Solarpunk

What are these effects on the environment you speak of?

the effects are destroying the environment so you can place a wind turbine there. most of these places are not some brownfields, but rather cool and unique locations that were devastated and changed for a turbine placeholder. like this one:

A metal pole in the ground has virtually 0 environmental impact,

of course. because it just magically spawned there without any effect on the landscape whatsoever. it absolutely did not require cutting the top of the mountain, transporting tons of the soil from there and replacing it with tons of concrete so they can anchor the turbine in it.

They’re still beautiful, pristine places

oh really? the word subjective does some heavy lifting here 😂

now imagine if each of them had an oil refinery or coal burning plant instead

suuuure.... https://learn.academy4sc.org/video/fallacy-of-relative-privation-all-problems-are-relative/

now imagine if that island had neither an oil refinery nor wind turbines. how cool would that be?