https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/climate/wind-power-missouri.html
"Eric Chamberlain was at work, driving a hearse, when he first caught sight of
the wind turbine that would set him on a path to change the fortunes of his
hometown.
It was the mid-2000s, and Mr. Chamberlain was leading a funeral procession in
Iowa, across the border from his home in Atchison County in northwest Missouri,
when giant white blades came into view. Mr. Chamberlain had heard of wind
energy but not seen a commercial turbine before. He was intrigued, but
obviously couldn’t pull over to take a closer look.
“I didn’t stop,” said Mr. Chamberlain, whose family has operated Chamberlain
Funeral Homes and Monuments since 1968. “I was polite.”
After the funeral, he visited a local newspaper in Iowa to ask people there
about the wind energy project.
Mr. Chamberlain, 70, grew up in Atchison, one of Missouri’s most rural
counties, and over the years watched as waning opportunities and population
decline steadily ate away at the place. Young people didn’t come back after
college. School enrollment fell. Farms got bigger, and fewer farmers meant less
tax revenue. Businesses on Main Street closed and the area went from having two
grocery stores to one.
One thing the county did have was lots of wind, and Mr. Chamberlain thought
that having a few commercial turbines might bring an economic boost. He
contacted the state’s Department of Natural Resources about putting up a wind
monitoring tower on the hilltop of a nearby pasture. The paper,
The Atchison
County Mail, announced this endeavor under the headline, “Chamberlain to Study
Wind,” drawing mirth as well as the attention of a wind power developer from
St. Louis."
Via
Reasons to be Cheerful:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-toronto-suburb-mass-transit/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
