The Darmstadt Manifesto

 

The original document signed by more than 60 German academics in 1998

 

Initiative GroupDarmstadt ManifestoPress ReleaseDated 1 September 1998At the press conference which took place today at the Bruningstrasse Press Club in Bonnthe Initiative Group presented the Darmstadt Manifesto on the Exploitation of Windenergy in Germany.The manifesto, which has to date been signed by more than 60 college/university

lecturers and writers*, demands the withdrawal of all direct and indirect subsidies in order

to put a stop to the exploitation of wind energy.(It claims that) the exploitation of wind energy promotes the type of technology which isof no significance whatever for the purpose of supplying energy, saving resources andprotecting the climate. The money could be put to far more effective use in increasing theefficiency of power stations, in ensuring effective energy consumption and in fundingscientific research into fundamental principles in the field of energy.Many citizens, both male and female, are greatly concerned to see the progressivedestruction caused by the ever increasing number of wind 'farms'. This destruction affectsboth the countryside and our towns and villages with their surrounding areas whosecharacteristic appearance reflects their development throughout the history of civilisation.The Darmstadt Manifesto is directed in particular at politicians, those concerned with ourcultural well-being, environmental organisations and the media.*Note that many more than 100 university lecturers have since signed up to thisManifestoDarmstadt Manifesto on the Exploitation of Wind Energy in Germany.Our country is on the point of losing a precious asset. The expansion of the industrialexploitation of wind energy has developed such a driving force in just a few years thatthere is now great cause for concern. A type of technology is being promoted before itseffectiveness and its consequences have been properly assessed. The industrialtransformation of cultural landscapes which have evolved over centuries and even ofwhole regions is being allowed. Ecologically and economically useless wind generators,some of which stand as high as 120 metres and can be seen from many kilometres away,are not only destroying the characteristic landscape of our most valuable countryside andholiday areas, but are also having an equally radical alienating effect on the historicalappearance of our towns and villages which until recently had churches, palaces andcastles as their outstanding features to give them character in a densely populatedlandscape. More and more people are subjected to living unbearably close to machines ofoppressive dimensions. Young people are growing up into a world in which naturallandscapes are breaking up into tragic remnants. The oil crisis in the 1970s madeeveryone very aware of the extent to which industrial societies are dependent on aguaranteed supply of energy. For the first time the general public became aware of thefact that the earth's fossil fuel resources are limited and could be exhausted in the not toodistant future if they continue to be consumed without restraint. In addition came therecognition of the damage which was being caused to the environment by the productionand consumption of energy. The loss of trees due to pollution, the Chernobyl nuclearreactor accident, the legacy of the ever accumulating pile of nuclear waste, the risks of aclimatic catastrophe as a consequence of carbon dioxide emissions have all establishedthemselves in the public consciousness as examples of the growing potential threat.The real problem of population growth and above all the resultant phenomenon ofescalating land use and consumption of drinking water supplies is however being pushedaside and being considered instead as a marginal phenomenon. With few exceptions it isnot be subject of any political action. On the contrary, the public interest is becomingeven more limited, focusing less on energy consumption as a whole and concentrating itsfears and criticisms predominantly on the generation of electricity. Admittedly nuclearrisks do doubtless exist here. However electrical energy plays more of a minor role in thebalance sheet of energy sources. In Germany three quarters of the energy consumedconsists of oil and gas. But is precisely these energy sources whose resources will beexhausted the soonest. If it were really a question of concern for future generations thenimmediate, decisive action to protect supplies of oil and natural gas would be imperative.Instead petrol consumption continues unchanged, and the idea that we are leavingnothing for our great grandchildren is dispelled with the vague presumption that therewill one day be substitutes for fossil fuels. On the other hand hard coal and brown coal,which are the main primary sources of electrical energy, are available in such abundanceworld-wide, and in many cases in deposits which are as yet unexploited, that electricityproduction is guaranteed, even with growing-consumption, for centuries, possibly evenfor a period of over a thousand years. With regard to the exhaustion of energy sources forfossil fuels the development of electricity production using wind bypasses the problem.Although Germany has taken the lead in the expansion of wind energy use, it has notbeen possible to date to replace one single nuclear or coal-fired power station. Even ifGermany continues to push ahead with expansion it will still not be possible in the future.The electricity produced by wind power is not constant because it is dependent onmeteorological conditions, but electricity supplies need to be in line with consumption atall times. For this reason wind energy cannot be used to any significant degree as asubstitute for conventional power station capacities.Insufficient attention is also being paid to pollutant levels. Whereas until a few years agoit was chiefly the coal-fired power stations' sulphur dioxide emissions due to poorfiltering which caused problems, it is now mainly road traffic which is polluting theforests' ecosystems with nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide. Added to which theeffectiveness of power stations is improving with technological progress and as a resultthe level of pollutants given off per unit of energy is decreasing. The latter is also true ofcarbon dioxide emissions, with the result that electricity production in Germany is todayresponsible for only a fifth of the greenhouse gases emitted.The energy capacity of wind is comparatively low. Modern wind turbines with a rotorsurface area the size of a football field make only tiny fractions of the energy that isproduced by conventional power stations. So with more than five thousand wind turbinesin Germany less than one per cent of the electricity needed is produced, or only slightlymore than one thousandth of the total energy produced. The pollutant figures are similarfor the same reason. The contribution made by (the use of) wind energy to the avoidanceof greenhouse gases is somewhere between one and two thousandths. Wind energy istherefore of no significance whatever both in the statistics for energy and in those forpollutants and greenhouse gases.At the same time we must take into account the fact that economic growth always bringswith it, to a greater or lesser extent, an increasing energy requirement - despite all theefforts made with technology towards greater efficiency in the transformation andconsumption of energy. This means that because it makes such a small contribution tothe statistics, wind energy is running a race which is already lost in an economic orderorientated towards growth.At present total energy consumption in Germany is growing about seventy times(!) fasterthan the production potential of wind energy.The negative effects of wind energy use are as much underestimated as its contribution tothe statistics is overestimated.Falling property values reflect the perceived deterioration in quality of life - not just inareas close to the turbines, but even all over Schleswig-Holstein. More and more peopleare describing their lives as unbearable when they are directly exposed to the acoustic andoptical effects of wind farms. There are reports of people being signed off sick and unfitfor work, there is a growing number of complaints about symptoms such as pulseirregularities and states of anxiety, which are known from the effects of infrasound(sound of frequencies below the normal audible limit). The animal world is also sufferingat the hands of this technology. On the North Sea and Baltic coasts birds are being drivenaway from their breeding, roosting and feeding grounds. These displacement effects arebeing increasingly observed inland too. From the point of view of the national economythe development of wind energy is far from being the "success story" it is often claimedto be. On the contrary, it puts a strain on the economy as it is still unprofitable with a lowenergy yield on the one hand and high investment costs on the other. And yet, as a resultof the legal framework conditions which have been set, private and public capital is beinginvested on a large scale - capital which is not least unavailable for importantenvironmental protection measures, but also ties up purchasing power. This in turn leadsto job losses in other areas.The only way in which the Investors can realise their exceptionally high returns is bymeans of the level of payment for electricity produced by wind which has beendetermined by law, and which represents several times its actual market value, and bytaxation depreciation.For more than twenty years now German politicians have been under pressure to react tourgent problems concerning the environment and preventative measures, and have beenpromoting a seriously erroneous evaluation of wind energy. This has allowed the use ofwind energy to become established in the view of public opinion as some sort of totalsolution which supposedly makes a decisive contribution towards a clean environmentand a guaranteed supply of energy for the future, and also towards the evasion of aclimatic catastrophe and the avoidance of nuclear dangers. This false picture raises hopesand results in a general acceptance of the use of wind energy which is strengthenedfurther by the fact that people are not expected to make any savings.The negative effects of the wind energy industry in our densely populated country aresuppressed, scientific knowledge is ignored and there is a taboo on criticism. Only a fewpeople are willing to break away from these political and social trends. After fighting fordecades with great commitment for the preservation of our countryside the majority ofthe large organisations for the protection of nature now stand idly by watching itsdestruction.Together with groups of thoughtless operators, a policy orientated towards short termsuccess was able to clear the way in the following manner: as a result of amendments toplanning law and the law on nature conservation, our countryside is almost unprotectedagainst the exploitation of wind energy and is therefore left at the mercy of materialexploitation by capital investment. At the same time the people who are directly exposedto this technology which is hostile to man have to a large extent been deprived of theirconstitutionally guaranteed right to a say in the matter of the shaping of the environmentin which they live.As all efforts to influence those with political responsibilities have been without success,the signatories of this manifesto see no other solution other than to make their concernspublic. In view of the serious harm threatening our countryside, which has evolvedthrough history and which is the foundation of our cultural identity, we appeal for an endand to the expansion of wind power technology which is pointless from both anecological and an economical point of view.In particular we are demanding the withdrawal of all direct and indirect subsidies to thistechnology. Instead public funds should be made available on a larger scale for thedevelopment of more efficient technology and for the kind of research into basicprinciples which is likely to provide real solutions to the problems of producing energy ina way which is environmentally friendly and lasting.We issue an urgent warning against the uncritical promotion of a technology which willin the long term have far reaching adverse effects on the relationship between man andnature. We are particularly concerned about a change of attitude, which is more difficultto perceive as it is evolving slowly and which gives us less and less ability to recognisehow important it is for man to live in an environment which is predominantlycharacterised by nature.

List of SignatoriesProf. Udo ACKERMANN (Design)Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Karl ALEWELL (Economics)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Rudolf ALLMANN (Mineralogy)Prof. Wilhelm ANSER (Electrical Engineering)Prof. Dr. Clemens ARKENSTETTE (Biology, Agricultural Science, Physiology)Dr. Paed. Joachim ARLT (Science of Art, Landscape Aesthetics)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Benno ARTMANN (Mathematics)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eckhard BARTSCH (Geodesy, Landmanagement)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Bruno BENTHIEN (Geography)Dr. jur. Manfred BERNHARDT (District President)Prof. Dr. jur. Dr. jur. h.c. Karl August BETTERMANN (Jurisprudence)Prof. Dr. agr. Dr. agr. h.c. mult. Eduard von BOGUSLAWSKI (Agronomy)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Reinhard BRANDT (Physical Chemistry)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Günter BRAUNSS (Mathematics)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan BRITZ (Mechanical Engineering)Prof. Dr. Dr. phil. Harald BROST (Institute of Colour, Light and Space)Prof. Dr. med. Joachim BRUCH (Industrial Medicine)Günter de BRUYN (Writer)Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. h.c. Hans-Günter BUCHHOLZ (Archeology)Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Karl Heinz CLEMENS (Electrical Engineering)Prof. Dr. phil. Dietrich DENECKE (Geoscience)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dietrich von DENFFER (Botany)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank DÖRRSCHEIDT (Automatic Control, Electrical Engineering)Prof. Dr. Wolfgang DONSBACH (Science of Communication)Prof. Thomas DUTTENHOEFER (Design)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rudolf ENGELHORN (Energy and Thermodynarnic Science)Dr. techn. Hans ERNST (Electrical Engineering, National Economy)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Horst ETTL (Mechanical Engineering)Prof. Dr. Hermann FINK (English Philology, American Philology)Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim FITTING (Physics)Prof. Dr. med. Marianne FRITSCH (Internal Medicine, Rehabilitation)Prof. Hans Jürgen GERHARDT (Electrical Engineering)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Gerhard GERUCH (Physics)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernhard von GERSDORFF (Electrical Engineering)Prof. Ph.D. H. S. Robert GLASER (Biology)Prof. Dr. Gerhard GÖHLER (Political Science)Prof. Dr. theol. Hubertus HALBFAS (Religion)Prof. Dr. Erwin HARTMANN (Physics, Medical Optics)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Jürgen HASSE (Geography)Dr. rer.nat. Günter HAUNGS (Technique of Precision Measurement)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Horst HENNERICI (Mechanical Engineering)Prof. Ulrich HIRT (Mechatronics)Prof. Wolfgang HOFFMANN (Economical Information)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Lothar HOISCHEN (Mathematics)Prof. Dr. med. Dr. rer. nat. Hans HOMPESCH (Hygiene, Micro-Biology, Pathology)Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Rudolf HOPPE (Inorganic Chemistry)Prof. Dr. Peter KÄFERSTEIN (Thermodynarnic Seience, Energy Economics)Prof. Dr. Dipl. Phys. Günther KÄMPF (Physics)Prof. Dr. phil. Thomas KÖVES-ZULAUF (Archeology)Dr. Christoph KONRAD (MdEP - Member of European Parliament)Prof. Erhard Ernst KORKISCH (Area Planning, Landscape Architecture)Prof. Dr. Dietrich KÜHLKE (Physics)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bert KÜPPERS (Electrical Engineering)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Josef LEITENBAUER (Mining Academy)Prof. Dr. phil. Otto LENDLE (Archeology)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Wilfried LEX (Information Science, Logic)Prof. Dr. Horst LINDE (Architecture)Prof. Dr. techn. Wladimir LINZER (Thermodynarnic Science)Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Jörg LORBERTH (Chemistry)Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Horst LOTTERMOSER (Mechanical Engineering)Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Manfred LÖWISCH (Industrial Law)Prof. Uwe MACHENS (Electrical Engineering)Dr. Heike MARCHAND (Physics)Prof. Dr. sc. phys. Dr.-Ing. Herbert F. MATARÉ (Physics, Electronics)Prof. Dr. Krista MERTENS (Science of Rehabilitation)Prof. Dr.-Ing. MOLLENKAMP (Mechanics of Fluids)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Hans MÜLLER von der HAGEN (Chemical Technology)Prof. Dr. jur. Reinhard MUSSGNUG (Jurisprudence)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kurt NIXDORFF (Mathematics)Prof. Werner A. NÖFER (Design)Prof. Dr.rer. nat. Wolfgang NOLTE (Mathematics)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Paul PATZELT (Chemistry)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Siegfried PETER (Technical Chemistry)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Nicolaus PETERS (Zoology)Prof. Dr. Dr. Hans PFLUG (Applied Geosciences)Prof. Dr. Thomas RAMI (Physics)Prof. Dr.med.Ludwig RAUSCH(Human Medicine, Radio Biology,Radiation Protection)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Michael von RENTELN (Mathematics)Dr. phil. Karl Heinrich REXROTH (History)Prof. Dr. Hans Erich RIEDEL (Physics)Prof. Wilhelm RUCKDESCHEL (Mechanical Engineering)Dr. med. Rolf SAMMECK (NeuroAnatomy)Dr. phil. Monika SAMMECK (Psychology)Prof. Dr. Hans SCHNEIDER (Jurisprudence)Prof. Dr. Helmut SCHRÖCKE (Geosciences)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Herbert SCHULZ (Electrical Engineering)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kurt STAGUHN (Art Paedagogy)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus STEINBRÜCK (Mechanical Engineering)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rudolf STEINER (Technical Chemistry)Dr. h.c. Horst STERN (Television Journalist, Ecologist)Botho STRAUSS (Writer)Prof. Dr. rer.nat. Günter STRÜBEL (Geosciences)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred THESENVITZ (Mechanical Engineering)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Josef WEIGL (Botany)Prof. Dr. med. Hans-Jobst WELLENSIEK (Medicine, Micro-Biology)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Herbert WILHELMI (Thermodynarnic Science)Prof. Dr. phil. Walter WIMMEL (Archeology) Gabriele WOHMANN (Writer)Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Jürgen WOLFRUM (Physics)Prof. Dr.-Ing. Otfried WOLFRUM (Geodesy)

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Peter ZAHN (Mathematics