Windpower Has Risks - Environmentalists Perplexed

(Halifax, Nova Scotia) The utopian alternative energy advocates are in a quandary about this story. They are stubbing their toes because of the realization (which they will never acknowledge) that there are risks associated with wind power. Specifically, wind farming tends to reduce the natural beauty of pristine flocks of wild birds into chopped and bloody maggot food.

A sandbar named Sable Island lies about 200 miles out in the Atlantic where the weather is known to be especially nasty. Appropriately, a weather station is there to monitor the sea and the air. Electric power for the station has been provided by diesel generation with fuel being flown in. Since diesel fuel can spill, green geniuses decided that wind generators would be more suitable. So the government spends oogats of Canadian taxpayer dollars to load up and transport the equipment to the island and construct the wind towers.

Someone, however, noticed that birds inhabited the planned construction site so all work stopped.

"At first we thought it was just a couple of pairs [of terns] that might move on . . . but the group indicated that they were prepared to camp down there for a number of years," said George Finney, Atlantic director for the Canadian Wildlife Service.

The terns can become aggressive toward human intruders, so it would be unwise to try to scare them away, said Mr. Finney, who was attacked by a tern colony in the Arctic. [Mr. Finney also goes by "Fraidy Cat" Finney.]

The equipment has been lying in the sand for the past 18 months, surely degrading from the incessant salt spray from the ocean. Officials are evaluating how accommodating the birds will be to having humans around their neighborhood. The birds are calling the shots in this drama. The birdbrains are waiting for their instructions.

Thanks to Ranting and Roaring for pointing me to this story.