Bird deaths under-estimated

"A new study just published in the United States has estimated that around 573,000 birds were killed by wind turbines in 2012 (including 83,000 birds of prey), in increase of 30 per cent on a previous estimate by the US fish and Wildlife Service in 2009. Bats are even worse hit, says author K Shawn Smallwood, and probably top 888,000 killed per year.

Clearly this has serious implications for the renewable energy industry, which bases much of its investment and publicity on the safety and environmental sustainability of the machines. Smallwood also believes his figures are underestimated, owing to the incompleteness if reports of bird and bat deaths from different states, in particular Texas."


http://www.birdwatch.co.uk/channel/newsitem.asp?c=11&cate=__14606

This comes as no surprise. As someone commented to me the other day, up on Fullabrook Down, many buzzards, for example, are seen hovering above the turbines. It isn't that easy to stand on watch over 22 turbines, and we couldn't help wondering how many birds fall to the ground unnoticed, and are carried away by foxes overnight.

Slay the Array

Acceptance of planning application for UK's largest wind farm spells potential disaster for North Devon

Following the announcement that the Planning Inspectorate has accepted an applicationfrom Channel Energy Ltd to build the UK's largest offshore wind farm, consisting of 240 700-foot turbines, off the North Devon coast, Steve Crowther of campaign group Slay The Array said:

"North Devon is now in mortal danger.

"The jobs of one in six North Devonians depend on the visitors who come here fornature, tranquility and unspoilt views; a 10% fall in tourist numbers couldcost the area £30m a year.

"Our fish, birds and sea-mammals will be under threat, our fishermen out of work, and our shipping lanes an accident waiting to happen. Lundy will cease to exist as we know it.

"We face years of pile-driving, onshore construction and despoiling of the sea-bed, to build a massive white elephant producing intermittent electricity at three times the market cost.

"All this, in the second-best location for tidal power generation in the world!

"Tell everyone. We must fight this to the death."

For further information contact Steve Crowther, www.slaythearray.com

Energy Swindle

"Politicians should be doing everything they can to limit the pressure on household energy bills. Instead they are adding to the amount that you are paying by promising fat subsidies to companies who invest in expensive sources of energy like onshore and offshore wind turbines. Offshore wind costs three times as much as conventional energy but the Government want us to use a lot more of it, even if that means more pressure on people’s finances and more jobs lost as industry is driven overseas."

These words were written by Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the Taxpayers Alliance. The TPA have launched their Stop the Energy Swindle campaign at http://energyswindle.org/

Matthew Sinclair has also written a brilliant piece in the The Spectator titled "How the government's energy policies will benefit a rich sheik at the expense of the poor.

"How exactly have we got to a world in which Ministers are proud of signing a deal where poor families pay three times as much for their energy and the money is handed over in fat profits to an Emirati sheikhdom?" he asks.