Tag Archives: birds

Global Wind Day, Environmental Nightmare

June 15 was Global Wind Day. Its European industry sponsors hope to promote the “power and possibilities” of wind turbines. But beware the Ides of June. Wind turbines have been sold to us as a means of reducing emissions, global warming and climate change. Although there are a lot of wind turbines installed around the world with many more seemingly to come, they have not reduced emissions, warming or climate change. And they offer no chance to do so, even if those things were desirable. Coming eight days short of the 35th anniversary of James Hansen’s Senate testimony that sent the world into global warming panic, it’s clear to anyone who cares to look that emissions have nothing to do with recent warming. >click to read< 08:55

Offshore Wind Farms Could Cause ‘Cataclysmic Destruction’ Of Ecosystems

Wind energy, cheap electricity from the elements. Surely a great idea? But has it just become a cash cow for big industry and governments, with precious little benefit to citizens – and, ironically, all at the expense of the natural world? I’ve written many times over the years about the potential for ecological damage caused by badly planned wind farms, particularly large offshore developments, the detrimental effects of which have been vastly underestimated. Now, as the industry expands at an alarming pace, we disregard the evidence at our peril. >click to read< By Jason Endfield 13:29

Salmon and steelhead Band-Aids

Here we go again putting a Band-Aid over a sucking chest wound. Ask anyone who spends time on Washington and Idaho salmon and steelhead waters why the salmon and steelhead are declining and you will get a variation of answers. They will range from sea lions to dams to nets to birds to commercial fishing. by Kelly M. Colliton, >click to read< 09:43

Baby Salmon being devoured by predators – We’re spending millions to feed the fish!

It’s a quiet, damp Friday at the Feather River Fish Hatchery and not much is happening above the surface. The buildings where they spawn the adult salmon in the fall are all empty. Outside, two workers amble down the long concrete ponds in waders, fixing things here and there. There are no visitors except one, a journalist there to pay his last respects. Below the surface are millions of baby salmon. They fill the raceways, getting fat on free chow so that they can be released in the river any day now — and be devoured by predators. The predators are striped bass, a non-native species that lives very comfortably in the river downstream. If you read Friday’s fish report with religious fervor like I do, you’ll notice that fishing for stripers in the Feather River has been amazing recently because the hatchery is slowly releasing salmon smolt into the river. It’s like ringing a dinner bell for the stripers. Read the story here 07:50