Rare Sea Eagles ‘Butchered’ At European Wind Farms
An ill wind blows as ‘green’ turbines continue to kill rare Sea Eagles…
“and I find for the first time in my life that I turn away from the sea. Where once a soul could seek peace in the infinite view and find refreshment in the constantly playful breeze, now it is ill winds that are blowing around our coasts from the menacing turbines.”
We were strolling with our new pooch today along the coast of the Wirral Peninsula (in North Western England). I love a coastal ramble but in this part of the world, where once was a vast open vista of sea and sky that refreshed both the senses and the spirit, there is now a horizon entirely dominated by terrifying wind turbines, some of the tallest in the world.
Regular readers will know that I detest these things, inefficient monsters that destroy our environment and harm wildlife. And that is aside from the fact that they are a horrible blot on our precious seascapes (and landscapes where they appear onshore). Once it was possible to look out to sea and imagine infinity, to allow the mind to contemplate unlimited possibilities; now the view has been sullied and that spirit of inner peace and freedom quashed.
Instinctively I knew these turbines were a harmful development in the world as soon as they began to raise their ugly heads, and this feeling was borne out by reports of the horrible side effects that came along with the folly of wind energy. Detrimental to environment and life, the destructive machines masquerade under a sinister cloak of good intention. It is the very thing we were warned about in folk tales, the proverbial wolf dressed as a sheep.
Sold to the world as a force for good, wind farms are but a dark tool of those who would wantonly destroy the natural wonders that we treasure.
It was with dismay that I heard, quite recently, of yet another very rare eagle being killed by the blades of a turbine. Such happenings are common though rarely reported.
This time it was in the Netherlands at a wind farm in Lelystad. The site of the wind farm is close to a nature reserve that has, with tragic irony, been a safe refuge for the endangered Sea Eagles since they were reintroduced to the country a little over a decade ago. The female eagle was believed to be around five years old and had collided with the fast spinning turbine blades at a height of 100 metres. According to experts at Wageningen University, she had broken legs, a broken wing and multiple internal wounds.
A sad end for a majestic creature.
Hundreds of thousands of eagles and other birds are being killed by wind turbines and with most of the deaths being undocumented, the general public remain largely unaware of the destruction caused to bird life by the banks of turbines which are heavily marketed as being ‘green’ and ‘environmentally friendly’, clearly a deception. The desperately threatened Sea Eagles in Europe are one of the biggest casualties.
The development of offshore wind farms around our coast, and the coasts of many other countries, is causing huge environmental harm as massive wind turbines are installed in vast ‘farms’ out at sea. It’s nothing less than large scale industrial development and would be never be tolerated onshore. Yet we are allowing it to happen in the last wilderness on our planet — the ocean. In fact many governments are actively promoting this industrialisation of our seas — without our consent. Energy companies, and suspect environmental lobby groups with an interest in the wind industry, employ celebrities to endorse their spin, their intention being to mislead the public into believing that wind energy is a force for good, while pollution and a serious threat to wildlife are just two reasons to suggest that it isn’t. Another is that once our coast is blighted by turbines, much like the vandalism that has already been caused by onshore wind farms, there is no turning back. The damage will have been done.
Meanwhile when I walk along the coast here, I find for the first time in my life that I turn away from the sea. Where once a soul could seek peace in the infinite view and find refreshment in the constantly playful breeze, now it is ill winds that are blowing around our coasts from the menacing turbines.
photo © Yathin S Krishnappa
Originally published at jasonendfield.weebly.com.
