Yes, folks, modern wind turbines kill birds

I just noticed that comments from Californa campaigner Darryl Mueller on Shea Gunther's supercilious blog have not been deleted. Anything I post to the lad's blog is instantly deleted, of course, since I insisted on seeing the records to back up his claim that "a kilowatt-hour of wind energy means one less kilowatt-hour of conventional fuel burned."

In the face of Herr Gunther's denial that wind turbines kill birds anywhere else than Altamont Pass, I nonetheless posted a reference to one of the recent stories in the U.K. about the very rare white-tailed eagles killed in Smola, Norway, as well as the disruption of their breeding: "Wind farms condemned as eagles fall prey to turbines," The Times, Jan. 28, 2006. (Also see the earlier post on this site, noting 8 more dead eagles found that weren't mentioned in the U.K. reports.)

In his other efforts to distinguish Altamont, he emphasizes how slow the blades turn on new turbines, ignoring the fact that the blades are so long that they're turning at about 170 mph on most models.

He also laughs at birds and bats who aren't "smart enough" to avoid flying into the giant spinning blades, confusing willful violence with natural selection. I suppose he laughs when children are hit by cars?

tags:  wind power, wind energy, wind farms, wind turbines, environment, environmentalism, animal rights

Whole Foods and the union

As Whole Foods, the 180-store natural foods grocer, now pretends to be using wind energy (and everyone seems to believe them), it is probably an appropriate time to bring up the fact that they hate unions, i.e., they hate that their workers might be able to look to another organization to defend their rights instead of simply submitting on the beneficent paternalism of the Whole Foods executives.

In 2002, the employees of the Whole Foods in Madison, Wis., successfully organized with United Food and Commercial Workers. The primary organizers were fired for sharing a botched latte instead of throwing it out. Founder and CEO John Mackey then toured the country to tell his employees how much they would lose if they unionize. He also threatened to pull advertising from magazines that ran ads for union drives.

A web site by the Madison workers keeps the union drive alive: www.wholeworkersunite.org.

Some interesting comments can be found in a discussion at Vegan Porn.

tags:  wind power, wind energy, anarchism, anarchosyndicalism

Fight for a better world than this

Today's Progressive Review contains three stories about the pathetic thuggery of our government. The first comes from Georgia, where the ACLU released files showing extensive spying by the FBI, Homeland Security, and other agencies on citizens who express opinions that differ from the government's -- even in the matter of diet. Vegans picketing outside a ham store were watched by an undercover Homeland Security detective. One of the protesters noticed him, however, and came over and wrote down his license plate number (a wise precaution with such stalking). The detective demanded the paper, which was refused, and the protester was taken to jail.

The ACLU is also fighting the "ideological exclusion" provision in the Patriot Act that denies visas to foreign scholars that the government doesn't like (or fears).

And then there's the secret "no-fly list," which prevents journalists, activists, politicians, and many other people, even babies and toddlers, from boarding planes. It is said that there are 80,000 names on the list. There is no way to find out if you're on it until you try to board your flight. There's no way to find out why you're on the list and no way to get your name removed. Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative John Lewis found that they were listed and had to make several phone calls to get themselves off. Most of us, however, lack their connections.

A four-year-old was stopped, and the braindead processors held him until higher-ups from the transportation security administration cleared him. He had to go through the same process again on the return flight.

French journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy recently toured the country, calling himeself a new Alexis de Tocqueville. It was de Tocqueville (Democracy in America, 1835) who coined the term "tyranny of the majority," but Lévy was determined not to see it. Another useful idiot for this bitter, scared, thuggish America is, for example, "eco-entrepreneur" Shea Gunther, proud to be "100% American" as he calls for debate and then censors all of it. There is a better America, but it is the enemy of the one we have.

Go saoraid!

tags:  anarchism, ecoanarchism, anarchosyndicalism, animal rights, vegetarianism

Turbines kill rare eagles

From today's Guardian:

Wind turbines have caused the death of four rare, white-tailed eagles on islands off the Norwegian coast, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said yesterday.

The failure of as many as 30 other white-tailed eagles to return to breeding areas has added to concerns about the impact of wind farms on wildlife.

The Norwegian Ornithological Society, which monitors the 68-turbine Smola wind facility in question, has also found eight dead white-tailed (also called sea) eagles under the facility's power lines. All of these discoveries are not the result of systematic surveys but are only come upon by chance.

tags:  wind power, wind energy, wind farms, wind turbines, environment, environmentalism

Authoritarian democracy

Juan Cole writes in today's Salon (in an essay about Hamas's electoral victory in Palestine):

Democracy depends not just on elections but on a rule of law, on stable institutions, on basic economic security for the population, and on checks and balances that forestall a tyranny of the majority. Elections in the absence of this key societal context can produce authoritarian regimes and abuses as easily as they can produce genuine people power. Bush is on the whole unwilling to invest sufficiently in these key institutions and practices abroad.

That's the case at home, too.

On censorship

In most cases of censorship, it is the censor who thus proves his "stupidity."

tags:  wind power, wind energy, environment, environmentalism, anarchism, ecoanarchism, anarchosyndicalism

Signing away the farm

Here is a lovely part of the lease contract that Irish company Airtricity presents to landowners in New York.

9. Waived Right to Object. LANDOWNER acknowledges that certain aspects inherent to the operation of the Wind Energy Facility may result in some nuisance, such as visual impacts, possible increased noise levels, possible shadow flicker on residences, and other possible effects of electrical generation and transmission including without limitation potential interference with radio, television, telephone, mobile telephone and other electronic devices. LESSEE will attempt to minimize any impacts to LANDOWNER in part by taking every reasonable measure to meet or exceed standard U.S. wind industry practices in designing the Wind Energy Facility, and abiding by all regulations pertaining to the permitting and design of the Wind Energy Facility. LANDOWNER understands and has been informed by LESSEE that the Wind Energy Facility on the Leased Property may result in some nuisance, and hereby accepts such nuisance and waives their right to object to such nuisance provided that LESSEE complies with its obligations herein.

Also see "Signing it all away for crumbs from the table," about the contract presented to New York landowners by Singapore-based Noble Environmental.

tags:  wind power, wind energy, wind farms