The situation, Petrie says, is that some areas where turbine developments are being constructed and planned are, as he says, “the worst possible places to put a wind power project.” He says that avian and bat mortality rates at improperly placed wind farms are unacceptable. He also says that wind turbine developers and the government have ignored the fact that there will be cumulative ecological impacts associated with placing thousands of wind turbines on the landscape and in the lakes. As a Waterfowl Ecologist, Petrie is particularly concerned that wind turbines are being placed within critically important habitats and on migratory routes with no regard for avian displacement. “When you place a turbine in or very close to critical habitats, and birds subsequently avoid those areas, it is tantamount to habitat loss, and we have already lost 85 per cent of our Great Lake’s coastal wetlands.”
The enviro zealots concern themselves with birds only when it suits their purpose.
Hopefully here in Saskatchewan Brad’s blenders knock off some magpies.
I can’t say I get all busted up about blackbirds….but consider this….migratory water fowl use the Lake Erie north shore, and the St Clair wetlands, as an important way stop….the Jack Miner Sanctuary is legendary…and arrayed on the Port Burwell shoreline is a veritable wall of bird dicers….
Given that part of my backyard is “Great Lakes wetland” that the good Dr. Petrie would like to “protect”, I’m less than excited about this particular argument. Actually I have a drainage issue the ducks take advantage of in the spring, its a seasonal puddle.
Boosting this bird argument would be like shooting yourself in the foot to cure gout. One would think the economics (and physics!) of the situation would be sufficient. Its sad that so many people are deaf to the truth but melt when somebody says “But what about the poor birdies?!!!”
Idiots. And I say that knowing I have a relative who is one.
Ah, yes. Real conservation meets envirolunacy and the environment looses every time.
The threat to birds obviously is a negative against wind turbines, but I am more concerned with their threat to human health and safety. That issue seems much harder to raise in the media. True conservationists would lament the industrialization of valuable cropland. The true agument is their economic uselessness. There is no shortage of power in Ont and something like 84% of generated wind power is excess of demand.Much of this is exported at a loss to neighbouring states. In effect Ont. taxpayers are partially subsidizing power for NY and Michigan consumers.This also does not get much space in MSM.
Yeah, but a couple of hundred ducks land in a tailings pond and its headline news.
Martin-
I concur with your concern about the threat to human health & safety. Unfortunately, if you live in Ontario and have one of these things on your property, you CANNOT disclose any adverse health effects to the public. The Provincial government has placed a gag order on anyone who wants to do so.
This issue isn’t just about birds and bats. Creatures that pollinate your crops for example are being negatively affected. Dairy production in areas where these are located has dropped dramatically due to the negative influences on dairy herds.( Low frequency noise, ground dispersion, shadow flicker etc.)
These is nothing, absolutely nothing positive about this absurd experiment in the McGuinty laboratory.
While the environmental impact is substantial, what is lost in all of this is the economic lunacy of it all. While wind power generators are paid multiples of the selling price of power, conventional power generators are paid NOT to produce power while the bird beaters are online. It’s absolute insanity, all around.
rabbit – not only is it headline news but it is a guilty plea and a $3 Million settlement with Federal prosecuting authorities.
Where is Greenpeace and WWF on this one? Why aren’t the concerned environmentalists and interested foreign funding agencies mounting campaigns against this slaughter? (rhetorical questions both)
8 ducks die on an Oil Sands tailings pond and the Eco Hysteria is ballistic.
tens of thousands die in turbines and not a peep out of the Eco Greenie Hypocrisy Industry.
So what we’re saying here, is that what La Grange, KY needs to do is install giant Wind Turbines and all those black birds will go away?
if you want to get rid of some wind propellers, all you need to do is kill one spotted owl and put it at the base of the structure, photograph it and send it to some news papers.
We all know that the Spotted Owl trumps humanity.
@ rroe
“Where is Greenpeace and WWF on this one?”
Unlike the global warming nonsense, there’s no money in this one.They were all clamoring to save the planet by building windmills. They can’t raise a lot of donations to undo what they wanted in the first place.
If y’all have Facebook pages, please post these links there. We have to win the war on humanity.
This guy claims to be a scientist, and then he comes out with this: ““As a scientist, I shouldn’t have to prove that wind turbines adversely impact birds. The onus and associated costs should not be imposed upon the people of Ontario–it should be up to wind developers to pay for and prove that there will be no risks associated with these developments.””
Basically asking the wind developers to prove a negative.
We (rightly) laugh at the AGW mongers who demand that skeptics prove that global warming is not happening, when the onus is upon them to prove that it is, so let’s not celebrate when somebody who is, temporarily at least, on the side of reason makes the same error in logic.
The fellow is a degreed bird fancier. All well and good. I’m sure he knows more about birds than I ever want to know. He may be useful to the cause of rational energy as an expert witness, and that is about the limit of it.
Green energy killing birds = feminists against sex-selective abortion
Speaking of wind, if you want to see a perfect example of why Wikipedia should *never* be trusted as a sound source of knowledge, you only have to look at their entry on wind power. It is nothing other than a puff piece for the wind industry, full of half-truths and in some cases factual errors. Of course it has been locked down by the lefties at Wikipedia, heaven forbid someone might want to correct the entry.
As we know all too well, the left, the greens, and other similar types are never comfortable with the truth
Gord, now quite. What the developer should be required to do is to quantify the risk. That’s the way it works for every other proponent for a project under CEAA. Once the risk is quantified, if it is then deemed unacceptable, the developer can be required to take measures to mitigate it.
The scientist is using imprecise language. There’s no such thing as no risk. But he is right that the developer should have to prove his case.
Of course all this happens because wind turbines are exempted from any requirement for environmental assessment. It’s bizarre that we are undertaking a huge review of one big pipe, whose total effects will be vastly less than the thousands of bird slicers that Ontario is permitting without any kind of public review.
Remember George Smitherman. He’s the nasty little piece of dogs**t that set all this in motion.
If wind power was the least expensive power available, the birds would likely lose out and or the siting requirements would be more stringent although the EAs aren’t exactly a rubber stamp now.
The reality is this wave of wind power development is nothing more than a consequence of CAGW resultant rent seeking. Wind power for 99% of its applications owes its existence to statist subsidies in non-market rate structure or outright mandated quotas.
Wind power is twice the cost of coal or nuclear (except in Ontario) and three times the cost of gas or hydro and only randomly available about 29% of the time. In a sane world, that is really all that should have to be said.
Remember George Smitherman. He’s the nasty little piece of dogs**t that set all this in motion.
Posted by: cgh at February 8, 2012 1:31 PM
Aye, and the voters still applaud him after he’s gone.
Typo: “The reality is this wave” should be “of” not “is”.
cgh
I’m not sure that is correct that no CEAAs are required as I have been the author of parts of several EAs for wind farm proponents on Vancouver Island and I don’t think we did them for the fun of it, nor for free.
Nothing like a scratchin’ match between green factions for sheer entertainment value. Kinda like watchin’ a demolition derby between a prius and a volt.
Syncrude settles on a $3 million fine for 1600 ducks [a wing night at Ft. McMurray] landing in their tailings pond due to automatic scarecrow failure. No such fine structure for the shredding of birds due to turbines. The MNR in Ont. has an acceptable mortality number set [no one knows the criteria] which essentially means it’s looking the other way. McGuinty has sent the diktat down from high to the MNR, MoE and other provincial bodies to look the other way.
For more info into this travesty going on in Ontario;
http://www.quixoteslaststand.com
@ john Chittick
Twice the cost of coal? I wish.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/01/04/the-real-costs-of-alternative-energy/
@ pkuster
Good link. Love the last picture.
http://quixoteslaststand.com/tag/dalton-mcguinty/
red gunlop:
Some Ont residents who fought wind companies over health issues, were awarded payouts. The companies bought the homes & property for greatly reduced prices. The residents signed agreements not to disclose the price, or arrangements and agreed not to discuss the health problems publicly. This is the gag order. Other neighbouring residents trying to subpoena these agreements are also subject to the same gag order. This is currently before the courts.
I believe that is what Willard refers to above.
and now that we have a dipper gov’t here, there’s a couple of dozen giant birdshredders being set up right on a major migratory bird flyway with a large Ducks Unlimited operation that’s about to become superfluous…on the head of what not six months ago was being touted as a contender for one of the new “seven natural wonders of the world”..the previously picturesque Bay of Fundy…maybe next winter’s winds will knock them over…there isn’t a square yard of sold ground there for them to anchor into anyway…just marsh.
What do we need birds and bats for in Ontario anyways?
As an any happy camper can attest, Ontario is practically insect free during the summer — our poor cute little black flies and mosquitoes are practically extinct. Get rid of those pesky birds and bats responsible for the indiscriminate massacre of millions of innocent bloodsucking disease-carrying insects!
Thank you once again Dalton McGuinty for your wise leadership in making Ontario a more comfortable progressive place to live. Far be it from me to be accused of “tilting at windmills”…
Environmental reviews are skipped, apparently, for projects known to be virtuous.
In related news . . .
World’s largest wind turbine producer is failing.
http://www.cphpost.dk/business/vestas-delivers-terrible-2011-result
Yes Martin, that is exactly what I was referring to.
Thanks for the explanation to red gunlop’s query.
I’m far from being an enviro-nut but this travesty
has got to stop. It goes well beyond birds, bats and other fauna. It threatens our entire agricultural infrastructure and drives industry out of the province due to high energy and regulatory costs.
Martin / Willard
That’s why we recommend that people get baseline medicals before wind turbines become operational so there’s an honest basis of comparison. Doctors [ and now nurses] are getting to know all about the effects of windsyndrome and can accurately diagnose the condition. The patient can now release that record come litigation time.
All along, wind companies were saying “Prove it” when it came to the adverse affects of wind turbines , even up to 2 km away. Now we’ll have irrefutable evidence now. If the court case is successful in lifting the gag order and along with the other litigation ongoing, this could end it for wind turbines.
Wikipedia should *never* be trusted as a sound source of knowledge
WRONG. Like any other source of information it has to be verified with research. As someone who has contributed to wiki sites in my area of expertise, I know for a fact that the statement above is biased and false.
More “free” energy at 10 times the cost while turning our landscape into a trash heap while destroying the real environment. The Greenish way.
John, were you doing it to meet provincial requirements? Because both the provinces and the federal government have their own assessment acts. Certainly no such EA is required for any of the projects in Ontario. This implies to me that you were meeting a BC requirement, not a federal one, but I’m not certain.
BC is also one of the provinces which has not harmonized its EA process with the feds.
all this to ‘save the glaciers’ which apparently never needed ‘saving to begin’ with and were just part of the scam…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/08/glaciers-mountains?intcmp=122
The world’s greatest snow-capped peaks, which run in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice over the last decade, new research shows.
The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall.
The study is the first to survey all the world’s icecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps – Greenland and Antarctica – is much less then previously estimated, with the lack of ice loss in the Himalayas and the other high peaks of Asia responsible for most of the discrepancy.
Bristol University glaciologist Prof Jonathan Bamber, who was not part of the research team, said: “The very unexpected result was the negligible mass loss from high mountain Asia, which is not significantly different from zero.”
The melting of Himalayan glaciers caused controversy in 2009 when a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change mistakenly stated that they would disappear by 2035, instead of 2350.
Blitzkrieg on the IPCC…are gore and suzuki headed for the camps suzuki wanted to build for ‘deniers’ ?
Body Blow To German Global Warming Movement! Major Media Outlets Unload On “CO2 Lies!”
http://notrickszone.com/2012/02/06/body-blow-to-german-global-warming-movement-major-media-outlets-unload-on-co2-lies/
“THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”
That’s what Germany’s leading daily Bild (see photo) wrote in its print and online editions today, on the very day that renowned publisher Hoffmann & Campe officially released a skeptic book – one written by a prominent socialist and environmental figure.
What has set it all off? One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?”
Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion. He was horrified by the sloppiness and deception he found. Persuaded by Hoffmann & Campe, he and Lüning decided to write the book. Die kalte Sonne cites 800 sources and has over 80 charts and figures. It examines and summarizes the latest science.
Bemused
Which just proves the Post Modern era is also post scientific.
cgh
This comes from the EA I worked on:
“The Project is subject to review under the BCEAA, SBC 2002, c.43, as well as being subject to a screening level of review under the CEAA, SC 1992, C.37. As such, this Application addresses both provincial and federal EA requirements as per the respective legislative documents and per the Canada-BC Agreement on Environmental Assessment Cooperation.”
As to Ontario, I’ll take your word for it.
John, just as I thought, it was the BC Environmental Assessment Act with an agreement between the province and the feds to harmonize the review process.
I was wrong about Ontario’s EA requirements.
http://www.wind-works.org/articles/OSEA-Landowners-2005-r1-v3.pdf
It’s required for projects over 2 MW. There’s no federal requirement for an EA. There’s no requirement for decommissioning except as may be specified in the lease agreement. Which is meaningless, because all the owner does is fold the company, abandon the site and leave the owner to try to sue in civil court. 20 years later, he might get it removed.
Ontario has suspended municipal zoning laws for all solar and wind project applicants. Municipalities now have essentially no say.
I have noticed a fox who does quite well dining on wounded or fresh killed birds beneath one of those two bladed air beaters in Sault Saint Marie.
Phantom:
One of your relatives is a birdie?
But, as a comic, in all seriousness, today we have hunters who support Ducks Unlimited so they can help retain wetlands to house birds they can shoot, while we have greenies supporting skyblenders to help save the environment for the birds which they’ve mix-mastered to death. In other words, we have people who want to save ducks so they can kill them, and we have people who want to kill ducks so they can save them.
As Kate says “the world is run by crazy people”.
Conservatives have been concerned with conservation since long before the first Red Commie thought of becoming a Green Environazi.
KevinB said: “Phantom: One of your relatives is a birdie?”
No, one of them is a career government employee who’s all concerned about the windmills killing the nice birds. Makes for interesting Christmas dinners. I wanted to serve duck, but Mum threatened me with the wooden spoon.
eh tu? f u
What Oz said @ 11:43.The commies first utopia fell apart and now the second one is being exposed for the fraud that it is.
There is no shortage of power in Ont and something like 84% of generated wind power is excess of demand.
Martin…got a link for that? And my abacus is currently busted.Just what is 84% of 0.004% of all power generated in Morontario via these bird/bat killers?
justthinkin: Try this link and some of the headlines on the right side by P Gallant, makes for sober reading.
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2011/07/20/ontarios-power-trip-power-dumping/
84% of 0.004% = square root of f- all.