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Simple recording of wind turbine sounds

Human impacts, Wind turbines Add comments

This recording, by one of the wind farm neighbors in Wisconsin who I met when visiting there last fall, is a good, simple taste of the sounds heard from 1500 or so feet away—this one has a predominant jet plane flavor, though often neighbors report a wide variety of sounds that change depending on wind conditions.  Most of these folks have several turbines around their homes; one person told me that he thought he could live with it if the ones closer than a half mile were not there, though another of his neighbors leaned more toward a mile as his comfort zone.  Listening to this selection of sounds, recorded with different cloud covers and wind directions, I could get a sense of why some people find hearing this incredibly disruptive and intrusive, while others say they are not much bothered; this disparity of reaction is one of the fundamental paradoxes of wind farm noise issues.  

Give a listen…..turn it up and down to get a feel for it at different sound levels or distances (or to simulate how it feels to people with different degrees of sensitivity/attention to the sound)…..imagine it lasting far longer than this three minute taste—which may well make it more torturous, or might allow it to sink into the background of your awareness…..if this sound, at a moderate level, or turned down very low to be just audible, was happening in your neighborhood, how would it be for you?

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