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It didna tae lang fur Biden to rejoin da Paris Climate Agreement https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55732386 Dat's excellent news in my opinion

I believe my facts ta be accurate, but if anybody can prove otherwise, I'm willing to accept I may be wrong. VE has now been through so many hands and incarnations in its twenty year journey, its difficult to keep up, and especially as its descended behind a wall of corporate spin and hyperbole in recent years, facts have become increasingly hard to locate. I have spent very little time in the Facebook groups, I said all I wanted to say on this thread and elsewhere a long time ago, long before the Facebook groups were even started. They hold very little interest to me, as everything I saw in them was preaching to the converted, and there was a sense at times that they were struggling to keep up with the game and trying to bolt a stable door from which the horse was already gone. The profit from VE will go to the suppliers of the hardware, they're all outwith Shetland, the owners, who are in effect SSE, a non Shetland company, and the contractors who construct it, the main players of whom are non-Shetland companies. Landowners will profit, but thats only in the low single figures who are Shetland residents, grazings rights holders will get something, what, nobody knows, as thats never been divulged AFAIK, but I'd doubt the p.a. payment per ha. is likely to be able to cover a family meal at Busta. A few local outfits will get smaller contracts and sub contracts within the overall works, but thats temporary and short term. At the end of it all it'll just be seen as another job, a pay packet for a few months, no big deal either way. The Community Benefit Fund appears to be 'guaranteed' a few 100 k, but its all going to be spent via Community Councils only, so time will tell whether it goes to something needed/useful or vanity projects and follies. After that, who knows, maybe the CBF will get a whole pile more dosh every year, maybe they won't......it all depends on what SSE can sell on the other end of their wire. SAT may get something in return for their now small shareholding, or they may not. Again it depends on what SSE sells out that wire. The Burradale crew may, or may not get a few quid, *if* they still have their now miniscule share in it, but that again is only a handful of individuals. Meanwhile, the rest of us, 22,000+ have to put up with the carry on of a several year construction phase followed by decades of an eyesore covering half of Shetland, while at the same time knowing that every time VE production is closed down due to over-provision of windfarm electric in the grid, we're all paying for the subsidy they're receiving via our horrendous electric bills. So, no. I don't see and never have seen what the 'positive' side of VE is. Feeding in to the local netword from windmills was one thing, even though we still paid the same price for electric regardless whether Burradale was producing flat out, or everything was coming from diesel. But when you're building a windfarm to feed in to the UK grid, where windfarms are already being paid not to produce from time to time, the investor(s) are relying as much on the value of subsidy during such enforced shutdowns to make the project profitable as they are relying on the price they get for what they do manage to sell out of it.

A wise man one told me he landed a muckle troot and den watched in fascination as folk rushed tae the sem loch and thrashed the water tae a foam. What I canna understand, he said, is why folk go mad trying tae catch a troot dats already been caught. Yes, folk should keep an eye on da wye VE is byggit now, but it canna be stopped. Looking ahead tae Mossy Hill, and the Yell eens is what may be still worth fighting. Then, if they canna be stopped, what will be the community benefit from them?

The gas plant comparison is very valid, and really highlights the emotive nature of the windfarm issue. The entire gas plant project was developed, proposed and constructed in a fraction of the time of what is now the Viking Energy Windfarm. Caused extensive disruption to peat and of course produces fossil fuels with all the negatives that brings. However, not a pleep in objection. Partly because if wasn't the "cool thing to object to" on social media, but also because the majority of people who are aware of them, myself included, are willing to balance the benefits both locally and in the bigger picture, with the damage and pollution they cause, knowing better options will come along sooner rather than later. I'm going to offer a very personal view now. I was born in the early 70's. I had no say in Sullom Voe Oil Terminal, though I do know there were councilors for an against at the time, and they were voted for accordingly. I totally understand the huge economic positives the oil industry has brought to Shetland. From roads and leisure, to the care services and beyond. Mismanagement and controversy aside, these funds have played a massive part in Shetland being what it is today, and still do. But they came, and come, at a price. As a young man, I had to clean up the dead oily birds from the shore. We had to wear shoes on a summer day at the beach because of tar balls. Even tonight, I look out at the bonny clear sky to the north, as the view south is dominated by the glow of the flare stack (and I live in Yell, for those who don't know). But no matter where we live. We all need power. Flowing through the power lines that claim the lives of many birds every year held up by ugly "hydro poles" all ower the islands. (Imagine that project starting now) So, thought all the local elections and public consultations, I fully supported the cleaner option, and as it developed from when the Susetter windmill went up in the 80's (my personal memory of the potential), voting for "The Windfarm" was the way I went. Now, at last, after all these decades of hope, I can finally see a sustainable future for Shetland that wir bairns can be proud of. And maybe I will be able to go on the back porch in a few years and see the stars in the southern hemisphere clearly fae hom for the first time. Already I know of at least one young Shetland family of four who have moved back home because of the work and promise from the windfarm. I posted this opinion, because that's what it is, my opinion, on social media a few weeks ago. It is staggering how many abusive private messages I got before I took it down. Ranging from calling me a liar to just straight up abuse. No fine, but I keen (hope) they're just caught up in mob mentality.

Interestin! https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19020448.scotlands-richest-man-mount-legal-challenge-spaceport/ Mr Povlsen objected to the development on environmental grounds and later announced he had invested more than £1.4 million in a rival spaceport in Shetland. Dat's an expensive wye tae tak on da planning department