Killing an eagle can put you in jail for a year and cost $5,000, under federal law. But killing hundreds of eagles in the name of saving the planet earns you taxpayer subsidies?
As reported by the Washington Post,
One of the nation’s largest wind farms, the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area near Livermore, Calif., has killed an average of nearly 2,000 raptors annually, including more than 500 eagles, over four years, according to federal agencies and bird watchers.
DDT never harmed any eagle, but was banned anyway, despite its great public health utility. Wind turbines are unnecessary, expensive and kill thousands and thousands of birds annually — and are considered “green”. Go figure.
To mitigate lies with statistics that people try to sell you, always qualify, not quantify. Climate change is overated and is being adressed at the expense of ecosystem health, land use planning and bird/wildlife conservation. Fake green initiative promoters like to talk about vague concepts because real land use progress is too tangible, too paradigm changing and too excellent. Too useful to possibly consider investing in and recieving benefits from an alternative model to land destruction, grassland conversion and deforestation. Yes, cats kill birds, yes they should be kept inside. A hundred sparrows and finches killed is an ethical and ecological disaster for a given metapopulation, threatening to wipe out pockets of birdlife. But killing an eagle, falcon, pelican or vulture has an even more profound ecological impact. Studies have shown the critical importance of top down control in ecosystems, through top predators like raptors reduction of smaller predators that harm wildlife. Reconsider many windfarm developments. Nuclear is the only way to go, I think. It just needs to be done safely, and fusion should not be repressed. It is much better to put atoms together, and safer, than blowing them apart. And no DDT! That is the most dangerous chemical invented, and it was proven to thin the eggshells of birds by interfering with their calcium producing endrocrine glands.
40 year old wind turbines are indeed deadly to raptors, that is why they are being replaced. …and that would be 70 Golden Eagles. Gus
DDT is really not so harmful for eagles. it should not be banned.
Are you sure they aren’t referring to the so-called ‘coyotes’ who smuggle people into the US across the Mexican border for exorbitant fees? I hear the Left Coast considers them a ‘protected species’ the same as voter registrars.
In San Francisco Coyotes seem to be a protected species; no shooting, trapping, or poisoning allowed. This is a good way to keep the feral cat population down and save all those birds.
Large “propeller” type horizontal axis wind generators are obsolete. Vertical Axis Wind Turbines should be used on all new installations..
Are wind farm developers getting “take” permits that allows killing of a specified number of protected birds? Are the required to submit eagle management plans that describe the protective measures that will be taken to protect habitat and animals that will be in jeopardy from turbines? If not, why not?
Why aren’t wind farm operators prosecuted for killing eagles and and other species that are protected by by either the Endangered
Species or Migratory Bird Treaty Acts?
The standard greenie response is that cat’s kill billions of birds each year while wind mills kill hundreds of thousands. But I doubt cats kill many, if any, eagles.