I'm having a real hard time with this

[space otter]

it is  almost 2016..isn't it?  this is a real O M G article

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/solar-farm-suck-up-the-sun_566e9aeee4b0e292150e5d66

Solar Farm Rejected Amid Fears It Will 'Suck Up The Sun's Energy'
Residents were concerned it would stop plants from growing and cause cancer.



Lee Moran
Trends Editor, The Huffington Post ? ?

? 12/14/2015 09:10 am ET | Updated 7 hours ago

A town council in North Carolina rejected plans to rezone land for a solar farm after residents voiced fears it would cause cancer, stop plants from growing and suck up all the energy from the sun.

http://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/2015/12/08/woodland-rejects-solar-farm/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

Two citizens reportedly made the allegations at a Woodland Town Council meeting in Northampton County, northeastern North Carolina, on Wednesday.

Bobby Mann said the farm would "suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland," the Roanoke-Chowan Herald-News reports.

Retired science teacher Jane Mann feared the proposed solar ranch could hinder photosynthesis --
http://www.livescience.com/51720-photosynthesis.html
the process of converting light energy from the sun into chemical energy for fuel -- in the area and stop plants from growing.



She added that no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer.

Other residents feared the effect it would have on the price of their homes.

Councilors were voting on whether to redefine agriculturally designated land off U.S. Highway 258 for manufacturing.

Strata Solar Company representative Brent Niemann told the meeting the only sunlight used would be that which fell on the panels directly. "The panels don't draw additional sunlight," he said.

He told councilors that the farm would have no effect on property prices and promised that no toxic substances would be kept on site.

But Woodland Town Council turned down the proposal, effectively stopping the company from building the planned renewable energy ranch. The council later voted to put a moratorium on future solar farms in the area, the Herald-News reports.

Solar Power World Online ranks North Carolina  fourth in the U.S. for installed solar power capacity, with 161 companies employing 3,100 people in the industry.




......................................

this sounds mean .   but... who do you figure put the stupid juice in their water supply..?

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/12/north-carolina-citizenry-defeat-pernicious-big-solar-plan-to-suck-up-the-sun/
North Carolina citizenry defeat pernicious Big Solar plan to suck up the Sun

Town council votes to deny zoning permit that would allow solar farm development.
by Eric Berger - Dec 13, 2015 7:00pm EST
The citizens of Woodland, N.C. have spoken loud and clear: They don't want none of them highfalutin solar panels in their good town. They scare off the kids. "All the young people are going to move out," warned Bobby Mann, a local resident concerned about the future of his burg. Worse, Mann said, the solar panels would suck up all the energy from the Sun.

Another resident—a retired science teacher, no less—expressed concern that a proposed solar farm would block photosynthesis, and prevent nearby plants from growing. Jane Mann then went on to add that there seemed to have been a lot of cancer deaths in the area, and that no one could tell her solar panels didn't cause cancer. "I want information," Mann said. "Enough is enough."

These comments were reported not in The Onion, but rather by the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald. They came during a Woodland Town Council meeting in which Strata Solar Company sought to rezone an area northeast of the town, off of US Highway 258, to build a solar farm. The council not only rejected the proposal, it went a step further, voting for a complete moratorium on solar farms.


That seemed to please the residents evidently tired of Big Solar's relentless intrusion into their community. One resident, Mary Hobbs, said her home was surrounded by solar farms and has lost its value. That led Ars to the satellite view of Woodland on Google Maps, to see if we could verify the veracity of Hobbs' claims. This publication will not look the other way as Big Solar attempts to railroad the good citizens of small-town America. Alas, when we looked at the satellite view we didn't see any sign of solar farms as we perused the verdant fields and woods of the aptly named Woodland.


We looked for solar panel farms in Woodland, N.C., but didn't find any.

Google Maps


/ Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to wonky NASA policy. Eric has an astronomy degree from the University of Texas and a master's from the University of Missouri. He previously worked at the Houston Chronicle for 17 years, where the paper was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2009 for his coverage of Hurricane Ike. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.
@SciGuySpace on Twitter

..................................

http://www.townofwoodlandnc.com/

[Ellirium113]

LOL...I would have told them "YES" the panels will suck the sun dry and leave a black hole. Only by paying a fee can the sun be allowed to shine on the community. Please make payments out to "COBRA" and drop off cheques at the lair guardhouse.

[space otter]

BHWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2496602,00.asp

NC Solar Fight Shows Why Tech World Can't Reach the Trump Voter

By  Sascha Segan 
December 14, 2015
10 Comments

A much-mocked story about a North Carolina town rejecting solar energy isn't just about anti-science idiots.

[Eighthman]

OK, Once Upon A Time, there was a Highly Liberal Town in upstate NY. They were so eager to do something for climate change and renewable energy so they spent a wad of $ on solar PV panels for their library.  Even though they were home to One Of The Most Prestigious Science Universities on earth, they ignored the fact that it's f**king overcast there a great deal of the year. Hey, it's not Florida!

[zorgon]

Sasha Segan  any relation to Sasha Faal?




Geez I swear the USA is DOOMED   Flat Earthers abound now this

[space otter]

well  I don't know if the sasha's are the same but the article is well written and does give a sound reason why some folks believe him..trump, I mean...they are desperate to hang onto  a dream that has sadly evaporated along with the middle class

i'll even go to the trouble of copying it..cause I know only maybe two will actually go read it..sigh



A highly viral story broke this weekend about a town in North Carolina that seemed to be rejecting solar panels for idiotic, anti-science reasons. That's all happy and comforting for those of us in the tech world who want to believe that only uneducated hicks are standing between us and our sparkling-clean app revolution.
But I don't think that's what's really going on, and techies need to pay attention to the real issue here: in a confusing, destabilized world, Americans are begging for security. A "sharing economy" of wildly fluctuating bitcoins and roaming Airbnb'ers just doesn't cut it.

According to the Roanoke-Chowan News Herald, some of the commenters at Woodland, NC's town meeting were indeed idiots. But you may have missed this bit:

"Mary Hobbs has been living in Woodland for 50 years and said she has watched it slowly becoming a ghost town with no job opportunities for young people. ... She added that the only people profiting are the landowners who sell their land, the solar companies, and the electrical companies. ... The town would not benefit from the solar farms because they are not located within the town limits, but only in the extraterritorial sections."

So, in other words, Strata Solar wants to buy some land and not give a starving town any taxes or, presumably, many jobs.

This is "disruption," and it's ugly. The tech world's transformers of lifestyles, the proponents of the "sharing economy," are promising Americans lifestyles that appeal largely to single, twenty-something San Franciscans.

According to the New York Times, "With the sharing economy, a home-free lifestyle is now becoming accessible to normal people, not just the superrich." But no actual family wants a "home free lifestyle." Families want homes, communities, and roots. Defending itself to the New York government, Airbnb justifies itself by saying the vast majority of its hosts are people essentially taking in boarders to make ends meet. No actual family wants to take in boarders to make ends meet. That's what you do when you can't find a job that supports you.

Uber's flexible hours and contractor-centric business model, meanwhile, promise a healthcare-free and benefits-free lifestyle, which promise a hope-free lifestyle when a driver's kids get sick. Uber claims its drivers are completely independent, but Uber sets their prices, terms, and standards, which has landed the company in a messy class-action lawsuit over whether or not they're actually employees.

How Can Tech Address Trump?
You know who actually is talking about jobs? Donald Trump. He's talking about them in a repulsive, awful, racist way, but he's talking about them. He's going to towns just like Woodland and saying: you think, maybe, if we deport 12 million people, you can have their jobs.

His "solutions," of course, involve shooting America in the nads. I'm using that metaphor very specifically, as he wants to kill the flow of immigrant strivers who have helped this country evolve through each new generation. As many people pointed out last week, Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian immigrant, just one of the many kinds of Americans Trump would want to bar from or kick out of the country. His economic policy, meanwhile, is incoherent. He wants to eliminate corporate income taxes without any replacement way of funding the government, do something unspecified with healthcare, and start trade wars with China and Mexico.

Trump's noxious xenophobia is like a toddler's tantrum, but every parent knows that when your toddler has tantrums, it helps to actually acknowledge what she's angry about. When Donald Trump says "make America great again," he's evoking a world where people (mostly, white people) had jobs, they owned homes, they came home each day to their families, and they went to the doctor without bankrupting themselves. He doesn't have workable solutions, but he's addressing a yearning desire.

Not everyone can code. As the Internet, the "sharing economy," and clean energy transform America, they need to promise the voters of Woodland, NC something more than a "home-free lifestyle" made up of cobbling part-time jobs together and taking in boarders while they scramble to figure out how to pay for health insurance. Otherwise, Trump's false "solutions" will rule.

[Dyna]

Are we sure the teacher was not referring to the land covered by the panels? That area would not be getting any sun. I am hoping, she was teaching kids and all...

I can find no references to solar panels and cancer. The production of the panels could maybe cause cancer with the "exotic materials" involved but I can't see how the power plant could effect anyone's health.

Interesting thing how everyone wants things but not near their home. Like was it Kennedy that said he wanted wind power but they suggested putting them off the coast near his home and he said no way!

To be fair there are papers out there about health effects, I find them laughable myself considering the electronic and radio wave pollution we live in already.

There are studies that suggest that radiation of the type coming from solar electric
systems (some of which have been dubbed "dirty electricity") may have long-term
health effects on healthy people as well, and may cause hyperactivity (ADHD) in
school children.

http://www.eiwellspring.org/solaremfhazard.pdf

It seems the production of the panels is polluting.
http://cleantechnica.com/2009/01/14/danger-solar-panels-can-be-hazardous-to-your-health/

The Pros and Cons
http://energyinformative.org/solar-energy-pros-and-cons/

I wonder why we can't have a reflector in space that sends solar energy to a high tower on earth.

[WhatTheHey]

   Hello, I must say I do hope you are correct in your assumptions Dyna. If not it is a very sad and embarrassing event for said people.  I agree also, very difficult to deal with!