As we were returning from our family vacation in upstate New York, we decided to visit Niagara Falls. On our way through Buffalo, NY, I saw a lot of industrial areas, as expected. There were numerous non-descript factories emitting God-knows-what into the air. There were recognizable names, like Mittal Steel in Lackawanna, NY, just outside of Buffalo. In stark contrast to the less aesthetically pleasing side of Buffalo, was a beautiful lakefront area with boats galore and some really pretty buildings in the downtown area. The two divergent sides of Buffalo are a pretty common scene in many cities--i.e. an ugly industrial side that enabled city-life to thrive and people to have money to enjoy other things. What I didn't expect to see in a city like Buffalo were about six huge wind turbines along the lake--actually, right near the steel plant. I always think of wind turbines as being embraced in areas where the environment seems a bit more on the forefront than Buffalo. Yet, there they were. I never realized how huge wind turbines are until I saw them. Rather than detracting from the lakefront, they looked like outside sculptures and were really amazing to see. I don't know what the turbines were being used to generate electricity for, but it was definitely a welcome sight in an otherwise rather bleak part of town. If Buffalo can move into the wind power spectrum, then why are other cities taking so long to embrace it? Buffalo is a good example of a place that clearly has its share of environmental flaws and yet, someone thought to incorporate wind power into that spectrum. We don't need to wait until fossil fuels are a thing of the past to start using wind power--it's here today. It would definitely be a sight to juxtapose a wind farm next to a coal power plant. What's stopping us from giving it a try?