It’s official: Brits <3 wind power

May 18, 2018

Would you be surprised to hear that the vast majority of Brits support onshore wind? New government figures show 76% of us love it. Only 7% oppose it.

Dig deeper into those numbers and you find something worrying, but probably not surprising. This small group people who strongly oppose onshore wind are more than twice as likely not to believe in manmade climate change, compared to the rest of the population.

Excuses, excuses

In 2015 the government introduced rules that have basically stopped anyone building new onshore wind turbines in England. The reason they gave for this was that people are ‘fed up’ with wind turbines.

But there’s a problem with that excuse. It’s just not true. The government’s own data shows that over three quarters of people support or strongly support onshore wind. Just 5% oppose and 2% strongly oppose.

So their policy is really only there to please a tiny group of people.

The climate-sceptics

New analysis shows that those who strongly oppose onshore wind are 2.5 times more likely than the general population to believe climate change doesn’t exist, or is mainly a natural phenomenon. Virtually all scientists - who study this stuff day in day out - agree climate change is being caused by human activity.

Basically, the less you believe in manmade climate change, the higher the chance that you won’t like onshore wind.

The government is basing their renewable energy policy on the opinion of people who don’t think we need renewable energy!

The older folk

That’s not all. Older people are also more likely to dislike onshore wind. In fact, over 65s are seven times more likely to oppose onshore wind than under 45s! Seven times!

Having said that, more over 65s support onshore wind than oppose it. The data shows a small number of people don’t like onshore wind - and that’s fine, but they’re in a minority. It’s normal to like onshore wind.

The big picture

We’re already seeing the impacts of climate change around the world. We need clean energy like onshore wind to tackle it, and power a cleaner, brighter future. So if you like a good wind turbine, show it! Sign our petition, talk about it with your friends or support turbines in your area. Three quarters of Brits are on your side.

This blog post was written by our climate activist pals over at 10:10.