The proposal to build a wind farm comprising sixteen 100-metre-high turbines on land in the parishes of Boxworth and Conington has excited a variety of reactions among the residents of the nearby villages.
Some shrug their shoulders and say, 'I don't see that this has anything to do with me.' Others have become quite passionate in their support for or opposition to the proposal. The question I would want to ask is, Where does God stand on this issue?
Ten years ago, I wrote in this magazine that Christian interest in the affairs of the world focussed in three areas which could be remembered with the aid of the initial letters, J, P, I and C.
J stands for Justice. From Old Testament times it has always been clear that God has a passion for justice - particularly Justice for the Poor - those who are otherwise unable to speak for themselves.
In the present circumstances some fear that the concerns of a local minority will be overridden by the will of a national majority.
P stands for Peace. Peace is what comes about in relationships where everyone feels equally valued, where nobody feels cheated, or that their views have been disregarded.
Already the wind farm proposal has been divisive, both within our own communities and on a wider scale.
I and C stand for our responsibility for the Integrity of Creation. The Christian understanding is that God has entrusted the world that he has called into being into the care of its human inhabitants. This means that we all have a responsibility for the world around us - to maintain its Integrity and ensure its sustainability into the future so that we can hand it on viable and vibrant to succeeding generations..
We call this responsibility our Stewardship of the Creation. A distinction is often drawn between the 'good stewardship' and the 'reckless exploitation' of our natural environment. Though the reality is perhaps rather that the one extreme merges imperceptibly into the other.
And when considering the question of the proposed wind farm, this area is perhaps the most controversial of all.
At the root of the controversy is our use of energy. Virtually all the energy we use on earth comes originally from the sun. For the last 150 years we have increasingly exploited the solar energy that has been stored over millennia in coal and oil and natural gas.
But an awareness has grown in recent years that releasing the energy thus stored inevitably causes a measure of damage to the natural environment. We see increasing evidence of this particularly as we observe the changing of the climate. Is this a sign of responsible stewardship of the Creation?
One prudent response, of course, would simply be to use less energy. But the reality is that it is going to be difficult to persuade the whole world to be frugal when the western world has been so profligate in our use of energy over so many decades.
The plain fact is that we can't live a modern lifestyle without using large amounts of energy. So, if not from coal, oil and gas, where is this energy to come from? Are there any 'clean' sources of energy that will not damage the Integrity of the Creation?
Wind and wave power have been held up as examples of pollution-free sources of energy. Of these, only wind power is up and running in practical terms at the present. And so why not harvest the wind as we do the land? Surely, it should be our civic duty to host a wind farm in our area, whatever the alleged costs in terms of noise pollution or destruction of the local environment. We might have to accept some reduction in our local amenity for the greater good of the region or nation.
This is a moral question. But it is also a technical question. Because there is an issue as to just how 'clean and green' current wind-turbine technology really is. And the answer you come out with seems to be a matter of how many and varied factors you take into account in calculating the energy costs and benefits.
In the longer term, it seems to me that obtaining energy from controlled nuclear fusion is the best bet for finding a responsible source of energy. But fusion experiments have been going on now for 30 or 40 years without any sign of a breakthrough into practical energy generation.
In the medium term, it seems likely that, rightly or wrongly, wisely or unwisely, the country will embark upon a new round of building facilities for obtaining energy from nuclear fission - traditional nuclear power stations. Whatever the energy costs of setting up such plants and the eventual costs of nuclear waste disposal and plant decommissioning, it is said that nuclear power is the only available technology that can offer the promise of plentiful supplies of energy.
So the question arises, what are small onshore wind farms such as is proposed for Boxworth/Conington really for? The contribution they will make to national energy supplies will be marginal when set beside the contribution of a revitalised nuclear industry. Could it be that their very public presence alongside a much-travelled highway is largely symbolic?
So where does God stand on this issue? I don't know. We can only offer the issues and our responses to them to him in prayer. There are so many questions to be asked about what we do as individuals, as communities, as a nation - and about what motivates us in our actions. But I do fear the creeping industrialisation and urbanisation of our landscape. And on balance I incline to the view that the construction of the Cambridge Wind Farm as presently proposed is neither necessary to the nation nor desirable in this locality.
John-David Yule