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Wind Power News: Wildlife
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Robbins Island wind farm ruling ‘devastating’ for orange bellied parrots
A tribunal has overturned a requirement for a proposed wind farm to shut down for five months each year to protect migrating orange bellied parrots, in a major win for the industry. Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff on Monday welcomed as “pragmatic” an appeal ruling by the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on the Robbins Island wind farm, proposed for the state’s far northwest. He said the decision effectively overruled an Environment Protection Authority ruling that would have killed the $1.6 . . . Complete story »
As the US begins to build offshore wind farms, scientists say many questions remain about impacts on the oceans and marine life
As renewable energy production expands across the U.S., the environmental impacts of these new sources are receiving increased attention. In a recent report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examined whether and how constructing offshore wind farms in the Nantucket Shoals region, southeast of Massachusetts, could affect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The Conversation asked marine scientists Erin L. Meyer-Gutbrod (Assistant Professor of Earth, Ocean & Environment, University of South Carolina), Douglas Nowacek (Professor of Conservation Technology . . . Complete story »
Killing koalas to save wind farms?
Protecting koalas’ has been the favourite mantra invoked by Green groups and local councils to prevent basic services being built. Roads. Dams. Farm sheds. They are all killed off in case they upset fluffy tree bears. ‘Environmentalists’ used to wander down our dirt road and pluck unsuspecting koalas out of the trees to ‘protect’ them in conservation concentration camps. The koalas never seemed to be too pleased by the welfare checks. Mostly, they used to sit in the middle of . . . Complete story »
Bird migration endangered by World Energy GH2 project
I am writing in response to a recent article by birding columnist Bruce Mactavish, “Surprise bird spottings during autumn trip to Codroy Valley area.” I’ve been following the development of the World Energy GH2 project on the west coast of Newfoundland with great concern since its announcement in July 2022. The second proposed wind turbine site at the Anguille mountains in the Codroy Valley was a late addition to the project. The people there – and around the province – are only . . . Complete story »
Cape Vultures are on ‘collision course’ with wind farms
On 23 November last year, one of VulPro’s rehabilitated Cape vultures was struck by a wind farm turbine in the Eastern Cape. It was the first time a tracked vulture had been hit. “This particular bird was being monitored with a tracking device and we noted his movements had stopped and then landed up in urban Cape Town,” explained Kerri Wolter, the founder of VulPro, a non-profit conservation organisation dedicated to the preservation of vultures. “Zooming into the map, one . . . Complete story »
UK Govt rejects request to share whale stranding data, fuelling suspicions over offshore wind farms
While recent statistics from other countries are in the public domain, the UK’s delay in publishing data has increased speculation that the government might be hiding another sharp increase in cetacean strandings, and it’s fuelling further suspicions of a link between wind farms and the demise of marine life. Five-fold increase in UK cetacean strandings The 2018 tally of 1000+ cetaceans stranded on UK beaches, compares with an annual reported average of around 200 or less over a period of . . . Complete story »
Brazil’s big cats under threat from wind farms
Weighing more than 100 pounds, big cats have long reigned over this hot and semi-arid region of Brazil, developing tougher paws for the scorched earth and reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour to bring down wild boar and deer. But nothing could have prepared them for the 150-foot blades now slicing up the deep blue sky above them. Jaguars and pumas are facing extinction in the Caatinga, Brazil’s northeastern shrublands, as Europe and China pour investment into wind farms, . . . Complete story »
Why won’t Greenpeace admit that wind turbines may be killing whales?
Who cares about whales? Whales might be dying because of sonar surveying, but Greenpeace simply ignores the science that doesn’t suit it. So far last year, 71 whales have washed up dead on the shores of New England and neighbouring states. The rate seems to have risen in recent years along with a growth in the number of offshore wind turbines. A small group of concerned citizens have started to campaign against the turbines on behalf of the whales, and . . . Complete story »
Biden wants to shrink proposed marine sanctuary to accommodate wind energy factory owned by Dem donor
President Joe Biden wants to shrink a Pacific Ocean marine sanctuary meant to protect endangered whales in order to accommodate offshore wind energy factories—one of them owned by a major Democratic donor. The Biden administration late last month proposed cutting about 1,400 square miles of ocean and coastline from an Indian tribe’s proposed national marine sanctuary to make room for wind turbine infrastructure. One of these factories would belong to Invenergy, whose founder and CEO Michael Polsky has given more . . . Complete story »
Robbins Island wind farm developer seeks to remove shutdown clause designed to protect orange-bellied parrot
A company planning to build a wind farm on Robbins Island in Tasmania’s north-west has argued that the collision death of an orange-bellied parrot would not have a “statistical effect” on the birds’ long-term survival. ACEN Australia’s 100-turbine 720-megawatt proposal on the island sits in the middle of the parrot’s believed path for its annual return migration between Tasmania and Victoria. But due to its low numbers and high death rate for juveniles – four out of five released from . . . Complete story »
