The planet Earth is getting warmer. The excessive amount of greenhouse gases factories, power plants and automobiles billow into the air is really starting to catch up with us.

Acid rain pours down onto too many cities, another one of man’s wonderful, inadvertent creations.

Smog is so dense that the eyes sting and throat aches as people walk down the street – so dense that some cities have to advise their residents to stay inside or wear some type of respiratory protection.

Renewable energy sources need to be utilized to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, not solely because of the positive effects on the environment. Using renewables can save money (for those looking at the bottom line) and reduce our dependence on foreign nations for fossil fuels.

A number of different methods are utilizing renewable energy sources throughout the country. Some of them may even be in your own backyard – or cornfield. In some cases, they are clustered together, dozens visible against the skyline. Others stand alone, blades incessantly spinning against a sunlit horizon. Throughout Iowa, communities, energy corporations and individuals alike have taken a step in the right direction by installing wind turbines.

By harnessing the natural energy found in wind, turbines are an efficient way of providing Iowans with the energy they need. Other than their drab gray color, turbines seem to offer a plethora of positives. No need to use the ever-dwindling natural resources, unlike most Iowa power stations. No harmful emissions to contribute to smog or to help sprinkle the golden stalks of corn with acid rain.

While there are fairly significant initial costs, the turbines are more economically efficient in the long run. And it’s not as if they take up a lot of space. Many are located in the middle of cornfields, the base of the turbine only needing a small plot of land no larger than the space needed by the cellular towers you now find on many farms. Granted, windmills will not completely eliminate the need for fossil fuels, but the only foreseeable drawback is the occasional death of an innocent bird.

Iowans have already begun using the wind’s energy to their advantage. In fact, there are about 350 turbines located in Iowa at this moment. According to a federal study, Iowa is the number three state in the nation for wind power, despite having the 10th best wind energy potential of U.S. states.

Yet, there are so many prime locations where these turbines could be located. As you may have noticed, Iowa is quite flat.

In the winter, snowdrifts have the highest elevation in 72 of our 99 counties. With every additional windmill dotting the landscape, all of Iowa benefits. California has realized the potential of windmills. Despite getting a fairly low rating in the wind potential department, Cali is the number one state for wind power. Translation: They have erected a large number of turbines.

It’s unfortunate that more states are following this path.

While some states are not especially suited for the turbines (they have mountains and other such natural features), others are simply populated by citizens with seemingly misplaced priorities. In upstate New York, for example, landowners are protesting the construction of a wind farm (an area where a large amount of windmills are in a condensed space) because they feel it will wreck their pristine view. Even though they cannot see far through the smog, we wouldn’t want any turbines wrecking their view.

Unless one of the turbines is going to be located directly outside your kitchen, so the blade passes in front of the window, blocking out the sun and causing a pattern of light-dark-light-dark that will drive you completely insane, then allow a good thing to happen.

Wind turbines will help them more than it will hurt them.

Iowans have the right idea. There’s a better way to produce the energy we need.

Just look at the trees swaying in the breeze.

Dustin

Kass

is a junior in journalism

and mass communication from Dubuque.