Further devastating evidence of the toll that onshore wind turbines take on local eagle populations has emerged in Tasmania. The local Wedge-tailed eagle is thought to be down to just 1,000 individuals, but over the last 12 years at least 270 birds have been killed or injured in the vicinity of wind farms. According to a recent paper in Australian Field Ornithology, a further 49 vulnerable White-bellied sea eagles have also been killed in this period.
The scale of depredation is shocking but it could be much worse than reported. According to author Gregory Pullen, information about eagle deaths is not readily available, “nor readily made available”. His calculations arise from a number of primary sources including annual reports. He suggests that unrecorded casualties are higher since most are recorded anecdotally and are not the result of systematic survey. The Tasmanian sub-species of the Wedge-tailed eagle is listed as endangered under both federal and state threatened species legislation.
Large birds of prey such as eagles are at particular risk from giant wind turbine blades revolving at speed since they rely on air currents for sustained flight. The Daily Sceptic has covered this developing story, noting that few activists, bird conservation groups and writers seem able to rouse themselves to complain when the natural flight path of raptors stands in the way of green progress. The Australian climate journalist Jo Nova has stood out from the unquestioning crowd, noting that in Tasmania the greens are destroying nature – again. “It’s not about the environment is it,” she said. She went on to add that there are plans to build up to 10 wind turbine parks across Tasmania – “and if one tower misses, the next will get them”.
It’s not really about the environment over in California either, where America’s national bird, the bald eagle, and many other raptors face mass slaughter in the local wind farm avian graveyards. This follows the state Democrat-controlled legislature’s recent decision to relax controls on wildlife protections to allow permits to kill previously fully protected species for renewable energy and infrastructure projects. However, evidence continues to emerge that the slaughter has been going on for years. Last year, NextEra, one of America’s largest utility companies, was fined $8 million after 150 eagles were killed at its wind farms across eight states. According to the Golden Gate Audubon Society, a wind farm complex in Altamont has been killing 75-100 golden eagles every year since the 1980s.
The animal slaughter does not stop at large birds of course. A number of scientific studies have point to the destruction of millions of bats and smaller birds every year by turbine blades capable of travelling at the tip at speeds approaching 150mph.
Alas, it is not as if the deaths of these wildlife green martyrs are helping to produce much worthwhile economic activity. In the U.K., the small number of jobs being produced by green technologies is starting to be noticed. Gary Smith, the leader of Britain’s largest trade union, recently said that communities along the North Sea can see wind farms, “but they can’t point to the jobs”. Possibly exaggerating to make his point, he added that much of the green work seems to be either London-based lobbying or clearing away the animal casualties of wind farm blades. “It’s usually a man in a rowing boat, sweeping up the dead birds,” he observed.
Green activists are increasingly being caught between a rock and a hard place on these impact issues. It is becoming obvious that many of the green technology solutions proposed to replace fossil fuels come with heavy environmental costs. Whether it be open cobalt mining with child labour, or digging up vast quantities of the Earth’s crust to help construct second-rate solutions such as windmills, the terrible impact is all too obvious. At the moment the typical stance seems to be that voiced by Audubon California Policy Director Mark Lynas, who said we need renewable energy resources, and he did not want to see the eagle deaths “being used to push against clean energy”.
Another area where ecology fights are breaking out is on the east coast of America, where whales are beaching on the shores of New Jersey and New York in alarming numbers. In the first half of this year over 40 whales have died in this way. Large areas of the local ocean are being turned into industrial wind parks, with particular concern arising over 24-hour sonar soundings. The veteran environment campaigner Michael Shellenberger has said the massive offshore works are wreaking environmental damage in previously pristine waters. “It’s the biggest environmental scandal in the world,” he charges.
The waters off the U.S. east coast are important feeding and breeding grounds for large mammals such as whales and dolphins, including the rare North Atlantic right whale. Shellenberger has recently produced a documentary called Thrown to the Wind which presents evidence of whales hit by ships, and high decibel sonar that is said to separate mothers from their calves, sending them into harm’s way. The film shows environmentalists checking the sonar which is said to measure 150 dBs at sea – equivalent to about 90 dBs on land. The noise is a relentless drum beat that is said to pound across the ocean throughout the day and night. On land, the sonar noise would be equivalent to a hairdryer. For humans, prolonged noise much above 70 dBs may start to damage hearing.
The film makes the point that serious pile-driving to secure the giant turbines to the sea floor has yet to start in earnest. Once built there is a danger that the huge back wash created by the giant blades will disturb and kill off plankton, destroying the food supply for the whales.
It must be noted that many interested parties dispute the claims currently being made about wildlife in the new oceanic industrial parks springing up with generous subsidies from the Biden Administration. Both sides can marshal their arguments and evidence. But at the moment, the deck is rigged in favour of the green lobby. Fracking for oil and gas was banned in the U.K. with Friends of the Earth presenting evidence of local earthquakes similar in force to someone falling off a chair. It is more than likely that multiple eagle deaths would be enough to stop the operation of any oil and gas installation. Seemingly, it will take more than a mere rowing boat full of protected but very dead birds to stop the new Green Barons.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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Reality is optional for most especially the Green Nazis. I read that in the German Empire (EU), some 500-1500 birds are slaughtered by a single Bird Chopper every year. There are thousands of these monstrosities. Incalculable carnage. What is ‘green’ about the Choppers?
We can add the coming 5G to the slaughter – MMW EMF radiation every 100 feet from small antennaes. Will bathe your town in radiation and decimate birds, bees, insects. To be blamed on Klimat Khange of course. Act Now.
But then the Green (Red) Guards can claim there is a mass extinction event happening. Look at all the dead birds.
Green is never green it’s greed
I’m going to go against the grain here and call bullshit on this story.
It makes no sense to me that birds that can fly with amazing skill and precision and are able to navigate their way around the planet over huge distances, are all of a sudden too clumsy to miss wind turbines.
Just doesn’t make sense to me.
I won’t argue that wind turbines deployed on a mass scale across the countryside aren’t a visual monstrosity. But an existential threat to birds?
Perhaps I’m ignorant on this but I don’t see it.
I think you underestimate the speed of rotation at the tips of the blades….
It says it in the article. Up to 150 mph.
Why would birds attempt to fly between the blades?
They don’t see them? Unlikely
They think they can dodge them and miscalculate? Also seems unlikely.
It something about the currents caused by the blades, but it’s pure speculation and seems odd that birds are able to handle all sorts of weather conditions but not currents from blades, or lack the sense to stay away if they can’t cope with the turbulence.
To me this sounds like the polar bear scare story, but coming fro the opposite side.
Birds don’t ‘play chicken’ and don’t ‘attempt to fly between the blades. A quick Google describes “motion smear” where the speed of the blade renders it nigh on invisible. Additionally in the black of night the blades still turn. Owls should have it covered I guess.
The number of bird/bat carcasses lying close to wind farms is well documented.
The polar bear numbers scam was just that, and demonstrably proven to be so by many sources.
Eventually.
Pondering this issue driving through Caithness, which 15 years ago was empty, but is now trashed with hundreds of ruddy turbines. The swept area for each turbine is huge, and there are three blades per turbine. The blades only take a few seconds to do 360deg in a stiff breeze, so the time gap between each blade is small. Blades are grey, low contrast against the sky and ground. A raptor can spot a mouse or rabbit from a considerable height, and are capable of a fast dive, but the bigger birds spend time gliding at altitude. The turbine blades viewed from above would be harder to spot as they are edge on. Even the movement wouldn’t be apparent.
In a turbine field I reckon a bird might struggle for a safe descent profile that avoids dozens of blades, plus it’s looking for thermals and prey, not obstacles in the sky, because there shouldn’t be any in the bird’s environment.
Just check the data. Never mind what seems “unlikely” to you.
So how do you know eagles are not being killed?
Birds get hit by cars all the time when they can literally fly. I’d say that objectively a car would be easier to avoid than a wind turbine.
Not just cars, but also windows, skyscrapers, cell towers, and so many other things. Yet no sane person is calling for those to be banned.
Birds of prey are always looking down. They evolved in a world without huge Industrial turbines. Maybe in a million years there may be a new species of Eagle that has evolved to pay more attention to the bird choppers.
Same here. This doesn’t pass the smell test.
Only yesterday I watched a buzzard fly ‘inexplicably’ between the blades of turbine just outside Swaffham, in Norfolk. It missed the blades but not by much, as far as I could tell. It looked absurdly tiny and absurdly vulnerable, as if unaware of the presence of the blades. Flying back through the blades, it would most likely have been hit. If this is happening the length and breadth of the land, it’s absurd to imagine that this is not having a devastating effect on populations. I’m reluctant to comment on your possible ignorance on this subject, but hey, you brought it up…
Always remember, quite a few years ago, a load of birdwatchers watching a rare vagrant in Scotland- A needle tailed swiftlet. It flew around for a bit, then dropped out of the sky dead after it had hit a wind turbine blade. However what do the experts say:-
https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/policy-insight/england-westminster/nature-protection/wind-farms/
And the bats:-
https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/threats-to-bats/wind-farms-and-wind-turbines
For the RSPB, there is a curious phrase:- However, in the context of rapid and unprecedented renewables expansion, avoiding and reducing harm will not be enough to give nature a chance
Seems to be the RSPB is a bit conflicted over this issue?
Donations from the Green industry a conflicting factor maybe?
“Between 2013 and 2023, Ecotricity, the UK’s green energy provider donated over a quarter of a million pounds to help the RSPB address some of the biggest challenges faced by nature.”
How does nature face “challenges?”
More corruption of the language and fake $cience.
There are no such things as perfect solutions, only tradeoffs.
Another destructive aspect in regards to off shore windfarms is that they are obviously built in shallow waters and reefs which are the most diverse and important feeding grounds.
Phony environmentalists (climate change fundamentalists) don’t care about this. They only care about evil oil companies and junk science. I heard the Red Kite has been virtually wiped out in Germany who have a bout 40,000 turbines. Silly eco nut jobs will respond by saying cats kill sparrows. —–How totally absurd.—– Birds of prey are always looking down and don’t see the turbine blades coming. But I suppose though this will add to all the GREEN JOBS now that we have to employ hundreds of people to pick up all the dead birds and bats.———So not only are all dumb western countries trying to be “world leaders” in impoverishing their own citizens, they also want to be “world leaders” in slaughter.
Perhaps it’s time to ask everyone’s favourite ecowarrior, Chris Packham, for his opinion – after all, he always made a big deal over raptors. When is he going to start his acts of civil disobedience at the local wind farm, d’you think?
Packham is actually a Next Tuesday Warrior.
(BBC is full of them.)
Is this true about the renewable energy scam?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvLY7F0uq1q/
Not sure about coal needed for operation, but fossil fuels are needed to build, and maintain:- https://spectrum.ieee.org/to-get-wind-power-you-need-oil
Any sacrifice, any cost, any abuse, any horror, any Human death & misery, is acceptable, in order to save the planet.
I doubt any of it will save the planet. make some people rich- yes. Save the planet? I doubt it needs saving.
It is all so hideously evil and no amount of logical or sensible arguments seem to get through. Horrible and horribly depressing.
Environmentalism – Red in youth and ‘law’..