With Mixed Emotions
Our northern border has become a home to hundreds of wind generators. They are huge. About fifty miles east of my house, a large wind project is being built. This generator (and dozens more like it) have been erected and will soon be operational.
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In principle I must like these behemoths. Energy from the wind is clean.
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However, several hours before I took the sunset shot of the windmill, I took this photo of a huge flock of migrating snow geese. There were thousands of them; the two pictures were taken only a mile or so apart.
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What will happen when the giant wind turbines begin operation? It is naive to think that migrating birds will not suffer because of our need for electricity.
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5 comments:
Hope for the best.
Maybe the geese will avoid the blades?
How are you feeling?
I wonder if the've considered that, and ways to make them not be damaging to the birds? I hope so.
From what my husband has said, the low thrumming sound as the blades turn has actually been deemed by some animal-welfare folks as a draw for the birds, and that's why so many birds are killed by these things.
I cannot honestly see ANY way around the connundrum. As humans, we need to keep warm in cold environments, and electricity is the most efficient way to do so. Oh, wood heat is not bad, but if EVERYBODY uses wood, we'll soon be barren of what few trees are left in this world. Of course the BEST thing would be to stop reproducing at such astonishing rates, to voluntarily limit the number of children we bring into this world. (Not aborting those we don't want, even, but wisely avoiding pregnancy through reliable birth control forms & sterilization.) But, until we ALL make that effort, those few of us who HAVE made the choice to steeply limit our reproduction are just pissin in the wind. And WE still need to stay warm. And those folks who purposefully bring 6, 7... 10, 12... 16 new children into this word through their own reproductive abilities are making the matter of being eco-conscious a LOT harder on those of us who actually give a rat's behind about BEING eco-conscious. It's a no-win situation for some of us.
Personally, however, I'm inclined to believe that the birds will quickly discover that these wind-mills are not safe places for them to roost and will soon adapt. Animals do that: adapt. Not to say we shouldn't do our part to keep them from needing to adapt, but I also don't think this will wipe all birds off the face of the earth, our using wind-powered electric.
Tell you what. I'll trade you the nuke plant 6 miles from my house for your 50 wind mills. You can also have Three Mile Island, about an hour away from me, and Peach Bottom Nuclear, about 1.5 hrs from me in the opposite direction. From my understanding, NY and other surrounding states probably use some of the power they generate.
The fact is, no reliable method of mass producing power for modern society, no matter how green, is without some cost and someone somewhere is not going to like its location. As far as siting wind farms is concerned, Mother Nature is going to dictate where they are built, where reliable, sustained winds are present.
If you want to be green and still stay warm, then you must be willing to put up with a few windmills, which generate no CO2 or other emissions. Unless you're Teddy Kennedy, and then you can torpedo a proposed offshore wind farm near Martha's Vineyard because he didn't like how it impeded his view from his beach house. I guess he's green, but only if it's convenient and it doesn't affect him.
What I would have given to see that. Two snow geese flew over me the other day (I don't remember ever seeing them here before) and I nearly fainted from not breathing.
I'm with you, Wiz. It breaks my heart.
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