Will Wind Power Change Earth's Climate?

lommer writes "The Globe and Mail is currently running an article on a recent wind power study. A group of Canadian and American scientists has modelled the effects of introducing massive amounts of wind farms into North America and have come up with surprising results. While still having only 1/5th the impact of fossil fuels, wind power will still adjust the earth's climate with the equatorial regions warmed while the arctic grows colder. Could this be a boon for the nuclear lobby, or is this just further evidence for a diversified power-generating system?"

Comments

Wouldn't that be a good thing?

[AyeFly]

From what I understand of Global Warming, the arctic getting warmer is a problem. According to the article these non-polluting wind farms would make the arctic colder...Bonus!

Having stood next to one of these things

[darnok]

...I was amazed by:
- how big it was (huge!)
- how noisy it was (I sort of thought it'd be silent; not sure why...)
- how still the air was immediately below it, even though the windmill itself was turning at a moderate rate

Quite an amazing piece of gear; if you ever get the chance to get up close to one, take it.

Re:Finally!

[Chris Burke]

What I want to know is how an equivalent amount of trees planted -- say, equivalent to the number we've cut down -- would affect the heat transfer from south to north. My (highly scientifically accurate, I assure you) gut suggests 'large-scale' wind farms might just offset what wind-breaking terrain we've already removed.