Board of Regents Approves Wind Turbines-EDITED

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Article in the North Texas Daily
Friday November 12, 2010
written by Isaac Wright

WIND POWER = HAPPINESS

In our society, the way that we think about having control over nature, as discussed in the Merchant reading, is always represented in a bad way. The reading discusses nature being a "motherly" figure that we take advantage of and treat badly. But there are a great deal of ways that society as a whole can take control of the nature that surrounds us and help to preserve it for the future. We have great technology (that most believe can be the demise of nature) that we can use in order to, in a way, shape nature to help us; as well as also helping itself to survive and persevere. We can use technology to help save the nature and create better living conditions for ourselves. Control and power do not always bad or harmful things; there are ways to use them to make things better for our beautiful mother nature.

In a way to cut energy usage in out new UNT football stadium, UNT has proposed and had approved a plan for installing three new wind turbines near the stadium that will provide much of the energy needed to power it. In my opinion, this is a great idea and very much needed. Since the start of the construction, I have been very against the idea of destroying a great deal of nature and land in order to build a new multi-million dollar stadium for the purpose of luring better football players to our school. But the addition of wind turbines to aid in powering the stadium makes the idea a little bit more comforting. Though these three turbines are not able to provide all of the energy that the stadium will require, it is certainly a good start (and absolutely better than nothing). I feel that the best part of this whole proposition is that this idea was solely brought about by the students here at UNT. The students felt strongly about the new stadium and this proposition and have pushed for change and improvement. This shows that we all, as students, can truly make a difference in this University as well as have a slight impact on the world, but it does require people to step up and speak out against what others are doing.

I believe that UNT is taking a great step away from coal power and is perhaps leading the way in making changes for a better future.


http://www.wfaa.com/news/turbines-108251249.html



The Merchant reading describes a point where mother nature and all its glory was compared not to a living organism, but to a machine, "dead, inert, and insensitive to human action." This is much like a mechanistic worldview. In Francis Bacon's eyes, nature harbors secrets about technology that can be used for improvement of human condition. Nature can help us to improve our technology, to in the end, improve life for humans. This represents nature in a way that its purpose is to be used at the humans expense. In actuality, a machine is nothing compared to nature. Nature is so complex and giving, it can do many things and has an abundance to offer all living organisms. Nature is universal. It affects everyone, and the idea of humanism is destroying it.
While reading Radical Ecology Science and Worldviews, one quote particularly stood out to me. "Because the needs and purposes of society as a whole were changing with the commercial revolution, the values associated with the organic view of nature were no longer applicable" (pg. 44, Merchant). All of the technological and cultural advances within society have caused a giant commercial tsunami to sweep over an organic nation, much like Katrina did to New Orleans, destroying much of what it is known for. This commercial tsunami swept over us destroying the many views, ideas and values of nature making it to where they are no longer able to be fully applied in our society.

With UNT bringing this new stadium into this BEAUTIFUL Denton environment, and destroying alot of nature and land along the way, the idea of something being put in place concerning the preservation and conservation of nature makes the thought much more bearable to me. Thinking of nature as an organism rather than a machine to provide for us has helped UNT to propose a plan for wind turbines to help power the large new stadium. Though at first glance it may seem as though we are using nature to benefit humans, in the long run it is actually to benefit nature as well. This is a great example of humans working alongside nature "hand in hand" to each better each other. :)

-Allison Williams