Trump On Windmills, and Other Musings

Earlier this week, though seemingly busy dealing with a number of issues, Donald Trump turned his attention and insults for a short time (and not for the first time) to an unexpected target: windmills.

Trump claimed that, “if you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value– and they say the noise causes cancer.” As he swung his arm in a circle to imitate a windmill, he continued, “and of course, it’s like a graveyard for birds. If you love birds, you never want to walk under a windmill. It’s a sad, sad sight.”

Wow. There’s a lot to unpack in those couple of sentences. Everything gets even more concerning when you remember all the other things going on with the Trump Administration right now, and when you remember that this is the 75th time Trump has referenced windmills in speeches, interviews, tweets, and other remarks since 2012, according to the data aggregation site Factbase. Why does he despise windmills so much?

The claim that your property value will decrease because of your proximity to a windmill is based on nothing. According to the largest study done in the U.S. by the Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information, there is no evidence that supports the idea that a windmill near your land will make your land less valuable.

“And they say the noise causes cancer.” Pause. Wait. Read that again. Let it sink in. The President of the United States has announced to the entire country (and world, given the amount of global connectivity that modern technology provides) that he believes that the noise created by windmills causes cancer.

Windmills are typically placed no less than 300 meters from anyone’s home so as not to disturb them too much. At 300 meters, the sound pressure level of the windmill is about 43 decibels. For context, many sound experts would say that 40 decibels is about the sound level of an ambient library.

If you were to stand right next to a windmill (like, right at the base of it) the noise level would reach about 105 decibels. That’s roughly the sound level of a lawnmower. Yes, the sound would be unpleasant and would damage your ears if you were to stand there all day, but given the fact that nobody’s home is that close to a windmill, and the fact that the only people getting that close to windmills are windmill technicians who are surely aptly prepared for the high decibel levels, I think it’s safe to say that 105 decibels poses no threat to your health.

As many of you probably know (as college students that are familiar with how sound works) sound travels as waves through the air until it reaches your ears, where it hits your eardrum. The vibrations that your eardrum makes are sent to the brain and interpreted as sound. Different wavelengths and frequencies alter the pitch and volume of the sounds that your brain is interpreting. This is perhaps some of the most fundamental information that allows us to understand how and why different things sound different.

The fact that Donald Trump thinks that these sound waves (that are just like any other sound waves that make their way to your ears) are somehow carcinogenic display his lack of knowledge of the world around him and his own body. Does he really not understand some of the most basic principles of sound physics?

I suppose this could be taken for condescending. Someone reading this might say, “hey, Ollie, I didn’t know that sound moved in vibrations through the air. You’re criticizing Trump for not knowing these things about physics that not every person might be aware of.”

You’re right. Not every person may know this. I’m a science person, and a biology major, and perhaps the average person is less familiar with the process of interpreting sound than I am. But keep in mind that Donald Trump isn’t the average person either. He went to four years of college and is a 72 year old man. One would think that, after seven decades of life on this planet, Trump would understand that sound is not cancerous. But apparently not.

Perhaps a Trump fan might say to me, “well, he doesn’t actually think that. He was just saying it; he doesn’t really mean it.” And to that, I ask, is that better?

Is telling people that noise causes cancer even when it he knows it doesn’t the sign of a good president? I wouldn’t say so. Many people wouldn’t say so. Many people would instead call that lying, would call that manipulation. Donald Trump is manipulating the American public (those that might be less informed of sound waves than you or I) into being afraid of windmills, a step in the right direction when handling the issue of climate change.

This type of manipulation is called “fear mongering,” a term that many of you may already be familiar with. It’s typically Trump’s main tactic when facing anything he doesn’t like. If he wants to convince other people they, likewise, shouldn’t like it, he figures out how to instill fear in the swayable public. He claims that sound from windmills cause cancer.

“And, of course, it’s like a graveyard for birds,” Trump added, using fear mongering yet again to convince the public that windmills are somehow bad for the environment. Windmills kill birds! The evil bird-killers must be stopped!

Granted, it is true that birds and bats are often the victim of flying into windmills and consequently dying. Birds and bats lack the cognition to understand that windmills move in a circle and that they could get hit if they choose to fly straight through. It’s not their fault that they get killed by windmills; they fly into the blades and get knocked from the sky. Windmills are a man made structure and such natural ecological interactions are unavoidable except by not building windmills.

But do you know what kills more birds than windmills? Climate change. The very same climate change that Trump claims is a hoax but has been proven to be a real threat to our world many times.

Now, this, I know for a fact everyone reading this knows: windmills and wind turbines provide energy harnessed from the wind, a renewable energy source. Using more environmentally friendly methods of generating energy is a good way to help stop the negative impacts of climate change. Ultimately, humans are responsible for climate change, and thus we are the only ones that can stop it.

We have to ask ourselves why Trump has lashed out at windmills publicly. Either he genuinely thinks they’re dangerous, or he wants us to think that they’re dangerous. Both explanations are alarming. Either the President of the United States is so uneducated and ignorant that he thinks “windmills equal cancer,” in which case, are we sure we want him in charge of our country? Or, he’s manipulating the public into believing his anti-Earth agenda, in which case, are we sure we want him in charge of our country?

You’ll notice that both cases lead us to the same conclusion: is this the man that should be at the helm of the U.S.?

Recently, Trump has found himself up a creek without a paddle. He’s having trouble dealing with the Democrats that are upset with his actions. He threatened to close the US-Mexico border (which would be bad for our economy, in case you didn’t realize, as Trump clearly hasn’t). He continues to face controversy regarding the Mueller report, which he originally was enthused about being fully released to the public, but has since changed his views about and wants it kept private. (Suspicious behavior, some might think.) And the remarks about windmills are frankly just the cherry on top.

So, why is he so shifty? Why does he make such wild claims about, well, everything? Why does it seem that someone, somewhere, is always at his throat?

Because he’s figured out a strategy. He probably figured it out decades ago, before he even ran for office. This strategy is what helped him win the Presidential election. He’s figured out that all press is good press.

While, logically speaking, this statement shouldn’t be true, it has proven itself again and again. Logically, people that hear bad press about Donald Trump would be dissuaded to vote for him in the upcoming 2020 election. Logically, people will realize that bad press means bad actions. Logically, people will vote for anyone other than Trump. But the public does not always act logically.

Realistically, the bad press that Donald Trump receives means name and face recognition for people that might not be aware of who he is and what he does. Realistically, bad press coverage of Donald Trump means that there is less coverage to of any other potential 2020 candidates. Realistically, if Trump can keep up his media presence, people won’t know any of the 2020 candidates except for Trump. And then, they’ll vote for Trump.

I can ensure you that I will not be, come election time, voting for Trump. This does mean, however, that I need to put my vote elsewhere to make sure that he doesn’t get the win because of voter passivity. Which means I’m going to have to know who the other candidates are. And how will I know who the other candidates are if the only political name I hear in the news is Trump, Trump, Trump?

This is his goal by fear mongering, by making wild claims, by threatening our neighbors with extreme measures. If he can’t get his poll ratings to where they need to be, he’ll just ensure that no one else’s will get there either, by keeping any of their achievements in the shadow of his paddle less boat-maneuvering.

Well, he can stay up that creek. As far as I’m concerned, he won’t be in office come Inauguration Day, 2021. But this can only come to fruition if there is active voter participation, especially among younger voters like me and, quite likely, you. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, so it might just be more of the same. And yes, I understand the irony of my writing an entire article about Donald Trump while criticizing the amount of attention he gets. But if you take away anything from this, make it these two things: windmills do not cause cancer, and your vote matters.