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Green against Green: Energy Sprawl

Nikolaus raises an interesting issue. Large infrastructure is highly visible in the best of circumstances. 

Of recent local concern among those of us who navigate off Cape Ann, Marblehead and Salem in Massachusetts is the disappearance of the giant smoke stacks at the Salem power plant. These towers could be seen halfway back from Provincetown across Massachusetts Bay. It's difficult to find anyone of us who hasn't navigated by way of them especially at night with their aircraft warning beacons. Their absence has caused rethinking on many levels and of course has made a huge aesthetic impact on the surroundings.

A coincidental juxtaposition 15 miles further north is the 3 wind towers recently built in Gloucester. Yes we conveniently bought into the mitigation of locating them in the city's largest industrial park but the fact that the industrial park is located on top of one of the city's tallest hills did not get much play, Years later we are now able to approach the towers looming above a traffic circle on route 128 without feeling a bit of vertigo and the regional discussion of same has quieted down to just the seasonal tourists who may have been away for a few years. Their presence above the harbor however has eclipsed the positive impacts of  our new multistory harbor front luxury hotel on Monument Beach at the site of the original Birdseye Plant, once the shining star of our "working waterfront." Quaint verses high tech in a transitioning historic setting makes Gloucester a fascinating classroom full of topical lessons on this subject.

I hope this anecdotal assessment of our situation points to the many and varied ramifications of our constructive activities. The rush to modernization requires serious farsighted consideration of factors peripheral to functional necessity. If only our visionaries were more clairvoyant!