The panacea of the enviros—wind and solar—are losing their fool’s gold shine. Expensive, unreliable and damaging to the environment, the truth about wind and solar is coming out.
“Renewable” is a misnomer. Wind and solar are “on their own time” energy sources, meaning we have no control over nor any reasonable way to predict the amount of energy we get. Think of it in terms of food—if your food source is wild berries, you eat only when you find berries. If you find no berries—or anything else—to eat, you go hungry. Now, the berries are “renewable”–they grow back in some quantity every year, sometimes several times a season. When the season is over, all one can do is wait for the next season, or search elsewhere. Wind and solar are not a return to simpler times such as the 1800’s. They are a return to preindustrial, pre-agricultural times when people used up all the resources in one area and then moved on—hunter/gatherer lives.
Turbines have been demonstrated to have much shorter “life spans” than the industry claims. It seems 10 to 15 years is a more realistic estimate (not the 20 the industry states) and many times, constant repair is necessary. One can find story after story of turbines losing blades, leaking hydraulic fluid, etc. Leaking hydraulic fluid does not fall under eco-friendly, yet you don’t see environmentalists objecting. The turbines continue to be labelled “earth friendly”.
Then there’s the bird/bat issue. I want to give kudos to the American Bird Conservatory for their fight against turbines on Lake Erie. When Rachel Carson wrote “Silent Spring”, there was a huge outcry and DDT was banned. Millions reportedly died in Africa from malaria, but that was to “save the birds”. All for a theory that turned out to be completely false. Yet, bodies of birds fall daily from turbines and evidence is everywhere of the damage they do. It’s a fact, not a theory. Maybe it’s time for “Rotochop and Bat Bursting Spring”, the story of wind turbines and birds. Maybe graphic images of the remains of raptors under turbines and animated bats exploding might alert people to the dangers of wind power. Forget softened egg shells—wind turbines take out the egg-laying adults. So where are the Rachel Carson followers? Why no screaming over the decimation of raptor and bat populations. Could it be this was more about destroying modern life that saving birds? It certainly seems that way, doesn’t it?
With all of the downsides, it’s still a battle to get people to understand why wind and solar are a bad deal, except for those lapping up the subsidies and tax credits. Wind and solar are a very anti-environment, anti-people, and anti-economic.
There have been some encouraging developments:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/wind-permits-allowing-eagle-deaths-face-blowback-20140123 (the Audubon Society seems to at least be taking some notice)