into” our future due to past emissions, if we quickly phase out fossil fuels, we may be able to avoid the worst consequences.
Most of our electricity is generated by burning natural gas and coal. To phase out fossil fuels, we have to replace them with renewable sources, which means wind and solar. We can’t do that without installing a lot of wind turbines offshore.
The choice for all coastal people is either to block offshore wind power, dooming our communities to eventual inundation by rising seas, or to embrace offshore wind power as our contribution to defeating global warming.
Therefore, I vote for offshore wind. Let’s make sure it’s implemented as beneficially as possible, but let’s do it, so that our kids and grandkids get to enjoy the beach at all.
Steve Cook
Rehoboth Beach
Portland, Ore.
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