Blue Thoughts from a Red State: Where the Wind Blows

by Jesse Zerger Nathan, 2006-07-18

Kansas is famous—or infamous, depending on one’s perspective—for several notables: Oz, which doesn’t exist; Toto, who died sixty years ago; a legendary flatness, geologically speaking, that rivals a pancake; and, of course, the wind, which is undeniably—sometimes annoyingly—real. While any reports of Western Kansas blowing away under the duress of straight-line winds whipping across the 211 miles of state are false, the power of the wind in Kansas is just waiting to be harnessed. And given the urgent need for environmental action around the globe to combat the ill effects of human-induced global warming, what better place to begin than on the prairies of the red-hearted center of the United States?

“It is difficult,” Upton Sinclair wrote in 1935, “to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Quoted by Al Gore in Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” about the looming global climate crisis, Sinclair’s words aptly describe those few—but very vocal—naysayers who are still ideologically or financially committed to denying global warming’s factual nature. Facing rising sea-levels, sweeping heat-waves and torrential freak-storms, we must move forward without them on board.

Typically Americans do not react to environmental crises until the catastrophic effects land on their doorsteps. Over a decade after an intergovernmental panel (IPCC) of over 2,000 scientists from around the world concluded that human activity is undoubtedly contributing to dangerous changes in the planetary climate, citizen groups, local governments and even businesses are becoming aware of the all-encompassing impacts of this mess. If Global Warming is allowed to do its worst, nobody will escape unscathed, not even those in the lap of luxury: in May, USA Today reported that the United States ski industry has become acutely aware of its vulnerability. Snow levels at most of Colorado’s prominent ski resorts could, for instance, decline by 50% by 2085, according to an April study by Colorado College. Coastal tourist hotspots like those in Florida or southern California, for instance, report that ocean temperature changes will destroy surfing, boating, and fishing venues—not to mention perhaps even the coast itself, with rising waters potentially obliterating low-lying areas. And just last week, the wine industry reported that the dire effects of rising temperatures could mean bad things for grape growers: Burgundy, for example, will soon no longer be able to produce Pinot Noir.

Wine may be the least of our worries now, but if changes aren’t made fast we may need a lot more of it. And the changes, as Gore pointed out, are within our power, contrary to the oft-cited notion that Global Warming is some natural—and therefore uncontrollable—phenomenon. With ice records giving a steady look at climate patterns for the last 650,000 years to back him up, Gore explains that United States behavior in particular contributes to increased CO2 levels, and therefore Global Warming itself. While the United States makes up only five percent of the world's population, Americans use twenty-six percent of the world's energy. According to Grist Magazine, in 1997, residents in this country gobbled up an average of 12,133 kilowatt-hours of electricity each—which is nearly nine times more than individuals outside the U.S. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy indicates that total residential energy consumption in the United States will increase by a whopping seventeen percent from 1995 to 2015. We’re in the middle of that increase, folks.

And this is where the winds of Kansas blow into the story. Astoundingly, the state of Kansas alone has the wind energy potential to supply 1/3 of United States energy needs. It is therefore no surprise that Kansas leads the nation in per year renewable energy output. TradeWind Energy, a rapidly growing Kansas wind energy corporation, estimates that wind power is the world’s fastest growing energy source. Internationally, its use has increased, explains one official, by thirty-five percent annually for the past five years. Across the state, wind farms have been popping up—put together by environmentalists and farmers (typically at odds in the black-and-white red-state/blue-state dichotomy)—faster than bindweed in fresh soil. This year, in Butler County, Kansas, for instance, farmers-turned environmentalists have made their property available to wind farm development. TradeWind Energy as well, is expecting a dramatic increase in wind farm production in the near future—especially in surrounding states—as information about environmental concerns and wind power’s potential become more available.

And while valid arguments exist in opposition to wind power’s increased use—the unpleasant aesthetic they create, or the threat to bird wildlife—the consequences of not acting to instigate the expansion of renewable energy sources like wind power are, quite clearly, even greater. Such opposition, in fact, almost seems petty when confronted with the horribly destructive outcomes for the natural world resulting from continued reliance on fossil fuels and the global climate crisis their use has created.

Governor Kathleen Sebelius, in fact, initiated a taskforce to tackle the matter of the prairie’s potential for wind power development over two years ago. Recognizing that this is one issue Kansas can undoubtedly lead the nation forward on, Sebelius and the taskforce, according to an April 2004 Lawrence Journal-World article, understand that “the high winds that whip through the Flint Hills make the area one of the best in the country to locate giant wind turbines to harness wind energy.”

Al Gore quotes Winston Churchill’s World War II-era call to confront a different sort of storm, applying it to our present situation: “The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place, we are entering a period of consequences.” Heavy as these words are, all the tools to change courses lie within easy reach—such as the endlessly renewable resource of moving air flowing throughout this red—nay, call it green—state. And if you’ve ever stood on I-70 while the wind buffets and blasts you from all sides, you know that any such effort, blown along by the winds of Kansas, will surely soar.