A few months ago, I received a call from a reporter at the Christian Science Monitor, whod been referred to me, he said, because of my experience in Mexico, and because Ive been working, with Global Justice Ecology Project, on exposing the problems that can accompany apparently green development specifically REDD, the Clean Development Mechanism, Biofuels, and carbon trading. The reporter was researching an article on wind farms on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Hed heard rumors, he told me, that there was a downside to these wind farms, but he hadnt yet gotten hold of anyone who could clearly explain why in the world aside from the standard concerns of bird-deaths and noise pollution anyone would oppose wind power.

The Wind Blows at Home, Part 3
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I told him Id heard of the Oaxaca project, and was aware there were big issues, and I referred him to some sources in Mexico, including Wendy Call, whose terrific book on Tehuantepec, No Word for Welcome, I recently reviewed for Orion Magazine.

I said I had no personal connection to the Tehuantepec wind project but I would hazard a guess that the issue was this: who gets the electricity, and who pays the social costs? Do the local farmers and fishers want enormous turbines installed on their ancestral lands? What happens when big, moneyed interests colonize an area where the culture has been relatively intact for centuries?

Kiba - 51 - To Where the Wind Blows
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As we spoke, I went online to search who would own the electricity from the wind farms, and what I found essentially answers all of these questions: the biggest shares of investment in the project, and the biggest shares of energy coming out of it, belong to Walmart and Coca-Cola. From a point of view that questions the need, at this stage in the deepening climate crisis, for more crap plastic products and more hyped-up sugar water, that says it all.

The CSM reporter, Erik Vance, did find what he was looking for, and has just produced several in-depth articles on the wind rush, including the very illuminating and well-considered article one we cross-post below. Jeff Conant, for Global Justice Ecology Project

By Erik Vance,Correspondent

January 26, 2012 – The Isthmus of Tehuantapec, Mexico's narrowest point, is a powerful wind tunnel of air currents whipping through the mountains that separate the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Here, on the Pacific side, the wind shapes everything from the miles-long sandspits of Laguna Superior to the landscapes of the indigenous people's hearts.

Howling constantly through thatched roofs, the wind is powerful enough at times to support a grown man leaning back as if in a chair. Gales average 19 miles per hour, slapping waves over the bows of fishing skiffs and sandblasting anyone standing on the beach.

The wind is "sacred" in this village, says indigenous Huave fisherman Donaciano Victoria. "We believe that the wind from the north is like a man and the wind from the south is like a woman. And so you must not disrespect the wind."

To read the rest of the article, go to The Christian Science Monitor.