Should the development of wind farms really be up to community vote?

I recently watched a documentary about global warming called The Age of Stupid, and it has really gotten me thinking about what the world needs to do to prevent irreversible damage to the earth.

The thing that affected me most about the documentary was a section about wind farms. The story followed a man who had tried to set up several wind farms in various areas, but pretty much all of them had been shot down by locals who didn’t want a windfarm in their backyard. In the documentary it was stated that 80% of proposed wind farms in the UK have been shot down this way; if they all had been constructed 10% of the UK’s energy would be completely renewable.

In the last few years my own community has had a large debate about a wind farm in the local sound. The proposed wind farm has been voted on several times and never passed – it will probably never happen. I am thoroughly disappointed by this.

So many people say they support wind farms and renewable energy, but it seems no one wants to sacrifice their “nice view” to help reduce the use of fossil fuels. I know there are other issues with wind farms (like inturrupting wildlife, etc) but this aesthetic problem seems to be #1 in peoples’ minds.

When will this stop? If things keep going like this, we won’t reduce greenhouse gasses until it’s too late. With such a bad track record, why should the people have such a huge say in where wind farms are constructed? Seriously, I would rather have a wind farm in my backyard than knowingly send my future children into a world with extreme pollution and runaway greenhouse effect.

Sorry for the rant. I’m curious as to other people’s opinions about this. Help me understand why saving the planet seems to be secondary to aesthetics.