As President Trump held what was ostensibly a press conference on an EU trade deal, he decided to digress and go after wind turbines. He called them a “con job,” adding that they make whales “loco,” kill birds, and are even dangerous to human health. As with so many of his outlandish claims, it would be easy to dismiss this one and move on. But Trump’s comments are not just factually incorrect sound bites. Conspiracy theories about wind power—and other forms of renewable energy—have been around for far longer than Trump’s political career, and they persist in many parts of the world.

It’s not just Trump: why the conspiracy theories about wind turbines?

He has made similar comments in the past, once even calling them “windmills,” a term that has achieved a catchall quality for deniers of climate change and renewable energy. Conspiracy theories against wind power have flared repeatedly over the years: one notable panic from the 1800s suggested that telephones might spread disease, and to this day, there are worries about electromagnetic fields generated by renewables (not unlike past concerns about the health risks of radio signals).

Far-right activists believe fossil fuels are at risk of being “nationalized” under Biden. In Australia, they joined a campaign against the $3.5 billion national electricity grid. Meanwhile, the same activist network coordinated actions against the “nationalization” of road transport in the U.S., opposing electric vehicles and arguing that hydrogen was a superior power source. This shows that opposition to renewable energy often mirrors fears about the loss of other forms of power and the threat of “taking control” away from the people. This makes wind farms an easy target for criticism and rumormongering. Conspiracy theories include the ever-popular “wind turbine syndrome,” which has been widely debunked by medical researchers as a “non-disease.”

Such moral panics have some basis in fact: renewable energy can bring real changes to landscapes, economies, and ways of life. When those systems are powered by coal or gas, it can be difficult for some to adjust. The resistance to telephones and health fears about mobile phones also arose, in part, because of a common misconception about how telecommunications systems actually work. Many have conflated mobile phone towers with the electricity grid that powers them. At a time when several countries are still struggling to build a universal electricity grid, this points to the importance of modernizing energy systems for people on the ground, not just in business or policy circles.

These concerns go even deeper, though, than simple misinformation. They are core to an individual’s worldviews—and as such, are extremely difficult to change. As a 2019 study from the University of Sydney noted, there is a link between conspiracy beliefs about wind farms and those about climate change more broadly. Once an individual holds a belief, they tend to perceive the world around them in a way that confirms it.

The misconceptions, in other words, are not a cognitive failure that can be solved through fact-checking. That makes it more difficult for government, business, or other institutions to nudge individuals toward clean energy. It also risks slowing the global energy transition even as countries make an effort to tackle climate change.

Wind farms also provide an obvious, highly visible focal point. They don’t produce the dust or particulates of a coal mine, and are far safer and less polluting than a nuclear or oil refinery. Their turbines are frequently placed on ridgelines or open plains, where they are highly visible and often become local landmarks. This makes wind farms an easy target for criticism and rumormongering. Conspiracy theories include the ever-popular “wind turbine syndrome,” which has been widely debunked by medical researchers as a “non-disease.”