Environmentalists put a stop to green energy*

[devilgrrl]

I need to run this by everyone. A alleged "green" from another board I frequent started this thread with the title I'm using here. This person was all over environmentalists over this issue. Now, what I need to know is why greens would have problems protecting birds or working out solutions to prevent birds from getting killed by windmills. Am I in error to think that greens and environmentalists are more or less on the same page?

You tell me. :shrug:

Unexpected Downside of Wind Power 

By Will Wade and   |   Also by this reporter

02:00 AM Oct. 14, 2005 PT

Thousands of aging turbines stud the brown rolling hills of the Altamont Pass on I-580 east of San Francisco Bay, a testament to one of the nation's oldest and best-known experiments in green energy.

Next month, hundreds of those blades will spin to a stop, in what appears to be a wind-energy first: Facing legal threats from environmentalists, the operators of the Altamont wind farm have agreed to shut down half of their windmills for two months starting Nov. 1; in January, they will be restarted and the other half will be shut down for two months.

Though the Altamont Pass is known for its strong winds, it also lies on an important bird-migration route, and its grass-covered hills provide food for several types of raptors. "It's the worst possible place to put a wind farm," said Jeff Miller, a wildlife advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. "It's responsible for an astronomical level of bird kills."

The dispute at Altamont Pass marks the highest-profile confrontation yet in an unlikely clash between wind-power proponents and environmental activists opposed to noncritical wind-farm development.

More: http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,69177,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

[Psephos]

1. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again

I'm glad to see that when reality clashed with ideology, ideology gave way. This speaks very well of the greens on both sides of this issue.

Even green energy has environmental consequences. For example, solar cells don't grow under cabbage leaves; they're made in factories using exotic processes. Tide power will inevitably affect sealife surrounding the tidal sites. Hydropower can cost the canyon above the dam and the wild river below it. Biofuels grown agriculturally create the same problems as other mass crops and consume the same resources. Everything humans do has some effect on the rest of the world. It's up to us to find a balance between what's acceptable and what is not.

Peace.

[Sal Minella]

2. The older turbines rotate sixty-some times a minute, I believe,

and the newer turbines rotate 16 or so times a minute -- as the old turbines are phased out and replaced, bird kills will decrease markedly.

It's sad that the green energy people and the wildlife people are brought into direct opposition on this, yes.

[flvegan]

3. What boggles the mind is that

they've learned to harness the wind for energy, yet haven't figured out how to build a "windmill scarecrow" for this.