Hurricane Ophelia’s destructive wind gusts are “a small piece of good news” for the United Kingdom, according to prominent activist and academic Bill McKibben.
“Ophelia’s wind power will help UK set a new record for wind power today,” McKibben tweeted Monday. His tweet included a link to a Bloomberg article detailing the amount of destruction that Ophelia’s 100 mph winds are causing in Ireland.
Small piece of good news: Ophelia’s power will help UK set a new record for wind power today (old record set Oct. 1) https://t.co/R0SEeKivxE
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) October 16, 2017
He posted a follow-up tweet minutes later lamenting how 30 people died in Portugal and Spain after winds from Ophelia kicked up wildfires in those areas. It’s a “Hot new world,” McKibben noted in his tweet, which included a link to a New York Times piece on the storm’s dangerous winds.
“I said that amidst the devastation they would at least supply a lot of wind power,” McKibben told The Daily Caller News Foundation about the reason for his tweet. “Small compensation that, as I noted, but as the old timers say it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good at all.”
Ophelia is responsible for two deaths — a woman and a man were killed as the remnants of the storm pounded the British Isles. The woman died when a tree fell on her car, while the man died attempting to remove a downed tree.
About 360,000 homes and businesses in the Irish Republic and 4,000 homes in Wales are without power as hurricane-force winds continue battering Ireland.
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