Another Travesty of Science - Rejecting Solar Panels For....

[Choppy]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-up-all-the-energy-from-the-sun-a6771526.html

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

 

[fresh_42]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-up-all-the-energy-from-the-sun-a6771526.html

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

I'm not sure whether it is a fake. It is simply too ridiculous.

 

[collinsmark]

I'm not sure whether it is a fake. It is simply too ridiculous.

According to Snopes (a website dedicated to determining which [mostly Internet based] viral memes are false and which are genuine), it's genuine.

http://www.snopes.com/north-carolina-town-rejects-solar-panels/

 

[Hornbein]

I'm not sure whether it is a fake. It is simply too ridiculous.

I used to say ridiculous things for fun. I had to give it up. There are so many people who believe ridiculous things. Strangers concluded that I was one of them.

 

[zoobyshoe]

To be fair, the article quotes only two people who spoke up with ridiculous objections to solar panels. The real community objection might have been something like suspicion of a corporation coming in from the outside and altering the balance of local politics and the local economy.

 

[OmCheeto]

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or to cry.

That was my initial reaction.

According to Snopes (a website dedicated to determining which [mostly Internet based] viral memes are false and which are genuine), it's genuine.

After some browsing, this will be the 1st time I've disagreed with Snopes.

To be fair, the article quotes only two people who spoke up with ridiculous objections to solar panels. The real community objection might have been something like suspicion of a corporation coming in from the outside and altering the balance of local politics and the local economy.

Not completely ridiculous, IMHO.
It's actually quite complicated:

No, That North Carolina Town Didn’t Ban Solar Panels For Sucking Up Sun [techtimes.com]
...according to official statements to Tech Times, fear of solar technology had nothing to do with the decision.

I kind of agree with this.

Did Media Misquote NC Anti-Solar Residents To Make Them Look Stupid? [dailycaller.com]
Numerous left-wing media outlets have repeatedly misquoted citizens of Woodland, N.C.
...

I kind of agree with this, also.
They also referenced:

http://www.cggc.duke.edu/pdfs/02152015Duke_CGGC_NCSolarEnergyReport.pdf [duke.edu]

Which kind of impressed me,

dailycaller also said;

The town council turned down the proposed solar farm by a vote of 3 to 1. The council’s rejection of the measure was largely focused around the effect a nearby solar plant could have on the price of homes. A study by The University of California Berkeley found that houses near solar farms lost 3 to 7 percent of their value with larger increases near particularly large solar farms.

Which confirmed my suspicion that "dailycaller" was really a bunch of ball faced liars, as http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/ldavis/pp.pdf was titled; "The Effect of Power Plants on Local Housing Values and Rents"

Only once in the paper was the word "solar" used.

But that sparked my interest of the people in the original article.
http://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/2015/12/08/woodland-rejects-solar-farm/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link [roanoke-chowannewsherald.com]

where;

Mary Hobbs has been living in Woodland for 50 years and said she has watched it slowly becoming a ghost town with no job opportunities for young people.
She said her home is surrounded by solar farms and is no longer worth its value because of those facilities.

This kind of reminded me of the "correlation vs causation" thingy, so I took a Google-Earth snapshot of the Woodland area, and couldn't really see any "solar farms".

The yellow line is one mile long.

Does anyone know where Mary Hobbs lives?

 

[zoobyshoe]

Excellent research once again, Omcheeto!

 

[Vanadium 50]

To be fair, the article quotes only two people who spoke up with ridiculous objections to solar panels

Two people with the same last names.

 

[OmCheeto]

Excellent research once again, Omcheeto!

As a hyper-advocate of both solar and greenery, I was somewhat appalled that North Carolina is #4 at installing solar in such a green state.
As that one lady* said; "areas near solar panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight"

extracted from the article:
"She said she has observed areas near solar panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight," says Hoggard. Mann's husband went on to explain that "the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun."

Obviously, her husband is the idiot, who started this whole thing, when he should have just shut up, and let the expert talk.

See: Mansplaining.

*Jane Mann: local native, concerned about the natural vegetation that makes the community beautiful, and retired science teacher.

 

[zoobyshoe]

extracted from the article:
"She said she has observed areas near solar panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight," says Hoggard. Mann's husband went on to explain that "the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun."

Obviously, her husband is the idiot, who started this whole thing, when he should have just shut up, and let the expert talk.

See: Mansplaining.

Except that, hehe, from the link you yourself dug up:

Numerous left-wing media outlets have repeatedly misquoted citizens of Woodland, N.C., after the city government voted to reject a proposed solar farm.

An article in the Huffington Post claimed local resident Bobby Mann said the proposed solar farm would “stop plants from growing and suck up all the energy from the sun,” during his testimony to the Woodland Town Council, http://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/2015/12/08/woodland-rejects-solar-farm/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link . However, the Herald-News only directly quotes Bobby Mann as saying “You’re killing your town, [a]ll the young people are going to move out.” Other media outlets repeated the misquote.

Mann’s fears about young people moving out are likely based on the city’s population decline.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/12/15/d...dents-to-make-them-look-stupid/#ixzz3uoCUT3JO

 

[Choppy]

There's an interesting lesson in all of this - that not everything is as written on the internet!

Sometimes, perhaps we're a little too willing to believe something rings consistent with our fears.