What Happens When the Wind Doesn’t Blow?

Energy poverty is quite literally destroying culture in Great Britain, and it’s a fate that all societies pursuing a Net Zero agenda face. 

Among the reasons why this is so is that wind power blows. 

Climate madness on stage:

A Handel opera canceled because its single wind turbine generated no power in still weather

Prior to cancellation? SIX blackouts through performance, each causing a 15-min restart delay

And back-up generators couldn’t cope

Oh, bright green future… pic.twitter.com/nIxTNTO6hj

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) July 4, 2025

Perhaps, given that this concert was to feature Handel’s music, the Opera House should have chosen to be powered by a water wheel instead of a windmill, but perhaps they usually feature more wind instruments. 

Bjorn Lomborg pointed me to this story from July, which I missed somehow. 

Power cuts compelled Glyndebourne to abandon a performance as the opera house’s wind turbine offered little back-up in the still summer air.

The production of Handel’s Saul on Saturday was plagued by power outages before organisers pulled the plug on the whole show.

Organisers said the production had been hit by six blackouts while the audience was present, each requiring a 15-minute pause to restart the stage technology.

A spokesman for Glyndebourne told The Telegraph: “Three of the power cuts happened during the long interval, which meant we were able to minimise the impact. However, the continued instability of power after the interval made it impractical to continue.

“Our teams, on and off stage, are working at their peak. Repeated stops and restarts become untenable and even unsafe, and compromise the performance we are able to deliver.”

The performance of Saul was abandoned minutes before the final curtain.

What could be more symbolic than one of the fathers of Western orchestral music being silenced by the fanatics who are creating the coming dystopian Net Zero society? It is sort of a bookending of modern society–the birth and death of industrial society all in one metaphor. 

“As we left, I gazed up at Glyndebourne’s solitary but enormous wind turbine, magnificently motionless in the still and balmy evening air,” an attendee told Slipped Disc, a classical music publication.

Glyndebourne was dependent on electricity from the grid at the time, as its turbine was not meeting the needs of demand and its short-term back-up generators were unable to cope with the length of the disruption.

The spokesman said: “Glyndebourne’s wind turbine generates electricity equivalent to almost 100 per cent of our annual usage. While in the windier winter months it generates an excess to our needs, daily supply does not meet demand at the height of summer.

“We aspire to be energy self-sufficient in the future and are already reviewing the investments and infrastructure needed to make this possible. This is now a heightened priority. We are now working to increase our resilience in this area.”

You might think that an institution dedicated to preserving and sharing our cultural heritage would focus on…preserving and sharing our cultural heritage. But, no… It is much more important for Glyndebourne to pretend to save the Earth. The fact that Great Britain contributes negligible amounts of CO2 to our atmosphere, and that a tiny fraction of China’s increase in CO2 emissions wipes out any net gains from British reduction, matters not at all. 

It is about symbolism, not substance. 

Except that the symbolism they have created is not what they want to present. Rather than celebrating Mother Earth, they are merely proving that an obsession with meaningless virtue signaling ruins good things and does nothing good. 

The UK is deindustrializing, as is all of Europe. And yet all their efforts mean nothing in reality, even if you are a climate alarmist. 

China’s CO2 emissions are skyrocketing and are about the same as North America and Europe combined#ClimateScamhttps://t.co/RWbs7uPb2Z https://t.co/AcAlqWCWNb pic.twitter.com/7JpbFq9Ebs

— Tony Heller (@TonyClimate) February 25, 2024

Ironically, a good chunk of China’s increase in CO2 emissions comes from Western countries exporting their manufacturing to China–meaning that they really haven’t reduced their real production of CO2, but transferred it offshore to China and other countries. Europeans are paying enormous costs in terms of lost jobs, higher prices, lower standards of living–and sending manufacturing to countries that are less efficient at producing things. 

This reminds me of a phenomenon that I saw when Net Zero was getting going in Europe. Cement producers moved from European countries to North Africa because cement production is high-CO2. The amount of cement consumed didn’t go down, but the accounting for CO2 emissions made it look like Europe was emitting less. That’s because they exported the emissions across the Mediterranean. As if the emissions taking place there were any different than those happening in France or Italy. 

The CO2 emissions from cement production were combined with those from transportation, and Europeans likely produced the cement more efficiently. They made things worse, except on the books. 

This is all insanity, of course, but when did that stop anybody who wants to virtue signal? The fact that life is being made worse may even be a bonus–you are proving your commitment, I suppose. 

Or, maybe not. The fact that this happened at an event enjoyed by the elite may mean that, in this one case, something good may come out of it. 

If it happened at a darts or bowling match, not so much. 

Help us continue to report on President Trump’s successes. Join Hot Air VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.