For the last year or more, some citizens in my area have been fighting a proposed wind farm, with accusations of nefarious tactics on both sides. I’ve pretty much been of the opinion that we can’t get all NIMBY about this kind of thing if we hope to break our dependence on fossil fuels, but I acknowledge that they’re not trying to put up a turbine across the road from me and my opinion is not really relevant. However, today I came across this article, and I don’t think I can go along with this.
In brief, the wind company plans to submit a request for a permit to kill bald eagles and golden eagles in order to (AFAICT) keep them from being killed by the proposed wind turbines.
The thought of allowing this company to kill these magnificent birds makes me sick to my stomach. I suppose eventually there will be a lot of places facing similar choices, so I’m interested to find out what Dopers think. So what’ll it be, eagles or wind power?
Wind. If any eagles get zapped by the blades, fry 'em up for lunch on your electric stove powered by a wind turbine, then save the leftovers in the fridge, powered the same way.
Eagles are an important part of the ecosystem. You can’t just take one part out without throwing everything else out of balance. I’m sympathetic to alternate energy sources and I even think wind farms are pretty. But the whole point of alternate energy to begin with is that it’s more environmentally friendly. If it’s going to ravage the environment anyway, we might as well stick with coal. And it’s not like I’d be on board with a coal plant that killed eagles, either.
An “Incidental Take” permit doesn’t mean they’re allowed to intentionally kill any eagles; only that they can legally operate the windmills despite the fact that some eagles will die as a result. I still vote for eagles, but it’s not quite as evil a plan as the OP suggests.
In all seriousness, there seems to be a controversy as to whether birds are killed by turbines or not. It seems odd that a maneuverable flying creature with such incredible eyesight can’t see and avoid the blades. It’s not like they are invisible. Do eagles crash into tall trees and big mountains, too?
Seriously, some of you were really thinking the evil wind company was going to employ snipers to shoot bald eagles out of the sky? Hey, I hear they use live kittens and puppies as bait, too.
I voted Eagles, assuming, of course (as you probably meant) to use their amazing flying abilities to generate power rather those crappy old windmill things.
That IS what you meant, right?
And when they run out of steam, you can always kill and eat them.
Have there already been instances of eagle fatalities caused by the blades of windmills? I have a cousin whose company was connected somehow to another that installed the blades of windmills. They’re actually quite huge (one flatbed traincar holds a single blade. I could be wrong, but it doesn’t seem to me the blades in average winds would be rotating fast enough to cause the deaths of these endangered fowl. And why the bald eagle and the golden eagle in particular? In my perhaps uneducated opinion, the most harmful predator to these birds is mankind (read poachers).