Pointless Destruction: The Appalling Environmental Cost of Wind Power

One issue that annoys RE zealots, like a burr under a frisky pony’s saddle blanket, is the wind industry’s rampant bird and bat slaughter. It’s an inconvenient truth to be sure. But, as with everything that the wind industry does, if you can’t keep a straight face while lying about it any more, then pull out all stops and cover it up.

The wholesale slaughter of millions of birds and bats – includes rare, endangered and majestic species, like America’s iconic bald and golden eagles. The default response from the wind industry is to lie like fury and – when the corpses can no longer be hidden and the lying fails – to issue court proceedings to literally bury those facts (see our post here).

The hackneyed retort from the wind cult is that cars, cats and tall buildings kill more birds than their beloveds.

Attempting to compare an utterly pointless power generation source – abandoned centuries ago for very obvious reasons, that wouldn’t exist without massive and endless subsidies – with automobiles and skyscrapers is risible.

Motorcars and high-rise buildings both serve useful purposes, providing meaningful and independent mobility to the masses and permitting the high levels of urban density needed for modern cities. Whereas, wind turbines provide power in occasional, chaotic spurts – delivering power less than 30% of the time, at totally random intervals – require their entire generating capacity to be matched by dispatchable sources, such as coal and gas and, accordingly, serve no meaningful purpose, other than harvesting endless subsidies.

And for all the talk about cats killing more raptors than wind turbines, try and find a single verified account of a moggy bringing down a healthy Wedge-Tailed Eagle, Hawk or Kite.

Likewise, good luck finding a case involving raptors colliding with cars or buildings. These are, after all, apex predators with supreme senses and flying skills. What they’re not designed to avoid are 60 m blades with their outer tips travelling at over 350 Kph.

This recent study by the Global Warming Policy Forum details the appalling scale of the wholly unnecessary carnage, and what it means for the ecosystem, as a whole.

The Appalling Environmental Cost of Wind Energy
Global Warming Policy Forum
Press Release
8 July 2019

The new GWPF report, “The Impact of Wind Energy on Wildlife and the Environment” contains contributions from both researchers and campaigners, with a focus on birdlife.

Professor Oliver Krüger describes his cutting-edge research, which has shown how birds of prey and ducks are being killed in their thousands in Germany. The risk to these species is so great that there is a possibility of whole populations being wiped out.

Klaus Richarz, the former head of a major bird reserve in Germany, describes how windfarm operators are evading strict compliance with the rules, to the detriment of both birds and bats.

Dr Peter Henderson, of the University of Oxford, reviews the effects of wind turbines on a wide variety of animals. He suggests that death toll on bats may already be ecologically significant:

“About 200,000 bats are annually killed at onshore wind turbines in Germany alone. These numbers are sufficient to produce concern for future populations, as bats are long-lived and reproduce slowly, so cannot quickly replace such losses.”

Lastly, Paula Byrne of WindAware Ireland describes how windfarms in her native country have desecrated landscapes, and have even threatened the endangered Nore Freshwater Pearl Mussel.

With an extraordinary expansion of renewable energy planned, there is potential for these serious environmental impacts to become catastrophic.

Download your copy of the report: The Impact of Wind Energy on Wildlife and the Environment (PDF)
Global Warming Policy Forum

Our portrait of the week: ‘Red Kite in Two Parts’ by The Wind Industry.