I'll sleep about this and will return with a vengeance tomorrow. Don't fret, I won't be hostile. Just lengthy.

you are the media you consume.

There are two themes I want to highlight in reply to your post. One is cultural, the other has to do with the psychological impact of what you call noise perception, and is more personally shaped.

To begin with the latter, as I briefly commented above, I was 12 when I moved from the farm house in Drenthe, municipality Noordenveld (North-field). Although at the historic "centre" of the village and located beside a farm, I came only to appreciate the silence after moving into the village located some 15 kilometres south of Amsterdam, sandwiched between the A2 highway (at a mile distance to the west) and the busies railway of the country between Amsterdam and Utrecht (at a mile distance to the east, tracks currently being doubled) and right underneath the landing route of the more heavy transport planes bound for Schiphol Airport. It took me at least half a year when trying to fall asleep adjusting to those constant noises and the fact that at eight o'clock in the evening once every ten minutes a car would pass through the street.

When I moved back for a couple of weeks to Drenthe for sleep-overs and such, the silence struck me, it was almost balmy. On a further personal note, only a few years back, I realised that I am even unconsciously seeking for places blessed with silence - those are the actual places where I feel most completely at ease and at comfort with my surroundings. So, from a personal perspective, I'd vehemently argue that those people not exposed to background noise produced by our western society since their childhood days have a perfect argument to complain about noise levels practically imposed onto them. Those people do not meekly accept decibel increase: they were never born into a world where background ruckus is so "normal" that we apparently should take it for granted. I say: yeah to them.

I really fail to see the argument that because wind farms are environmentally friendly and sustain a more durable life-style the downside element should simply be taken for granted. That doesn't fly with me at all. We object to horizon pollution from greenhouses or landscape pollution from electricity masts as well. Why should noise emissions from wind farms not be considered a legitimate complaint if it truly bothers people? (I leave out the question whether it would truly bother people and is not just NIMBY in disguise.)

We're also broaching the cultural clash with this. Except perhaps for the city Groningen, the north of the Netherlands has to this very day been considered the backwash by the industrialized west, the Randstad. You will find very little "whiteflightistas" in the north, I'm afraid. Those are all living around the hubs of the Randstad, outside the brick village centres destined for the plebs.

The pervasive opinion of the people there remains that the north needs to do the job without support from The Hague, as The Hague is perpetually fixated on the economic engine of the Netherlands - something that has historical roots, even starting from the rise of Amsterdam and the province of Holland in the 16th century. In the 1950s, there has been a half-hearted attempt to push public services up into the north, but after rounds of privatisations the companies are returning back to the Randstad and unemployment is back on the rise. That's one.

The other, extremely vexing attitude of The Hague is that they've been using the northern provinces as dumping grounds from the overspill of the Randstad. Regarded on population density, immigration centres are heavily tilted towards the more rural provinces (including Zeeland in the south). Initiatives to connect the northern area with the Randstad with a smooth rail connection have been going on since the seventies and have never fledged. Today, it will take you more than two hours by train from Utrecht to Groningen (and it will get worse). Driving by car is now already faster. Perhaps anticipating on the failure of the far too costly Betuweroute, the government decided this year to scrap plans for an innovative mono-rail connection from Utrecht to Groningen. When there were plans this year for drug addicts from the big cities, which were known to constantly fall back into hard-drug use to be relocated to "container camps" projected in Drenthe and Groningen, people really had enough and banged their fists. The plan is now "on hold" (not withdrawn, as far as I know).

Now, when The Hague in all its enthusiasm dumps windfarms all across the north, by the argument for sustainable development yet in the meantime using the surplus for the benefit of the Randstad, while windfarm development in the Randstad moves off-shore to avoid all those little vexes as noise emission and horizon pollution... Let me just say that does not go well over there. And I find they are entirely in their right to object to thinly veiled projects intended for the well-being for the entire country but mostly for the Randstad. Everyone's equal, but some are more equal than others in The Hague.

The question I'm left with after scanning through Prospathopoulos: in what time windows are these noise immision measurements done? Is it a 24 hours long observation period? The same 2 hours for several days? Is there a standard for it? As this seems to be a meta-analysis for the purpose of testing a noise emission model, it may not have been of priority for the aim of the research, but odd (to me) nevertheless...

A problem for Europe, but for the population dense Netherlands especially, is that there's no immediate equivalent of the Great Plains to stash stretches of windfarms. We have the Veluwe, but it so happens it's the nation's biggest nature reserve and I don't know about the degree of wind it gets.

Off-shore seems the first best alternative (to me) but even there are limitations to how much windfarms can be developed. If we want to develop on-shore farming - which I do support but to a certain limit of windfarm density and landscape toll - and not want to risk a backlash of public sentiment, acknowledgement of and R&D on noise emissions seem a proper future strategy for the wind crowd.

Imagine a Barclona without cars....... (it's a feat to do thi, I know, but can you imagine the pleasantness of this?).... ...then imagine..... a Barcelona without cars but with thousands and thousands of wind turbines on rooftops and the Sagrada Familia, all swooshing their way with a noise on a par to car noise...

Why don't we promote silent car regulations?