Wind Watch: Turbines on Maine's mountains are just plain wrong

Roxbury voters are at a fork in the road. They can ignore the loophole-filled promises of free electricity and property tax savings and vote to keep the ridges free from gigantic arm-waving machines, or they can cave in to the lure of easy money and sell Roxbury’s soul to the industrial wind “farmers.”

But let’s not fool ourselves that the sacrifice of Roxbury’s scenic vistas is justified to curb global warming, or to replace fossil fuel-burning power plants, or reduce dependence on foreign oil, because none of these things will happen. But don’t take my word for it.

Farms die for Rudd's trees | The Australian

CATTLE farmer Neil Graham can see the landscape changing around him as his neighbours sell their properties for plantations, unable to compete against the Rudd Government's generous tax concessions for forestry companies.

The passing of legislation by the Government last year to provide tax concessions to spur the planting of carbon-sink forests has created disquiet in many farming communities, including around Mr Graham's picturesque cattle property at Dairy Plains in the Meander Valley of northern Tasmania.

It has also forged unusual political alliances, with the Greens and Nationals combining to condemn the climate change initiatives.

"I'm angry," Mr Graham said. "We're seeing rural communities lost, schools and services closed down.

"The Government has tunnel vision: they think planting trees will solve everything. Both farms and native vegetation are being replaced by plantations, all driven by federally funded tax schemes. It's wrong."

With the Rudd Government proposing the conversion of 34 million hectares of Australian land into plantations as part of its climate change strategy -- more than the 28 million hectares currently farmed -- leading voices predict that dozens, if not hundreds, of rural communities will disappear.

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said the legislation would turn prime agricultural land into forests, and was insane.

"We're taking out the capacity of Australia to feed itself or to export food products," he said.