Blowin’ Wind

I was thrilled when the first windmills appeared on the Laurentian Divide near my hometown of Virginia, Minnesota, but a few years later, having noticed a significant amount of “down time,” I checked on wind power’s record with the help of my new associates in the Thorium Energy Alliance and discovered that the windmill industry had been selling more sizzle than steak.

During the “green” search for energy alternatives, which was guided by an “anything but nuclear” bias, the Sierra Club and others to which I once belonged took pains to define what was “renewable” and what was not. In so doing, they deliberately (and ironically), excluded CO₂-free nuclear power, even though we have enough uranium and thorium to last 100,000 years.

Sierra Club – NOT founded on Nuclear

Because those who profit from wind and solar said nothing about their carbon footprints, environmental damage, resource use, inefficiency, bird, bat and human deaths (death prints) and the need for huge subsidies, we drank their Kool-Aid, and now wonder why it’s making us sick. Well, here’s why, from many points of view.

Number 1 – Safety

Windmills kill 1 million birds and 1 million bats per year, even as insect borne diseases like Zika, dengue fever and malaria are increasing. (Bats can be killed by just getting too close to the low pressure area that accompanies each blade, which ruptures their lungs) How “green” is that?

Energy company to pay up to $35 million after turbines killed eagles by Lindsey Bever, 9 April 2022

150 Eagles Killed. The Money Won’t Bring Them Back

Shouldn’t environmentalists care that, according to Save the Eagles International, “windmills kill 30 million birds and 50 million bats per year.”
George Erickson

Spain’s 18,000 wind turbines are killing 6-18 million birds and bats yearly – actual carcass count
Spanish Ornithological Society

Shouldn’t they care that Pacific Corp., which owns 13 windfarms, has sued the U. S. Interior Department to keep it from revealing how many birds and bats their windmills have killed?

Dead Eagle Data: Buffet/Berkshire/PacifiCorp Don’t Want You to Know

Don’t these “environmentalists” care that, according to Science magazine, a “single colony of 150 brown bats has been estimated to eat nearly 1.3 million disease-carrying insects each year”? Shouldn’t they know that, according to the US Geological Survey, bats consume harmful pests that feed on crops, providing about USD 23 billion in benefits to America’s agricultural industry every year?

53 Billion Reasons Why Bats are Important
United States Geological Survey

Bats Remove Millions of Tonnes of Crop Pests Each Year

“North America lost 3 billion birds between 1970 and 2019” [ WSJ] but no one mentions windmills for contributing to this disaster!

Birds Are Vanishing From North America

The number of birds in the United States and Canada has declined by 3 billion, or 29 percent, over the past half-century, scientists find.
Carl Zimmer 19 September 2019

Part 1 of Chapter 9 continues next week… Vanishing Humans…

Coming up next week, Episode 25 – Hazards to Humans. The Blades of Death.

Links and References

#UnintendedConsequences #GeorgeErickson #Fission4All #RadiationIsGood4U #GetYourRadiation2Day #InvisibleFire #Eagles #Bats #Birds #SierraClub #WindTurbines

Tag: Fission4All

Episode 24 – Blowing in the Wind. An Eagles Nightmare – Unintended Consequences – Chapter 9 Part 1

Blowin’ Wind

Number 1 – Safety

Links and References