To help inspire everyone who is currently writing submissions for the Senate Select Committee on Wind Turbines, we thought it would be useful to include an example of some of the other submissions that have been written for the inquiry. Unfortunately … Continue reading LEAKED: Flat Earth Institute Submission to Senate Inquisition on Wind Turbines
Published by Bloomberg. View original article.
Pity the birds.
As if cats weren’t bad enough, humans have invented all sorts of torture devices for our winged friends. We’ve paved over their nesting sites to make room for Olive Gardens and have broken up their skyscapes with glass buildings and radio towers.
Then came the most infamous bird killer of all: the wind turbine. As you can see in the chart below, these sky blenders top the list. Continue reading “World’s Top Serial Bird Killers Put Infamous Windmills to Shame”
Published by New Matilda. View original article here.
Wind farms are usually accused of making people sick. Now critics claim they also threaten endangered birds. Bill King, Emma Bennett and Lynn Trakell debunk another wind farm myth.
The 2013 Victorian duck hunting season began in March with an illegal all-species shoot-up at the Box Flat wetland near the small town of Boort. An informant told the Coalition Against Duck Shooting that around 2000 birds were killed, including around 80 Freckled Ducks (an endangered species), and many other species that could not conceivably have been mistaken for ducks.
A week later, a group from the coalition conducted a two hour search at Box Flat and found 43 dead Freckled Ducks and a total of 156 carcasses, along with 13 wounded birds, which were taken into care. The Department of Primary Industry later reported finding 915 bird carcasses at Box Flat, of which 760 were “game” species.
There are two good arguments against duck hunting that tend to persuade many who accept – or at least tolerate – other kinds of hunting: that it further threatens a number of already endangered species and that it is a particularly cruel sport, with around a quarter of the birds surviving being shot, some later dying of their injuries.
That same concern for animal welfare has entered, honestly or otherwise, into the debate over renewables. If we’re concerned about hunting deaths, shouldn’t we also worry about bird strike at wind farms? Continue reading “Do Wind Farms Really Kill Birds?”
Originally published at CleanTechnica. View original article.
This article is about debunking myths (deliberately perpetrated) regarding wind energy. First, watch the video:
Billion dollar businesses and billion dollar interests have a lot of money they can use to attack their up-and-coming competitors. Even if those competitors are driven by clear thinking and clean energy, money directed in an effective way can make them look bad. Promoting misinformation lacks integrity, but it’s very common within large industries and economic sectors.
People are busy. They do not have the time to research each myth out there. Thus, we sometimes get fooled. Here at CleanTechnica, we try to make it a bit easier to get some straight-up, correct information. Greed-driven myths hurt the world, and our #1 goal is simply to help the world.
I came upon this bird directly in front of the door of my local library. The bird hit the glass of the library door and died. Yes, 3rd on the list of things that cause birds to die, is collisions with buildings. Continue reading “Canada ranks top bird killers – wind turbines not even close to top”
Countering the argument that wind turbines heavily impact bird numbers, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is planning to erect a single wind turbine to almost completely power it’s UK headquarters. The move is a powerful symbolic gesture of support for wind energy.
Published by the Biggleswade Today. View the original article here.
A wildlife charity says erecting a wind turbine is “the single biggest step it can take to reduce its carbon emissions.”
The RSPB has submitted its planning application for a wind turbine at its UK headquarters in Sandy.
If approved by Central Beds councillors it will be situated in an area of acid grassland, which is attracting small songbirds and insects.
Paul Forecast, the RSPB’s regional director for eastern England, said that The Lodge is one of only three reserves which are suitable for a wind turbine. It was chosen because it has the largest offices and these will benefit from a direct electricity line from the turbine.
The electricity generated should power two thirds of the charity’s reserves.
Continue reading “Wind turbine would help RSPB fight climate change”
Published by Independent Australia. View the original article.
The nation’s biggest wind farm development on King Island is being threatened by golf course developments — that themselves threaten 80,000 mutton birds. David Looker reports.
THE Short-tailed Shearwater, commonly called the mutton bird, is an unassuming bird whose habits capture the imagination.
It breeds in coastal sand holes dug in massive rookeries across southern Australia and then flies in a figure of eight pattern, across the Pacific, to feeding grounds as far away as the Arctic Ocean off Alaska. It is a prolific species — Parks Tasmania estimate there are 23 million of them.
The shearwater often returns to breed in the same hole and with the same mate — sometimes for over a decade. Flights of up to 17,000 kilometres have been tracked.
Now, despite their seasonal absence, about 80,000 of these birds currently in the Northern hemisphere have unwittingly flown right into the King Island wind farm debate. They don’t know it yet, but they will find out when they return to Cape Wickham, King Island next year and find their holes have been “relocated” to make way for a golf course under the Cape Wickham Lighthouse. Continue reading “The King of all battles: wind farm vs golf course vs shearwater”
Since entering the Australian Senate in July 2011, lone Democratic Labor Party senator John Madigan has emerged as a staunch opponent of wind farms. The Senator’s anti-wind farm position is articulated clearly in a short policy statement published on the DLP’s website.
Those of you who follow the wind energy debate closely will spot the whoppers a mile off. For those of you who are new to the debate, wind energy observer Mike Barnard has published a thorough debunking of Senator Madigan’s position at Renew Economy.
Barnard’s article addresses the claims listed below with forensic detail. But before you read on, I’d like to remind Victorian readers that you are one of Senator Madigan’s constituents. If you are troubled by the Senator’s position on wind energy, you are entitled to let his office know about it. The Office of Senator Madigan can be contacted in the following ways: Continue reading “Renew Economy: More wind energy myths debunked: Madigan claims put to the test”
Ever wondered what it would be like to live near a wind farm?
The popular US blog, The Huffington Post, has published the account of Heidi Eijgel—a horse farmer from Alberta, Canada, who lives near 136 megawatt worth of wind turbines. David Dodge’s report on the issue offers a fresh, international perspective on people living with wind farms. Without further ado, here’s the article: Continue reading “Living with wind farms: An international perspective”
Much has been made of the farmer whose chickens laid yolkless eggs, near the Waterloo wind farm, mentioned in articles in The Australian. Sinister? Maybe it’s not such a worry. The following was a letter published in the Mid North Broadcaster in Burra, South Australia: Fowl Falsity Speculation that wind farms are bad for you because they effect chooks by making them lay eggs without yolks is not true. At this time of the year the chooks are moulting and getting new feathers, so this causes the chooks to stop laying or lay eggs without a yolk. I know this … Continue reading Lay off the wind farms
US company Iberdrola Renewables has presented the first of its internal awards for technicians under its Avian and Bat Protection Policy (ABPP). From Iberdrola’s press release: The Casselman and Peñascal Wind Power Projects in Pennsylvania and Texas respectively won the 2011 awards for wind plant achievement. Stewart Banks, a technician at the Hardscrabble Wind Power Project in New York, was honored for individual achievement. Casselman Wind Power Project in Pennsylvania was the site of a groundbreaking, two-year study on the interaction between bats and wind turbines. It was conducted by independent conservation group Bat Conservation International (BCI) through the Bats … Continue reading Studying bats and wind turbines
yes2renewables.org 