"Stop These Things"

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

Stop These Things (STT) is an anti-wind website promoting anecdotes and pseudoscience intended to cast doubt on the effectiveness of wind energy. The website also promotes claims alleging people living in close proximity to wind turbines suffer assorted detrimental health conditions.

The creator and moderator of the website is unknown and unaccountable yet readily posts any unfounded, ill informed attack, distortion or blatant lie directed at pro-wind individuals or groups.

The STT About Page makes a number of unsubstantiated and demonstrably false claims such as:

• We are appalled by how wind industry supporters dismiss victims, ridicule those who have different opinions and vilify those who are opposed to industrial wind power generation.
• We are appalled by the dishonesty of the wind industry, its supporters and those who operate within it.
• We are disappointed that the many who claim to have been made sick are segregated and dismissed.
• We believe the rampant installation of turbines across this country must be stopped or at least paused until a full examination of the facts is undertaken AND (most importantly) acted upon.

STT complains about vilification and victimisation without providing any evidence yet the site moderator and many supporters consistently engage in vilification of opponents as illustrated by these various posts. The site frequently employs descriptors such as "greentard", "fraud", "wind factories" etc.

The website does not pretend to be objective, it only posts comments and opinions that are opposed to wind energy while it actively blocks any comments that favour wind energy or contradict claims made on the blog. STT does not allow those it criticises to have a right of reply.

STT accuses wind energy proponents of dishonesty yet it engages in exactly that practice by insisting landholders hosting turbines are forced to sign clauses despite evidence to the contrary from numerous industry sources. The site also presents numerous claims that are factually incorrect.

STT promoted its belief there is strong opposition to wind farm developments by publicising an event called the National Wind Power Fraud Rally which was held on June 18, 2013 in Canberra, Australia. Rally flyer.pdf A large number of Conservative politicians and a well-known radio personality were supposed to speak at the rally but just prior to the event, many speakers pulled out for various reasons, leaving just a few speakers to contribute on the day. Only a few hundred people turned up for the event while a pro-wind rally held on the same day at a different location in Canberra had around five times larger.

These and other claims ignore industry support for further independent research which has to date demonstrated no link between wind farms and ill-health but has pointed to a psychosomatic condition dubbed the nocebo effect , and, industry efforts to assist those few individuals who believe wind turbines have affected their health or are too noisy.

To date STT has consistently denied the effectiveness of renewable energy, it promotes opinions from climate change denialists such as Maurice Newman , it frequently mentions and criticises subsidies but fails to mention much larger subsidies provided to the fossil fuel and nuclear industries.

STT promotes belief in a condition called wind turbine syndrome even though the condition is unrecognised by any medical body anywhere in the world. Wind turbine syndromeis the invention of a doctor Nina Pierpont, the condition is also promoted by Sarah Laurie a non-practising GP in Australia and the Waubra Foundation

References

Media:Rally_Flyer.pdf

External links

Simon Chapman, "Wind turbine syndrome: a classic ‘communicated’ disease," "theconversation.com", July 20, 2012