Wind turbines, on the other hand, kill far, far more birds every year than were killed in the Syncrude event. But the wind power lobby (along with the same crowd that protested against Syncrude) goes out of its way to defend wind turbines:
... [wind power] proponents such as the Canadian Wind Energy Association stress that far more birds — tens of millions annually — are felled by cats, cars, and collisions with skyscrapers. But if that is a sufficient defence, should not the wind farm lobby have flocked to defend Syncrude Canada Ltd. against prosecution for far fewer deaths than routinely occur at wind farms across the country?Good question. It wasn't about birds, it was about oil sands.
This was a shakedown. I feel ashamed that it was a prosecutor and a judge from Alberta that conducted this sordid affair.
ReplyDeleteAnd this does not even address the wholesale slaughter of bats by the wind farms....
ReplyDeleteAs the turbines spin, they create a low-air-pressure area in their wake. Bats do not see areas of low air pressure and fly into them. Not the turbines - just the low air pressure areas.
They have air in their lungs. At normal air pressure...
The difference in air pressure is sufficiently large that it explodes their lungs.
Literally.
Now, even if you don't care about the bats themselves, they do control the insect population as well as pollinate (depending on the bats). So, in a few years, the impact of this large scale and systematic extermination of bats will very significantly impact our agriculture....
A hypocritical shakedown at that.
ReplyDeleteYes, Xan, I care about bats as much as I do ducks. Though ducks are probably tastier.
Perhaps...but not as essential to our ability to grow food.
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