Letter to Environment for the Americas 

We are pleased to announce that the 2023 World Migratory Bird Day campaign will focus on the topic of water and its importance for migratory birds.

Water is fundamental to life on our planet. The vast majority of migratory birds rely on aquatic ecosystems during their life cycles. Inland and coastal wetlands, rivers, lakes, streams, marshes, and ponds are all vital for feeding, drinking, or nesting, and also as places to rest and refuel during their long journeys.

Unfortunately, aquatic ecosystems are becoming increasingly threatened around the world and so are the migratory birds that depend on them. The increasing human demand for water, as well as pollution and climate change, are having a direct impact on the availability of clean water and the conservation status of many migratory birds.

—Environment for the Americas

I believe you are in willful denial of a factor of huge significance to bird loss, by the omission of the mention of wind turbines.

This global denial will run us right into a point of no return for many species of birds and bats. This is truly tragic.

Addressing reality is the only way to protect our voiceless birds. If we talk about it we can consider its impact, and potential improvements.

One constructive example: “Painting one wind turbine blade can reduce bird fatalities by 72%”.

However, putting turbines in the water column and killing fish, and putting turbines in the air and killing birds, is basically the same thing.

We need to learn from history and not regret our actions when it is too late.

We are on the verge of launching yet more bird and bat eating blades into our air column.

Years go by while damage mitigation is talked about and attempted.

Meanwhile the bird and bat populations are getting decimated.

And in spite of no significant remedies, more wind farms are in the works, both onshore and offshore. Now we are seeing whale die off.

We are on the verge of potentially wiping out the albatross, murrelets, puffins, pelicans, and terns, some of whom circumnavigate the globe with their ancient and historic flights.

We will look back at our eagerness to prevent one environmental problem at the expense of the irreversible loss of species, and ask ourselves why we made the birds the salmon of this era.

Future generations will condemn us for making such an ignorant choice.

We need to look at the big picture. Wind turbines are not the answer.

This is not a political issue.

It is a common sense issue. Birds do not care about politics. When they are gone they are gone.

I speak on their behalf. The magnificent Albatross flying just a few miles off our coast with a wing span of 10-12 feet and can live upwards of 65 years, for example.

None of these birds can come to the table to speak on their own behalf. When they are gone they will not be coming back.

Do not forget that the incentive for these projects is not simply for the environment. They are for-profit ventures.

Big companies like Terra-Gen ride the wave of people’s fear all the way to the bank. And don’t forget, money buys a lot of persuasion.

We have been led down the path into a bell ringing deadline for these projects, at the expense of our songbirds, migrating waterfowl, wildlife, and trees, to “save the planet.”

What planet ? if we kill things that won’t come back?

Committing to damaging projects in haste and out of fear, which we know will kill thousands of our birds, including bald eagles, osprey, terns, and albatross is a decision that we will have years to regret at our leisure.

And generations after us will cry about it.

Look at our salmon. Do we want to condemn the actions of past generations that killed millions of salmon, and then do the same thing to our birds?

Dams seemed like a great idea at the time.

The word mitigation is thrown around, but if you look into the wording of these documents you will see that it is just a word.

Sometimes the kill rate is just offset by some kind of payback in another area, and that is referred to as mitigation. Not for the animals that die.

Nothing is said specifically. Words like tracking and flyways and that “things have improved.” Actually not.

Just enough is said to placate people.

If mitigation hasn’t been successful yet, why should we buy that it will magically be successful now?

Decisions based on fear are seldom wise. Projects of this magnitude need to be made with thoughtfulness for our quality of life.

Has the need been shown to outweigh the true cost?

Can we do more for our needs in other ways?

Let us think together. We all want to do the right thing. It makes no sense to do damage in order to accomplish something good.

Knowledge is power. We need to arm ourselves with as much information as we can, by looking into these proposed projects.

Who are we actually helping? Who is the power being sold to?

Look up Terra-Gen. This is no small enterprise. Look at what they are doing all over the planet. Panic is being used as a lever against us by a company who wants to install another grid. They make billions of dollars with our wind and our birds and our land.

We need to speak up if we don’t want this moving onto our land or into our oceans, because once it’s here, it’s here.

The value of wind energy will be cancelled before it is accomplished. It is high maintenance and destructive. By the time many of these damaging wind projects are completed they will already be outdated.

There are options that we currently have already in our midst that can be used for our future.

Can we decrease our needs with Passive Energy Systems, as a way as of supplying them?

There are many methods of Energy Harvesting. Scientists and engineers have had decades to be working on this.

Other countries have ideas we haven’t tapped into.

We can’t wait for one big solution to come along. Giant industrial projects were the cause of much damage in the first place. – The mentality of the fifties sixties.

Now they are being prioritized due to the massive potential to make money.

Let us use what we currently know in terms of conservation, and couple that with many smart decisions.

Many small choices can equal one huge one, with little to no destruction involved. And we can implement those choices now.

We have to do it together.

We don’t have to buy the idea that energy creation has to come as a cost to our environment.

That is NOT true. I repeat. NOT true. We just have to be smart.

We need to think ahead and not look to the past.

We do not need chunky, damaging, large scale industrial, old technology. Wind turbines are an outdated idea. Wind energy has been a popular idea since the seventies.

Surely we can do better in 2023. But we need to speak up. And speak up now.

We must be thoughtful and not easily give away what we may never get back.

Sincerely,
~~~
Suzanne E. Atiyeh
South Carolina, USA

I’m sorry but your stupid green energy windmills are killing thousand of birds. pic.twitter.com/wSdzGJ9Cmw

— Squirrel Mama (@SquillMama) September 8, 2022