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

Re:Probably not gonna be significant...

[benjamindees]

*sigh*

Instead of modding you into oblivion, I'll take this opportunity to point out the alternatives to wind energy and why whatever miniscule effect on climate windmills may have doesn't matter.

1) Nuclear energy -- this takes energy currently bound in nuclear forces and converts it into heat. Global Net -> more heat

2) Fossil fuels (oil, natural gas) -- this takes energy currently bound in chemical forces and converts it into heat. It also creates CO2 which may magnify the greenhouse effect and cause the atmosphere to trap more of the sun's rays. Global Net -> much more heat

3) Solar/Wind energy -- these take energy contained in the atmosphere and from solar radiation and converts it to usable forms of heat. Global Net -> same amount of heat

Do you understand the difference yet, or are you still going to argue the minutia?