Wind farms killing with impunity

[patvetzal]

Generally speaking when our generation found a problem they set out to solve it. Some can remember Sudbury of the fifties, the fish ladders that were built, the scrubbers that allowed us to burn coal with no pollution. There are even boilers out there now that can be fired using old tires that give no measurable pollution, yet when a wind farm location is chosen it will go in (or not) depending on politics, not ecology. When new hi rises are designed, a lot of effort goes into minimizing the bird kill and even new roads must justify their routes thru the bush but wind farms go in either areas of low human
density or places where the farmers can make the highest dollar returns on the KW.

[JBen]

Last summer when house shopping, we loosely considered area's around Orono/Bethany, on the Oak Ridges Morraine, for its proximity to 115 (and soon 407), Peterborough, 401 etc. Saw a couple places we liked enough to say "ok, we can see ourselves living here. Lets dig below the surface".
Then I found out about the Wind farms beyond the ridge line to the East, and those coming.

We bought on the West side of the Scugog river. By sometime in August, we could hear the construction and a couple days later way off in the distance. As the crow flies probably a good 5-10 miles. Somedays we can see the tops of 3 of them. A friend wasn't so "lucky". he didn't do his homework, bought right in there. A beautiful piece of property.....
Now surrounded by them. Doubt it will impact his resale value, the tsunami coming East will overpower anything and everything. When people are paying 50,000, 100,000 over for places that need a lot of work, or where wells are already having issues, whats an eye and ear sore...

But yep isn't it funny, how when theres enough $ and political will, blind eyes can be turned to anything.
"get er done" says QP, despite oh so much that should have slammed the brakes on oh so much. Be it envormental stuff like ground water and wells, be it bird strikes and threatened species, be it tens of thousands of rural residents against them.

Have to feed the beast and there's money to be made.

[Dythbringer]

More birds are killed by skyscrapers then wind turbines but I don't see a single member here bringing that up. Why are you not telling the cities to tear those down to protect the birds and wildlife?

Wind turbines don't just kill from contact. If a bat get too close, they can die from barotrauma. While skyscrapers do kill birds, there can be preventative measures put in place to help the birds distinguish a skyscraper from open sky.

[Oddmott]

Futhermore, I think there is an exception in the Green Energy Act about endangered species. I guess it is ok to destroy an ecosystem to get more green power.

There are several, that exempt/cover the butts of all 3 levels of government.

[rick_iles]

Wind turbines don't just kill from contact. If a bat get too close, they can die from barotrauma. While skyscrapers do kill birds, there can be preventative measures put in place to help the birds distinguish a skyscraper from open sky.

Skyscrapers are not moving at close to 200mph either.

[Dythbringer]

Skyscrapers are not moving at close to 200mph either.

Nope. They are not. They are fairly immobile (they do tend to sway a bit).

This government decided to clean up our energy production and go green. Yet this very policy is resulting in the deaths of way too many birds and bats. Talk about a whole lot of hypocrisy.

[glen]

They didn't clean anything up.

Someone made money.

[Bonkers]

Okay then, lets take down those turbines and lets start putting up new nuclear reactors. Then for the next million years you can deal with the waste and that eye sore. Southern Ontario has a energy need, do you think it appears out of no where? Plus the financial benefit to the farms who can still farm the land are now making end meet.

[Species8472]

Okay then, lets take down those turbines and lets start putting up new nuclear reactors. Then for the next million years you can deal with the waste and that eye sore. Southern Ontario has a energy need, do you think it appears out of no where? Plus the financial benefit to the farms who can still farm the land are now making end meet.

Southern Ontario does not have an energy need - You are missing the point. We could take every existing windmill offline and we would still have an excess of generating capacity. The existing wind capacity and certainly any new capacity is not needed now or for a long time into the future.

The demand in ontario is stagnant or even less than 20 to 25 years ago. This is partly from conservation but mostly because manufacturing has left the province because the rates are the highest in North America. This is not going to change any time soon.

In fact last year we set a record for the lowest demand since they starting tracking historical trends in 2002. All the peak demand records for Ontario were set more than a decade ago:

http://www.ieso.ca/power-data/demand...torical-demand

[jaycee]

In fact last year we set a record for the lowest demand since they starting tracking historical trends in 2002. All the peak demand records for Ontario were set more than a decade ago:

It is also a fact that we are producing more energy than is required, AND WE ARE PAYING THE U.S TO TAKE IT OFF OUR HANDS .
Unbelievable the stupidity of our Prov. Gov.