Then let's go squash all butterflies. Or let's go make more butterflies. Seriously, this is silly and doesn't help arguing either direction. If the consequences of turbines are unpredictable, then the consequences of not installing them are equally unpredictable, which in turn means it doesn't matter whether they're there or not.

It's the other way around. Most of the windmills here aren't for making flour, they're wind-powered pumps to keep the artificially-created land below sea level dry (why else would Holland have needed more mills than other countries?). Today, they use electric pumps, so the mills are mainly decorative, but without them, the land wouldn't have existed in the first place. And many of the wind turbines here are situated near a historic windmill, because the artificial land has less of a visual appeal and isn't as densely populated as the naturally-grown land. The problem with this country is simply that it is so crowded (24th on the population density list at wikipedia, and not very evenly distributed).

My father recently mentioned a news article he read/heard about where some people who lived close to power generating windmills were complaining about getting headaches; a result of either the noise generated by the motion of the blades or the large quantity of electricity being produced.

It seems like almost every kind of method to produce electricity on the face of the planet causes some kind of harm or another, regardless of how minor it is. Maybe we she should just destroy all the power plants and go back to the dark ages? Who needs electricity?!

Under certain circumstances, I can hear electricity, but most of the time I can't. Go ahead and call me a liar, I'm used to people not believing me when I mention this. (I am more than capable of proving it in person.)

I generally don't realize I'm hearing electricity unless it suddenly goes out, with the exception of high-drain devices like CRTs, which I can usually hear from several feet away, sometimes more. I recall that one of my grandmothers had a TV in a condo of hers that I could hear while it was OFF for some mysterious reason. When I unplugged it, I stopped hearing it.

Considering my sensitivity is minor, I don't doubt there could be people who would be much more sensitive to it.

Lots of TV's have an "instant on" feature that uses electricity to keep the cathodes near operating temperature.

The only time I've heard of people "hearing electricity" is the humming of 5000 volt lines (I've heard that myself, and it's louder if you put your ear onto the pole to hear the conducted sound) but IMO it's the vibration resulting from magnetic effects of two wires that are sufficiently close to attract/repel each other.

I'm not stubbornly misguided, I'm not guided at all. I have to believe it's the electricity itself I can hear because I don't know what all the different things I can sometimes hear have in common, nor has anyone given me any rational explanations.

The things I can hear sometimes include:

• CRTs (ALL of them, never met a CRT I couldn't hear)

• LCDs (Only been able to hear a couple so far...)

• Incandescent Light Bulbs

• Fluorescent Light Bulbs

• Dimmer Switches

• Cars in Battery-Only Mode (Inside or outside the vehicle)

• Power Transformers (Not just one or a couple but ALL of them)

Not to mention the curious sensation I get whenever the power goes out...

Or hey, perhaps none of those things have anything in common and I can hear power flowing through them for completely different reasons for each. The thing is, most people I've encountered in my life, they can hear maybe one or a couple of those things, but never everything in that list.

If there's more rational explanations than hearing the flow of electricity through these things, I'm listening. Teach me why I can hear them all!

Magnetostriction, electrostriction, "regular" electromagnetically induced vibration (changing magnetic field + not perfectly seated or rigid ferromagnetic component = vibration), and even thermally induced vibration.

Transformers (in particular, the infamously noisy flyback transformers) as well as large electromagnets.

Transformers, inverters (CCFLs are a popular choice for backlights).

Hum when fed switched power, e.g. from a dimmer.

Ballasts.

Switching regulators. Not only can the units themselves hum or whine, they induce the same in the bulbs they regulate.

Take your pick of noisy components; they're probably all in there in one form of another.

See the first couple of links.

... I take the stubbornness comment back.

Glad to have helped then.

Solar power is relatively harmless, but still horribly inefficient for producing electricity. So yes, every energy source has a downside, which means that the road to success is twofold: 1, reduce energy usage wherever possible, and 2, produce the energy we absolutely need using a technology that has the smallest long-term impacts.

How secure? How long? And what happens when we're out of uranium / plutonium?

Don't use dimmers on fluorescent lamps. Only on tungsten lamps. Edison lamps. Whatever they are called. The tungsten lamp is silent, but the dimmer itself might keep noise.

Fluorescent lights flicker. When you dim them, the flickering tends to increase, as if they would drop every second phase. Meanwhile the noise increases, even to the extent that others than Kris can hear it.

Doesn't have to be too secure. I think the figure was like 100 years or so. By the time we run out of fuel for that, we should have a new energy source. Nuclear would be used to hold us over, not as the next big thing.

If you think the supply of fissionables is limited^[1], it's nothing compared to the rare metals that go into solar panels...

I'm 51, and can't hear quiet high frequencies (ringing in my ears drowns them out)

I'm also a cab driver, and last night once again a hot young thing seemed rather annoyed at me. She rambled on in a quiet, high pitched voice, and whenever the pitch rose, I assumed it was a question, so I'd say "Uh-huh".
I imagine it went something like this...

Her: So my husband is deployed in Iraq, and I'm so lonely I could scream. What do you think I should do?
Me: Uh-huh.
Her: You don't have a girlfriend, do you?
Me: Uh-huh.
Her: Could you help me carry this stuff inside when I get home?
Me: Uh-huh.
Her: Would you be able to stay awhile?
Me: Uh-huh
Her: You don't sound like that's a good idea. Do you think I'm ugly?
Me: Uh-huh.
Her: You're just agreeing with whatever I'm saying because you're a moron, aren't you?
Me: Uh-huh.

Absolutely true.. but with solar power you can build the panels and then get power indefinitely. The rare metals don't supply the energy, they kind of supply the power. Sure, the panels might break or something, but the rare metals aren't going to disappear. We can essentially use them for as long as there is sunshine. --- but maybe we will want more panels than their are resources to build them.

What I'm expecting is that (if the human race lives long enough) we will eventually have fusion power. Fusion also uses limited resources, but those resources are much more plentiful(*). It's also likely that we'll improve solar power and energy storage so that solar could be used for everything. It's worth noting that there are already types of solar panels which don't use the rare metals we were talking about earlier - but those solar panels are less efficient at converting the sun's photons into electricity. So my guess is one or both of those options, but there are others.

(Note *: Really, all resources are limited. It just depends on what kind of timeframe you are looking at. Eventually the sun will burn out or explode or whatever, and everything we currently call "renewable" will run out. .. my point is just that although fusion does not use 'renewable' resources it really could see us through to the end of our days as a species, if it works as advertised. )