By: Diane Benjamin
I wonder how this article made it in the latest magazine printed by Illinois State University!
ISU is a big pusher of wind energy, so this article is out-of-place. Somehow it didn’t make the on-line version of the magazine or I would have linked to it.
If you are Facebook friends with me, I’m sure you’ve seen a constant supply of articles extolling the health hazards of wind turbines.
I sure didn’t expect to see this article from ISU. Every year they hold a Renewable Energy Conference that praises wind. See last November’s Conference HERE. When I testified before the McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals a guy from ISU was there proclaiming no health hazards or decreases in property values exist because of turbines. I think it was the same guy who questioned me about my claims of the new types (which are taller than Waterson Towers) being even more dangerous to health. He tried to tell me that bigger isn’t bad.
I wonder how long it will take to bury the findings of this story. I live by turbines and have seen a marked decrease in bats. Can I blame the turbines, other than the decrease started when they got put up? No, but maybe this guy can:
I hope ISU continues to support this research and makes sure Associate Professor Angelo Capparellla gets invited to speak at this years Renewable Energy Conference!
Even if truth hurts, it’s still truth and deserves to be heard.
Here is the link to the stories ISU did put on-line: https://news.illinoisstate.edu/illinois-state/
Maybe the bats story will get added.
Capparella says that bats are really vital in the food web as they eat pests. Hmmm, maybe the bats will abandon the country and go straight to the city halls were government i.e. pests congregate. Surely multiple bats could handle a small man.
Green sustainable living is about the entire ecosystem. Change one thing and the entire balance gets ruined. Central Illinois is farmland…pests harm crops…pesticides are used…toxins in the water shed. The wind farms don’t seem to be a cost effective means to produce electricity and are harmful to the same environment that is to be protected. Seems like government involvement fails again.
Capparella has been doing this work for quite a while and often works with wind companies that are looking to site a new farm. His work is important as one wouldn’t want to site a farm in a bird/bat migration path. He also says that they have tried every conceivable thing to reduce bird/bat deaths, but nothing has worked. Another thing they learned in their research that bats really love to migrate over corn fields at night.
Obviously the wind farm people don’t really care about the bats or the eco-system. It’s all about the money. It’s always about the money!
Ditto eagles. They have permission to slice them up.
The Government ALWAYS knows the environment BETTER then indigenous species. Let’s see, Japanese Beetles introduced to fight APHIDS, NON native fish introduced into National Parks-eating the food of native species OR eating them directly, not to mention Asian Carp making their way to Lake Michigan after escaping a harmless fish farm in Arkansas during a flood. Add to that the Corp of Engineers changing the watercourse of MAJOR rivers and you have a recipe for major species decline or extinction.
And I’ll save pollutants and toxins for someone else to expound on!
And that’s JUST in the U.S!! Anyone want to guess about Brazil, China, Russia or most ANY other developed one, on down to 3rd world countries??
Replace “wind farm”with “oil rig”. There doesn’t seem to be a consistency doctrine to opposing the trashing of the Earth. Just changing where the money is coming from.
Do people realize that wind farms are not profitable??? Tax payers are funding something that will never be profitable. Unlike ComEd or other private companies that either make a profit or go out of business, the wind farm companies just pony up for more handouts!!