Tuesday 7 August 2018

HABITAT THEFT - HOW BIRDS ARE THREATENED BY THE GLOBAL STAMPEDE FOR WIND POWER


                                                     

WHAT moral duty, if any, do we have to safeguard the birds and other wildlife of our oceans?



This is one of the questions posed in a new study by environment writer Jim Wright.



In A Fault To Nature, his particular focus is on the threat posed to hundreds of thousands of birds by the proliferation of offshore wind farms in UK waters and beyond.



He acknowledges that wind energy is helping to revitalise the economy of coastal towns such as Grimsby but claims this is likely to be coming at the expense of marine species.



These include puffins, shearwaters, terns and divers  which are increasingly being displaced from longstanding maritime habitat because of their aversion to the ‘invasion’ of turbines which, to them, are alien structures.



Meanwhile night-migrating songbirds such as nightingales, warblers and members of the thrush family are at risk of fatal collisions, especially when conditions are misty or rainy.



For reasons that are not clear, raptors are particularly vulnerable, and there are numerous fatality records involving such species as sea eagle, osprey and red kite.



The unenviable record for the largest recorded number of multiple bird kills on a single night is thought to be held by an onshore turbine in Nasudden, Sweden, where 49 birds (of species unknown)  were reported to have been found early one morning  in 1983.



The turbine was not operational at the time, but the weather was poor and the birds are thought to have been drawn to the structure by a single lamp about 35ft above the ground.



However, no one has yet come up with a way of measuring avian collisions with offshore turbines so the extent of destruction at these turbines is likely to be higher but it is impossible to tell.



Unlike fish, birds have no commercial value - no one measures their ‘stocks’ - so regard for their welfare is minimal.

The giant of UK offshore wind is the rapidly-growing Danish company, Ørsted, whose projected developments off the UK could result in an area approaching the size of the county of Yorkshire becoming a no-go area for almost all birds. Not so much habitat ‘loss’ as habitat ‘theft’.


The author applauds the American Bird Conservancy which is vigorous in warning on the windfarm threat to birds, especially on migration flyways.



But he is critical of the RSPB which he accuses of lying low on the issue - in part, be believes, because it has been a willing recipient of the generous donations and ‘partnership’ payments from windfarm developers including SSE, Scottish Power and Ecotricity.



The Crown Estate, which owns most of the seabed in British waters,  claims to be seeking to create “healthy places where natural habitats can thrive”.



But it wholeheartedly supports the Government’s push for offshore windfarm development - not surprising given that its portfolio of sites, which  was valued at £855-million as of March last year, generates upwards of £28-million rental income per annum.



It is time, surely, for some of this money to be allocated for projects designed to protect and enhance the welfare of birds and other wildlife.



Because of the advance of solar, the author believes wind power may only be an intermediate technology (just as fax was a stepping stone to email). As such, its economic benefits may not be long-lasting.



He believes future generations would not thank us if  populations of birds were decimated, or even destroyed, for the sake of a technology lasting   only a few decades.     



A Fault To Nature - Birds, Migration and The Problem with Windfarms is available, price £3, as an e-book on Kindle.








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