Wind Turbine Wildlife Hell
Latest information on the disastrous effects of wind turbines on: wildlife, their habitats, migration routes, livestock, pets, marine animals – and you.
Animals – Marine
August 26, 2013
By T.J. Pignataro
An environmental riddle is brewing off the shores of Lake Erie, and its answer is blowing in the wind.
The planned launch of a wind turbine demonstration project seven miles off of Cleveland’s lakeshore in Ohio – the first of its kind on the Great Lakes – has politicians, developers and labor there on board.
That’s a totally different vibe from what took place in Buffalo Niagara in 2009 and 2010, when the New York Power Authority gauged interest in a similar project in lakes Erie and Ontario. Local governments here quickly scuttled the idea after intense political pressure from a well-organized group of local lakeshore residents.
The environmentalist community, meanwhile, still searches for a Solomonic solution to the question of harnessing wind on the Great Lakes.
August 23, 2013by Ken McErlain
The proposed development at French Farm is one of a number of energy park bids currently under consideration in the Peterborough area, but a report by ecologist Dr Timothy Reed says that wildlife impact assessments for the area are insufficient.
Dr Reed says that data concerning the effect on bats, birds and water voles which has been collected for the development is “riven with errors” and throws serious doubts over the application.
By Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
(NaturalNews) Dolphins have been granted “non-human personhood” status by the government of India, making India the first nation in the world to recognize the unique intelligence and self-awareness of the cetacean order (a class of aquatic mammals).
The decision was announced by India’s Minister of the Environment and Forests which also outlawed captive dolphin shows. The ministry added that dolphins “should have their own specific rights.” (SOURCE)
Dolphins are extremely intelligent mammals with a highly-developed social structure. Recent research shows that dolphins call each other by name and can remember the unique name whistles from old “friends” heard just one time 20 years ago.
Dolphins choose their own unique name — a series of complex whistles — before they reach one year of age. From that point forward, all the other dolphins in their social group call them by that unique name.
July 25th, 2013
By Simon Barnes
The Times, UK
Wild Notebook: We need to approach marine conservation with larger minds — if we don’t, our seas will die
The thinking person’s television comes in two forms, summer and winter. It’s elemental; in winter the wise person stares at fire and thinks deep thoughts or, better still, goes beyond thought altogether and just sits. In summer it’s water. It’s a fact that you can stare at water without boredom for longer than you can stare at anything else on the planet.
We are now moving fast into August, the sea-staring month for many of us. The sea commands us to keep an eye on it; don’t let it out of your sight, not for a moment, because it’s got a lot more moving about to do.
Sea-staring is a profound experience; there’s so much of it and you can’t often see what lives in it. It’s impossible to take a long look at the sea — superficially the least human- affected place on Earth — without wondering about the planet we live on.
June 10, 20133 – Outrage stemming from Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation’s (Leedco) premature drilling has enraged international watchdog agencies; and, in doing so, hardened their resolve to NOT allow the Great Lakes to be doomed to become another “green energy basket case,”
“Whose money is being spent on a project that has not even been approved and why is drilling of Lake Erie’s lake bottom being permitted at this stage?” asserted Suzanne Albright, principle of U.S.based Great Lakes Wind Truth.
Plans are underway by LEEDCo and Freshwater Wind LLC to construct 5 massive industrial wind turbines (IWT) offshore of Cuyahoga County, Ohio in Lake Erie. This would, if approved, be the 1st wind turbine project in any fresh water lake in the U.S.
LEEDCo’s plan doesn’t resonate well with international watchdog groups committed to protecting North America, including the pristine waters of the Great Lakes, from being blanketed with 30-40 story high industrial oil-filled metal turbines destined to fail, leak, rust out and eventually become abandoned, primarily at the expense of rate and tax payers.
PT Madsen, M Wahlbert, J Tougaard, K Lucke, P Tyack:
Abstact on: Wind Turbine Underwater Noise and Marine Mammals
April 15, 2013 – Although this abstract is from 2006, it still provides an overview of man made noise generated from construction and operation of offshore wind turbines. We must also consider when reading
this abstract, that under water noise is cumulative and competing with animals’ rights to use sound and sonar to mate and locate food. Pile driving seems to be the noisiest of activities.
7 April 2013
- The charity is making hundreds of thousands of pounds from wind power
- But millions of birds, including at risk species, are killed by turbines each year
The RSPB is making hundreds of thousands of pounds from the wind power industry – despite the turbines killing millions of birds every year.
Golden eagles, hen harriers, Corn Buntings and other rare and threatened species are especially at risk, conservationists say.
Yet in its latest ‘partnership deal’, the bird charity receives £60 for every member who signs up to a dual-fuel account with windfarm developer Ecotricity.
It also receives £40 each time a customer opens an account with Triodos Bank, which finances renewable industry projects including wind turbines.
In a previous partnership with Southern & Scottish Electricity (SSE), which invests in wind and other renewable energy, the RSPB admits to having made £1?million over ten years.
The charity claims that windfarms play an important role in the battle against climate change, which ‘poses the single greatest long-term threat to birds and other wildlife’, and that wind turbines caused only ‘significant detrimental effects’ when poorly sited.
But critics argue there is no such thing as a well-sited windfarm and that the charity has been taken over by green zealots.
Credit: By Simon Johnson, The Telgraph, www.telegraph.co.uk
March 15, 2011
Offshore wind farms are one of the main reasons why whales strand themselves on beaches, according to scientists studying the problem.
Environmentalists have blamed submarines’ sonar and a ground-breaking study has confirmed that sonar does disturb the navigation of whales but it has suggested that offshore wind farms, as well as oil rigs, and even passing ships, posed an even greater threat.
Scientists at the University of St Andrews studying beaked whales, a species that frequently becomes beached in Britain, concluded that they were extraordinarily timid creatures that were scared “by virtually anything unusual”, despite being the size of a rhinoceros and weighing the same as a London bus.
The findings suggest that more strandings can be expected as ministers are planning a major expansion in the number of offshore wind farms, especially off the coast of Scotland, which is an area where whales congregate to feed.
December 12, 2012
by Matthew K. Pine*, Andrew G. Jeffs, Craig A. Radford
May 10, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – With an increasing number of industrial-scale wind turbines around the world, numerous reports are surfacing to suggest that noise, infrasound and stray voltage (dirty energy) may be harmful to livestock and wildlife.
While evidence is largely anecdotal, incidences of mass die-offs of farm animals, chickens laying soft-shelled eggs, high animal miscarriage rates and disappearance of wildlife near turbines provide pause for reflection. These and other incidents suggest a need for scientific study to determine safety before additional wind energy facilities are erected across the U.S., including several proposed in San Diego’s East County.
Although wind turbines have been growing in popularity as an energy alternative in the 21 st century, there has been little to no testing done on the effects that these towering turbines could have on animals or for that matter, humans in the vicinity. We require testing of chemicals to assure safety before they may be used in the environment. Why is similarly rigorous testing not required to date for wind turbines?