Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wind Power...or Hot Air?

Low cost power at what cost?

Our planet is in grave danger. We need to find a better way to power our life style. Possibly wind power can be one of the answers. It's relatively inexpensive to construct these towers in any area that produces a steady wind...like Washington D.C.

All of our politicians are getting on the environmental band wagon and promoting this as the end all answer to our energy woes. It will provide manufacturing jobs and construction jobs. But what it needs to do FIRST is produce RESEARCH jobs.

These towers are, for the most part, unregulated. They can put them up anywhere. We really need to contact our legislators and ask them to fund research in advance. In our area of Ottawa county, Ohio we have one of the greatest spring migrations in the world! Millions of songbirds, shorebirds and raptors fly through here on their way to their breeding habitats.

I know that birds get killed everyday by man made obstacles, office buildings, utility towers and even cars, but do we really need one more thing in the way? I don't want to see more birds needlessly killed.

For more information please click on these links:

Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Responsible Wind Energy

"A Long Night's Journey Into Death" by Kenn Kaufman

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania conference on Wind Energy

I realize I'm not the most eloquent or knowledgeable person, but I do know that we need to do something NOW!

The birds of Magee Marsh thank you.

10 comments:

  1. I agree, agree and agree... Even people start to complain in France about the noise. We have couple of them closed by villages, and people start to see the negative effects.... I think you are totally right about research (Well remember I'm a scientist, give us more money ;-) ). This new technique is just plain perfect they say, but we never studied their potential effects of wildlife (just like many other new things). We just realize the negative effect much too late.
    However, some countries do it well. I remember I did a cruise in Belgium many years ago, to investigate what kind of organisms lived in the continental plateau, and the objective was to find a location where sealife was poor, to place windmill!

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  2. totally agree...windmill farms are not the answer...research is needed, yes, but also much much more consumer education about the simple things we can all do to reduce/reuse/recycle. Our small town has won awards for how it manages waste and we have seen a dramatic 50% decrease in waste being diverted to landfills. We also compost or recycle pretty much everything now,and it was shocking this past fall to visit our southern neighbours and see how much plastic they used- and how it all just gets tossed.Out of sight, out of mind... 'til we need more plastic plates and cutlery and the energy to create it. Just sayin'

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  3. Chris, Thank you for being a biologist and helping out the world.

    Thanks Susan. If only everyone would realize that it's not the 19th century anymore. We need to research BEFORE implementing new technologies...

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  4. Thanks for posting this. I signed the petition.

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  5. All the Warbly things of Magee thank you!

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  6. Thank you so much for helping us spread the word, Dave. I know that your passion for this area rivals our own and I appreciate the fact that you're willing to stand with us and fight to protect it.

    hugs,

    Kimmay

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  7. No, thank you Kim! What you do for nature and all of us bird nerds is amazing. I wish I could live up to your standards.

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  8. Just signed the petition, Dave! We get these all over the planet nowadays. It's shocking how they get promoted as environmentally friendly...

    Hope you are well, Sir, and thank you for emailing me about the problem!

    Nickolay

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  9. Thanks Nickolay! This problem is all over the world as you well know. Hopefully our message will get through!

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  10. Happy to join at the request of old friends Betty and Bud Boylan.

    Lois and Karl Taylor
    Southport, NC

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