Pylons and the Green movement

[pozorvlak]

[All opinions stated herein are my own: I do not speak for SGP or any other environmental organisation.]

The journalist George Monbiot (whose work I have long admired) has caused a lot of spluttering among my Green friends this morning with this article, in which he argues that the Green movement should throw its weight behind anti-pylon campaigns

Comments

[half_of_monty]

Yeah, it is about tactics, rather than content. And I very much admire his attempts to get hold of the actual numbers on the p/kWh that this would actually add to the cost. I'd like to know the answer to that before I attempt to give any opinion on the question.

(Except that, myself, I like wind farms, but find pylons ugly and disturbing -- for that hideous moment when you go past and they all match up all along. I just don't like things outdoors that go in straight lines. I find forests planted in straight lines deeply deeply disturbing too and wonder why the local conservation activists never march against those. Butanyway.)

But I am confused as to why this issue has found the green movement on the back foot (in general, even if the SGP are up to speed on it -- he's mostly talking about the London-based commentariat, no?). Back when I was little I had a picture book about a giant who helped the people build a power station and lay down the pylons. Then the giant confessed that he hated pylons and built a machine to dig them underground. Valuable lessons.