Terahertz

1May/081

Lying to cover his tracks

If you haven't heard, 500 ducks landed and subsequently died in an oil sands tailing pond in Alberta.  Premier Ed Stelmach has now rebutted:

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach downplayed the deaths, saying that wind turbines kill 30,000 birds annually.

Quickly you have to think: "Where the hell did he get those numbers from?"  And if you did you should know:

That number seems a little overblown, says the president of Calgary-based Alberta Wind Energy Corporation, which focuses on building wind turbines in southern Alberta.

“Studies have indicated that (each of the province’s) turbines kill 1.3 birds annually. I don’t think there are 30,000 wind turbines in the world,” said Stewart Duncan.

In fact wind turbines are one of the least effective means of killing ducks and birds.  That is, after power lines, cars and trucks, tall buildings, homes, lighted commercial towers, pesticides, and house cats.  That's right CATS kill more birds than turbines Ed!  This really seems like Ed hating the environment even more.  His government has told other lies recently too.

The issue here is not that 500 birds died, its that 500 birds were allowed to die.  The birds emphasize the rampant over-raping of the environment that's going on in this province and needs to stop.

Comments (1) Trackbacks (1)
  1. Stelmach is another of a large group of conservative religious douchebags who will believe any figures he is told. I live in Fort McMurray, and its about time that more focus came onto Syncrude. Not to say that Suncor is guilt free, but Greenpeace seems to focus on them unfairly, instead of the larger Syncrude.

    Notably though, both have had incidents of chemical leakage into the air that was apparently not important enough because it only affects people.

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On Birds and Turbines « Terahertz - From Physics to Life