Comments on: Finding: why wind turbines kill bats

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:44:35 +0000

Our forest bats are nocturnal creatures that navigate by sonar, not by sight. And apparently they are only attracted to the blade motion when they’re spinning at slower speeds. So preliminary studies suggest that many if not most bat deaths could be prevented by having the turbines shut down below a certain wind speed threshhold. (We’d probably know a lot more by now, but the wind industry in the U.S. has been highly uncooperative with independent researchers.) I am not sure what the implications might be for smaller, backyard turbines such as your site promotes.

By: DIY Renewable Energy

DIY Renewable Energy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:14:46 +0000

How bizarre!

I knew that wind turbines, especially vertical axis ones, were responsible for a number of bird deaths.

But I never knew bats were affected too. I guess any airborne life is harmed by wind turbines.

I believe the problem is that when the blades are spinning fast, the birds or bats don;t see them and try fly right through…then splat!

To prevent all these accidents, we need to find a way for the blades to be more visible to birds and other airborne creatures.

By: art predator

art predator — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 06:28:37 +0000

spooky…

great use of the prompt words and the article for substance!

By: joan

joan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:19:10 +0000

Consider the number of natural/unnatural disasters we’ve been having lately. Perhaps it’s Nature’s way of culling our over populated herd. At any rate, thank you for the wonderful heartbreaking poem. At least this particular aerodynamic murder was not caused deliberately by shooting animals from an airplane window.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:54:10 +0000

Well, the word is perhaps a little bit too vague, i agree. It’s more the commodification of the earth, and of other human beings, that’s a problem — but even the most benign forms of consumption cannot be ecologically sustainable when one species is as numerous as we are right now.

By: joan

joan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:39:04 +0000

There is always that word ‘consume’, isn’t there? Each step up in the food chain consumes the one below it. Are we the only species who consume animals for food and also burn/consume something for the warmth (and sometimes coolness) we need to survive? Maybe left to the fates we would re-evolve into furry creatures.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:14:22 +0000

I had no idea about this. “Glue-eyed moon” is wonderful.

By: Jo

Jo — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:00:53 +0000

Fantastic.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:42:47 +0000

Joan, there may well be other designs (internal-blade turbines, for example) that minimize damage to bats. But that won’t do much for other problems, especially the loss of fragile ridgeline habitat here in the east. And until we find an effective way to store wind and solar energy, large concentrations of such alternative energy plants will greatly destabilize the power grid.

The effect of external-blade turbines on migrating birds is somewhat different but just as severe, and what is most aggravating to me is the way most mainstream environmentalists are trying to push all the data under the rug and demonize those of us who oppose wind installations. Happy talk is better for fundraising than traditional doom-and-gloom, which as you can imagine I staunchly adhere to. We simply cannot continue to consume energy (or anything else) at our current level and expect that there won’t be some rather steep trade-offs in health and in biodiversity.

By: joan

joan — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:03:31 +0000

Very nice poem Dave. However, I hate to learn in such an exquisite manner that such a horrible thing is happening to the bats.

Why is it that every possible oil alternative method we can think of to obtain energy ends up dangerous to animal life (including of course ourselves, if you count nuclear) or wasteful, nay ruinuous to plant life if you count corn..etc.

Maybe they can put ultrasonic whistles on the ends of the
blade that only bats can hear and hate.