Solar Farm Rejected For Fear of Too Much Energy Sucking

[Rad Party God]

That has got to be the most unintentionally funny news I've read the entire month.

 

[mtarzaim02]

Can't they switch to plan B?
Build a charcoal factory. Then, no problem with photosynthesis, cancers or property value.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

I have no words I'm just going to quote some of her evidence

Jane Mann, a retired science teacher, said she was concerned the panels would prevent plants in the area from photosynthesizing, stopping them from growing.

Ms Mann said she had seen areas near solar panels where plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight.

She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer.

This person is either being bribed fuck-ton of money or... May God have mercy on our soul.

Spoiler: source

got the quotes from reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/comments/3wnp0y/us_town_rejects_solar_panels_amid_fears_they_suck/cxxl06e

These morons who appose this MUST be funded by big oil and big coal.
Either that, or, just...uck.

I'm willing to believe this is the real reason this science teacher spouted this madness but people who probably should've known better still back them so I'm still unbelievably baffled by this

 

[Ishigami]

So I heard there were talks in Paris recently about something... something to with climate change and switching to renewable energy? Nah!

Telling you right now: Not worth the paper it was written on.
Want to take a vacation on one of those amazing island states? Better do it now.

As for this new... oh well... there are a lot of stupid people in this world. Some even have a degree of some sort.

 

[pookie101]

well it is their choice and if they dont want solar i suggest the town is given something old and tested. say the oldest most dirtiest coal fired power plant in existence

 

[Ambitiousmould]

As someone from the UK, this is fucking winding me up. Here, we don't have many solar farms because the weather isn't reliable enough, which is unfortunate to say the least. It also means that when I see people squandering the opportunity for solar power (which is generally pretty damn good as a renewable energy source) because they are too fucking stupid and just go "Oooh it's a bit different so let's talk bollocks about it until the intelligent people in charge just fucking give up" I get bloody pissed off.

I imagine it's annoying for Americans who are now sat there knowing that it's those chuffing daft wankers making the rest of the US look bad.

Chuffing hell fire it takes the fucking piss.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Some redditor did some digging and found out the real reason they rejected it.
Found this article.

The town would not benefit from the solar farms because they are not located within the town limits, but only in the extraterritorial sections.
The only funding the town would get is about $7,000 per year to train the fire department in case something goes wrong.
Three other solar farms had previously been accepted by the town council, with one of the now putting solar panels up

Basically, the towns already approved three solar farms, they are rejecting this forth one because they aren't getting anything out of it.
So yes that "science teacher" is a huge idiot, but the town council is not

 

[EndlessSporadic]

The woman is a science teacher, and she has a husband that says something as stupid as that? Your wife is a science teacher - learn to science. As for not seeing proof that solar panels don't cause cancer, it is not their job to show it doesn't. It is your job to show it does. The burden of proof is on the accuser, not the defendant.

I am completely baffled on how Americans can be so stupid. I am almost suicidal living in this country.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I saw this headline earlier today from an unknown site and thought it was a satire piece. Seeing it again now, here...oh dear. Maybe it explains why she is retired. But what does her husband do? A select few university professors have been recently proven to be in bed with (excuse the saying) companies willing to pay them by the hour for climate-change-denial papers that avoid main peer review process, Instead opting for recommended "peer-reviewers" who basically are the equivalent of slapping a quote on a DVD box and calling it a review, most public and politicians wont bother to find out the difference. Anyhow, being a scientist (retired) science teacher does not garuntee ethical responsibility from them. What even is the state's conditions for becoming a science teacher? The police evaluation process is bad enough.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Let me guess... If it was an ideal location for a wind farm and a company wanted to set up some turbines, she'd be saying those turbines would cause the wind to stop blowing. (It may affect bird populations if the site was poorly chosen.)

Some redditor did some digging and found out the real reason they rejected it.
Found this article.

The town would not benefit from the solar farms because they are not located within the town limits, but only in the extraterritorial sections.
The only funding the town would get is about $7,000 per year to train the fire department in case something goes wrong.
Three other solar farms had previously been accepted by the town council, with one of the now putting solar panels up

Basically, the towns already approved two solar farms, they are rejecting this third one because they aren't getting anything out of it.
So yes that "science teacher" is a huge idiot, but the town council is not

Well, at least the council has a degree of common sense and at least one journalist reported the real reason why the decision was made.

Though, I really wonder if it was the right decision. If the farm wouldn't negatively affect the town's budget (Is $7000 a year enough to keep firefighters trained? Will it be enough in a few years?), an extra energy source would already be there in the future in case of growth. The council may have just found a legitimate reason to deny the farm to keep the village idiots quiet without truly giving in to the pressure.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

*sees article title while sipping tea*

Hm.

*reads it*

Hmmm.

*remembers the track record of the country he lives in...then shrugs and resumes sipping tea*

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

By her logic if the solar panels are lowering the sunlight levels in the area, wouldn't the cancer rates drop as less people would be likely to get skin cancer? That said I think this woman is far removed from any semblance of logic.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

People this retarded should be sterilised.

 

[Callate]

Ah, to be a wasp on the wall of that meeting... And sting the living @#$% out of those idiots.

...No, wait. They'd probably just suggest that aggressive wasps were caused by solar panels. Dammit!

 

[RJ 17]

There's really only one word that I can think of in response to reading that article:

...................................wow.

I mean if you read some crazy article about solar panels causing cancer so you don't want to vote for a solar farm, fair enough...that's a fear that's at least understandable. It's wrong, mind you...but whatever. But to think that a solar farm could magically suck up ALL OF TEH SUNZ!!!!!!! then you're just straight up bat-shit crazy.

But here's the really scary part: people are pointing out that this couple will be voting in the next election.......what about the population of the town that voted for not one, but BOTH of these geniuses to be on the town council? I think someone should check the water supply in Woodland, NC. >.>

 

[TelosSupreme]

You'd think that someone would have more reasonable complaints, like that solar panels tend to be too expensive and inefficient. But nope! Of course some moron thinks that they'll suck the sun dry. That's a totally rational and educated thing for a grown adult to say. Oy vey.

 

[Xpwn3ntial]

Considering she's a retired science teacher and at no point have I seen the age of the complainers in question, I'm chalking this up to goold ol' senility.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Story time everyone.

My computer networks professor last year was originally from China, and heard about this from one of his professors there.

There was a town in China that had (at the time) recently had a cell-phone tower placed in their near vicinity. The company that put it up received a large number of complaints from the people in the town expressing a wide variety of symptoms that began after the tower was put up. Nausea, inability to sleep, and some people even claimed that when they looked at the tower they could feel the electromagnetic radiation burning their eyes.

As you can guess, their symptoms were all in their heads. In fact, against all logic, putting a cell phone tower near your town actually reduces the amount of electromagnetic radiation you're subjected to. Why exactly is that? Well...

The amount of electromagnetic radiation you get from a cellphone tower is inversely proportional to the distance you are away from the tower... cubed. The actual formula follows something along these lines: P/r^3, where P is the power of the signal, and r is the distance. What this means is that the electromagnetic radiation you get from the tower that's 1000m away from you is one billionth the power of the tower.

On the other hand, you're putting your cellphone right up against your head. Let's say that it's 1/10 of a meter away. You're getting 1000 times the power of your cell phone in electromagnetic radiation. Now obviously, cell phone towers have more power than a cell phone, but it's not 1 trillion times as much power. A 1 minute call on a cell phone will give you as much radiation as 19 years 1km away from a cell phone tower.

Now why are you better off closer to a cell phone tower? Because cell phones try to use as little power as needed to keep a signal. The closer a cell phone tower is to you, the less radiation you're getting from your cell phone, which is by far the larger source of electromagnetic radiation.

The company sent out representatives to go door to door to the townsfolk and explain this to them. Anyone want to guess how that went?

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

By her logic if the solar panels are lowering the sunlight levels in the area, wouldn't the cancer rates drop as less people would likely to get skin cancer? That said I think this woman is far removed from any semblance of logic.

your got a point there. Even by this person's own logic they make no sense.