Evidence continues to grow that onshore wind turbines are causing heavy ecological carnage, with increasing concern focused on the removal of a vast tonnage of insect life. For obvious political, Net Zero reasons, insect decimation is not a well-funded research area, but work in Germany in 2016 put the loss across the country at 1,200 tonnes a year. Recently, the Heartland Institute extrapolated the individual annual insect loss worldwide at 13,640,000,000,000 (13.64 quadrillion) insects, and of course it can be noted that the figures are nearly a decade out of date. Other scientific work has reported that flying insects destroyed include bees, flying beetles and butterflies. Curiously, the many institutions apparently concerned with wildlife stay silent on the slaughter. For its part, the UK Natural History Museum (NHM) offers a Build Your Own Wind Turbine kit. Fun for all the family and if the kiddies are lucky they might get to whack a passing fly or a couple of moths.
The German work estimated insect losses at 40 million per turbine during the plant-growing season. Commenting on the findings, the mathematician and evolutionary ecologist Professor Christian Voigt felt it was necessary to evaluate if these fatalities added to the decline of insect populations, “and potentially the extinction of species”. In a 2022 paper, Voigt reported that turbines can change the nearby microclimate, while vibrational noise may reduce earthworm abundance with likely cascading effects on soil quality and vegetation. In addition, he noted findings that wind turbine facilities led to displacement of nesting and wintering birds.
Recent work from researchers at the University of Wyoming suggests that moths, butterflies, beetles, flies and true bugs may be the most vulnerable to the giant revolving blades. Wind turbines create vortices, sucking in wildlife and causing problems for both bats and large birds such as eagles. “The vast amount of avian and insect deaths at the hands of wind turbines is disastrous in and of itself, from a conservation and ecological standpoint,” states Heartland.
Insect loss and extinctions are of course very popular in the Net Zero fear-mongering business. In 2022, the NHM ran with an improbable tale that flying insects in the UK had declined by 60% in just 20 years. Too good of course for national treasure Sir David Attenborough to pass up and he repeated the scare during his BBC Wild Isles series, a green agitprop co-production with the World Wildlife Fund and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The evidence proved to be anecdotal and mostly arose from ‘citizen scientists’ counting bugs on car number plates. Missing from the research was a note that vehicle registrations have tripled in the UK since 1970, while cars have largely changed shape from angular boxes to aerodynamic wedges that sweep insects out of the way.
Despite these obvious flaws in the story, the NHM claimed the astonishing loss was caused by rising temperatures and fragmented habitats. The tiny temperature rises over the last 20 years are hardly likely to affect insects that much, while slightly longer growing seasons in the northern hemisphere and a recent 14% ‘greening’ of the Earth due to higher levels of carbon dioxide are almost certain to have been extremely beneficial.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the conservation of wildlife is little more than an after-thought when it comes to pushing the Net Zero fantasy world of unreliable, expensive renewable energy. Almost invariably those crying loudest about insect decline are those pushing hardest for green energy boondoggles such as wind turbines. Yet it is known that turbines attract insects with their colour, lights and ambient heat. More attracted insects lead to more bats and birds which lead to more avian casualties, which lead to more ground animals scavenging, which in turn attracts larger raptors that cannot escape the turbine-generated wind currents. And so the 150 mph revolving skyscraper-high blades set up their own circular killing fields.
The loss of insects is particularly disastrous since they are decomposers, crop pollinators and a crucial basis of the entire food chain. In April 2023, the Royal Entomological Society welcomed the opportunity to respond to a UK Government department on the issue of insect decline and food security. There was plenty to say on climate change of course and some interesting observations on the boom-and-bust nature of insect populations, but not a peep on the dead, wide areas of countryside created by wind turbines.
It might not worry the establishment insect brigade but the colliding critters can be a big problem for turbine operators. Professor Voigt noted that insect remains collected during low wind periods disrupt airflow and can halve power generation during high wind periods. These days cleaning this muck off turbine blades is big business. Based in Glasgow, Balmore Wind Services offers a specialist rope access service for the difficult biomatter cleaning required by insects and bird fouling. One thing is certain, concludes Heartland: “Wind turbines undoubtedly cause massive avian and insect deaths on a yearly basis.”
With all the learned societies and institutions continuing to turn a blind eye, it is hard to see who will step forward to draw attention to this developing ecological disaster. Who will be the first to suggest that the proper place for a windmill is in a museum?
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.
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“cars have largely changed shape from angular boxes to aerodynamic wedges that sweep insects out of the way”
Quite right. My old Land Rover Defender has all the aerodynamic properties of a brick, and collects lots of squashed insects on its windscreen in spring and summer.
Agreed, cars back then had all the aerodynamics of a bread van!
Spot on again, Chris Morrison, but stand by to be ignored again by True Believers in the Climate Crisis / Emergency / Apocalypse/ Armageddon (delete whichever cliches most bored with hearing).
“The problem with closed-minded people is that their mouth is always open.”
And The Planet is perfectly capable of saving itself.
The mind is like a parachute, it works best when open.
A few years ago I contacted bat conservation ireland by email for their take on bats and wind turbines, a guy from the charity, to his credit, phoned me back and we had a conversation on the subject, I can’t remember it word for word but his explanation was something like “what alternative is there?”and “it’s not as many bat and bird deaths as you’ve been told”
I thought that was a cop out and told him so , we ended on an amicable note but we agreed to disagree.
Meanwhile bats die and bat conservation ireland continue to just shrug their charitable shoulders!
We have a protected bat colony which the inspector from the Irish bat conservation people comes to check on. We’re in Clare where a lot of wind farms are in the planning process currently, vehemently opposed by local groups of which we are a part. We also have Hen Harriers and Eagles in the forestry where our nearest turbines are planned to be. Nobody but nobody will see sense. We’ve actually been told that birds such as eagles don’t fly much so won’t be affected!
How deeply frustrating.
In fairness to the guy he probably knows that his organisation will lose out if he says anything, he will probably be fired, then the potential loss of charitable status, loss of research funding and so on. The same old manipulative story that scientists have to deal with. It would be interesting to see a breakdown by age of dissenters from the climate scam.
Nature conservancy is just a vehicle for activists to self-pleasure, and to give an income to people with university degrees in biology, botany, who can’t get productive jobs, plus it’s a stick to beat us capitalists and materialists who really should live in poverty.
Skyscraper-high blades revolving at 150 mph?
Typical velocity of the tip of a large modern wind turbine
Most bat deaths are not caused by contact with the blades but by barotrauma, this is when the fast moving blades lower the air pressure around the animal as they go past and its lungs implode
Wow. Horrendous.
A great one for planning application objectors, noting that:
“The NPPF includes a requirement for new developments to deliver at least a 10% net gain in biodiversity. This means that when land is developed, the biodiversity of the area must be improved rather than diminished.”
Surely, then, all (onshore at least) planning applications for turbines should be rejected? I wonder what RSPB and CPRE think.
Likewise for offshore wind and solar farms – all are devastating to wildlife.
Not forgetting the recent article about birds diving to their death thinking that solar farms are expanses of water.
Good point, as there are more solar farms going in locally.
Just shows why you can’t get anything built in this country with stupid things like that in the NPPF. Amazing to think that I actually agree with Ranting Raynor about getting rid of this sort of crap.
So when they dig those huge holes and fill them with reinforced concrete to anchor the tower and turbine, with what do they replace the myriad “biodiversity” that has been destroyed above and below the ground and the food source no longer available to reptiles, small mammals, insects, bats and birds – as well as plants?
How do they measure what is destroyed so they can replace it and add on 10% – and then do what… put an add in Insect & Creepy-Crawly News, the Daily Avian, Botany Monthly to attract more “biodiversity” to the area?
These people are mentally deranged fantasists.
As I commented yesterday, they are desperate to push through the dreaded Climate and Nature Bill, and yet show zero interest in a massive issue affecting Nature.
The fact the likes of the RSPB, WWF and others remain silent, speaks volumes. They should be advocating for the vast accumulated deaths, and its likely impact on the food chain and species decline, but clearly feeding the Climate boondoggle is more important – some people might lose credibility (they have but not with the Eco zealots – yet), and that can’t be allowed.
Some might argue that killing some potential pests that way is a reasonable alternative to crop spraying with certain substances. Or maybe not, but it’s true that bees are useful insects for pollination. There were quite a few scare stories about the need to ban neonicotinoids on the grounds that they damage bees. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-01-06/hcws352
Not being a scientist but relying on what I was taught as a child in the 1950s I guess there will also be a reduction in photosynthesis, this no doubt leads to lower CO2 absorption due to the loss of trees and plant life. I suppose that solar farms will have the same affect.
It would be interesting to hear from an expert on the subject.
One of the major effects is the light intensity during daylight hours. If you look at the “sunshine hours” figures on Met Office reports (such as https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/regional-values ) you can tot it up over a whole year, or at least during the growing seasons. They publish the anomaly values c.f. long term averages, month by month. E.g. this Winter in central southern England, the whole lot will probably be less than average, with only 17 days left now.
There are other factors, like the availability of water for the plants, and the temperature range etc, but the light is the real source of energy in the main. Of course, if it is too hot and dry, it’s useless energy.
Something else they will avoid talking about is micro plastic particles eroded from the blades contaminating the land around the windmills.
Evidence?
For the Climatrons in the Climate Crusade, evidence has nothing to do with the case.
Humanity must be subjugated, controlled, punished, culled. And the band-wagon riders grow richer and richer.
Let’s imagine we covered 10% of the country in wind turbines, which is quite a lot of land. We would only generate 20 kwh per day per person. This is equivalent to only half the amount of energy required to power a car 50 miles. Wind is utter madness. It is the dumbest energy possible, but then it is the dumbest politicians possible that want them.
The ecological damage from so many different parts of the Nut Zero madness, rams all of it’s supporters into the box marked ubber hypocrites…..How they can walk around is truly amazing.
Hi Chris, have you come across bladeless wind turbines? https://vortexbladeless.com/
Excellent article. Facts very clearly and concisely presented. Hopefully those who are genuinely interested in biodiversity will pay heed and pause the headlong rush into a potential ecological catastrophe.
It’s only right that the balance between birds, bats and their prey, insects, is maintained by the chomping blades of wind turbines, thus re-establishing the balance of nature. It shows that the Government believes in nature.
With all the learned societies and institutions continuing to turn a blind eye, it is hard to see who will step forward to draw attention to this developing ecological disaster.
Someone in one of these institutions will eventually pipe up. This sounds like a problem that cannot be shoved under the carpet.
Although last summer was dismal and windy in the West of Scotland, we’re not far from Whitelee wind farm, it was notable for such a drop in insect activity too. Hardly any bees, butterflies, wasps, hoverflies , even greenfly, small birds. Plenty of jackdaws, crows and magpies. We’re certainly making life very difficult for the essential insect pollination necessary for all of us.