Saturday 17 November 2012

Industrial strength dog whistle




A dog whistle  is a signal that ordinary humans can't sense because its frequency is above normal hearing.  It's also a signal used in political campaigns to denote subtle messages being transmitted to bigoted voters.

In the wind turbine news arena, the term "industrial" is the dog whistle of wind opponents.  "Industrial" is never used in scientific literature although it's being introduced into the faux scientific literature.

Where did the term "industrial" originate as an adjective for wind turbines?  Was it the Press?  Or the scientific community?

No.

It was the result of a series of focus groups financed by one of the Koch brothers as part of his opposition to a proposed offshore wind project near Cape Cod.

According to E&E Publishing, September 24, 2007, in an article regarding the Industrial Wind Action Group (IWA):

Money matters

One of the biggest and best-funded wind-power opponents is a NIMBY group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which was founded in 2001 to oppose Cape Wind, a 130-turbine project to be sited about five miles off Cape Cod.
In 2005, the latest year for which figures are available, the alliance took in almost $3.3 million in donations, including $1.1 million from oil magnate Bill Koch, the founder and president of the Oxbow Group, a holding company focused on energy development. The alliance employs four lobbying firms, spends about a third of its take on legal fees, pays its president $114,000, and just opened an office in Washington to lobby during the federal review process.
Freelance journalist Wendy Williams, co-author of a book about the Cape Wind fight, said IWA's focus on the word "industrial" was drawn from the Nantucket Sound alliance. "The phrase 'industrial' was the direct result of focus groups," she said. "It frightened people who thought they lived in a pristine environment."

Frightened.  Just another component of the Fear/Uncertainty/Doubt campaign being waged by the wind opponents in Ontario.


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