Your correspondent’s work is done. Offshore wind farms cause ocean heating, with localised surface sea temperatures rising by a persistent 0.3°C-0.4°C and interannual variability up to 1°C. This is according to ground-breaking calculations made by a group of American scientists and recently published by Science. Cascading effects rippling through eco-systems not only affect sea and atmospheric temperatures but reshape the upper ocean by destabilising marine food supplies and affecting plankton and larval growth. Disruption of the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool, a key subsurface water mass supporting regional fisheries and ecosystems, can be affected. So no more ghastly inefficient wind turbines then – if similar fears arose about hydrocarbon extraction, the operation would be shut down quicker than you could say Christopher Gary Packham.
