Letters to the editor in The Age

2007-10-21

Blow to humanity

Some of the remedies for global warming may not be as benign as they appear at first sight. Take wind farms. A plethora of wind farms will inevitably lead to a slowing down of the Earth's rotation. This will increase the length of the day and cause more extreme daytime and night-time temperatures, something they are touted to avoid.

John Coupe Sawtell

2007-10-22

OK, it's my turn

John Coupe (Letters, October 20-21), a plethora of wind farms could well lead to a slowing down of the Earth's rotation, but did you realise that if all the jet liners in the air at any one moment were simultaneously to fly due east that would cause the Earth to reverse its rotation and start spinning from east to west, thus making Japan "The land of the setting sun".

Russell Dorey Hornsby Heights

2007-10-22

Nice one, John Coupe. However, the lowering of sea levels due to desalination plants should cancel it out.

Ben Newhouse Strathfield

2007-10-23

Positive spin

I would have thought that a plethora of wind farms would do the opposite to slowing down the Earth's rotation (Letters, October 22)? By acting like giant propellers, they would create forward motion, in fact speeding up the Earth's rotation. This would result in dire consequences such as premature ageing, short bursts of sleep and possibly motion sickness.

Cameron Blunsden Mayfield

2007-10-24

Yin and yang

A simple solution to stop wind farms from either slowing down or speeding up the Earth's rotation (Letters, October 22 and 23) is to have 50 per cent facing east and 50 per cent facing west. While one speeds it up, the other will slow it down, negating any effect on the speed of rotation.