Dear Friend,
Right now, Toronto has an opportunity to take a giant step forward in creating clean, green sustainable power… but that opportunity may be blocked before it even gets started.
Last month, David Suzuki urged you to show you care about the environment — and your future — by making your voice heard. Here’s your chance.
Toronto Hydro is exploring the possibility of putting windmills in the Lake, about 2 km off the shores of the east end of our city. The first step is to install a wind measuring device in the Lake. Moving forward on this proposal marks the first real step in turning around our energy future. But Hydro will need permission to proceed, and a small but vocal group is fighting even the current effort to measure the wind speeds.
If Toronto Hydro fails to get permission to take this basic first step toward green, sustainable power, Toronto’s renewable energy future — and our ability to deal with smog and global warming — may come to a screeching halt!
We need you to come to an important community meeting that will discuss the proposal on Monday, November 24th (see details below). We need to make sure Torontonians — like you — who care about a renewable energy future are there to express their support for testing winds in Lake Ontario. We need to send a clear message to the Ontario Government that Torontonians care about sustainable energy and we support windmills!
To help get people to the meeting we are organizing buses to take people there. Just ride the subway to Kennedy station any time between 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm. and friendly wind power supporters will meet you in the station (look for people carrying windmill signs) and guide you to the buses and drive you to the meeting. After it's over, we'll give you a lift back too.
To guarantee a seat on the bus, please RSVP us at rsvptorontowind@gmail.com. Put "Yes Bus" in the subject heading so we know you need a lift.
Meeting Details:
Monday, November 24th, 6:30 pm
Sir Wilfred Laurier Collegiate Institute
145 Guildwood Parkway, Scarborough
Go to www.torontoenvironment.org/windmills for a map.
To learn more about what you can do to support windmills and a renewable energy future, visit www.torontoenvironment.org/windmills.
Also check out this article by Bob McDonald, host of CBC's Quirks & Quarks, "Deflating some misconceptions about wind power."
Quixote
Dear Suzuki Foundation,
Please get "educated" on the facts of Wind Turbines, not "Windmills" before taking such a tough stand on their virtues and "feel good" factor. The reason there is such opposition to these industrial monsters is that they kill birds, kill bats, disrupt the landscapes they are placed in, destroy local economies in Rural and Agricultural landscapes, make people ill the closer they live to them, lower land values in immediate areas of occupancy and on and on. The most important reason they are so vigorously protested is that THEY DON'T WORK! Billions of taxpayers dollars are spent on these monsters and they exactly nothing like replacing coal fired generation much unlike what the Wind Proponents claim. I too want our planet to stop producing CO2. What's wrong with this scenario? Give every landowner a grant to install solar panels an inverter and a battery storage system in their homes to generate their own electricity. Maybe even a small wind turbine to boot! This is called CONSERVATION and the reason the Province won't do this is because then we might not need as much utility owned power and they would LOSE SALES! This is the reality of these wind monsters. Huge developments all Government controlled and money makers for the province and wind companies. Your Foundation should be promoting self reliance and not mega projects such as these not unlike the Nuclear Plants you so rightly object to. Please get educated!
Lorrie Gillis
For goodness sakes, will you take a good long look at research that DOESN'T come from studies and data bought and paid for by wind developers' associations. I'm getting pretty tired of the same old cliches being spun to keep people in the dark about how very unreliable and ineffective INDUSTRIAL WIND TURBINE INSTALLATIONS RUN FOR BIG PROFIT(not windmills, not windfarms) really are as an alternative power source. If that doesn't get you to thinking then maybe you could AT LEAST check into the fact that people in rural Ontario are being forced to move from their homes because they can't stand the health impacts from having to live near these turbines.
Lorrie Gillis
Grey Highlands
Hugh
I am not from the bluffs in Toronto. But we do go there bird watching. We have seen a gradual decline in many species. In addition a record drop in number of insect and butterflies. We think that the David Suzuki foundation should not hastily endorse such projects that may end in disaster. Environmental assesment of wind turbines in other countries does not write a green check for building them on the most ancient migratory bird route in ontario. Myself and many of my friends who have both morally and finanically supported your organization are getting very dissapointed in how these decisions are being made at your organization. We hope you once again get in touch with the routes of our common struggle to protect the envinroment and the animals living in it. This is not about our view of the lake, this is about the bats, birds and all animals that inhabit it.
lora bruncke
Why are they working in Denmark and Germany so well? There must be an answer.... build them smaller, build them away from migration routes, experiment with designs, upgrade as we gain knowledge ...
Remember: energy cannot be created nor destroyed! It is provided for us to use, not abuse!