Wind farms trusted but nuclear feared

Adelaide Advertiser
Friday 26/10/2007 Page: 29

MOST Australians trust wind farms and the CSIRO but are not keen on nuclear energy stations or genetically modified crops, according to a survey. The National Technology and Society Monitor, conducted by the Australian Centre for Emerging Technologies and Society at Swinburne University of Technology, questioned one thousand people about their attitudes toward new and emerging technology.

The survey found 81 per cent of respondents were comfortable with wind farms. "For most people it's an abstract kind of support because they don't live near wind farms and don't have much to do with them," centre director Professor Michael Gilding said. There was much less support for nuclear energy stations, with more than half of those surveyed stating some level of discomfort, despite the industry receiving support from a government review earlier this year.