Hi everyone,
I'm new to all this forum stuff, but have just received a letter from the RSPB asking for money to help restore the 44 million nesting birds that have vanished from our countryside in the last 40 years. This has coincided with me reading an article by Clive Hambler a zoologist and lecturer in human and biological sciences at Oxford. The article was about the effects of wind turbines on our wildlife. It was quite horrific reading with him mentioning that in Spain alone, between 6 and 18 million bats and birds get killed by wind turbines EVERY year!
www.spectator.co.uk/features/8807761/wind-farms-vs-wildlife/
I would be really interested to know how this fits with what I think is the RSPB's policy on encouraging wind farms. Somehow this doesn't sit very comfortably with me.
Hello spoozie and welcome to the forum
Thank you for raising the issue of wind farms, as our encouragement of them may seem at odds with all efforts to conserve nature. However, we believe that climate change poses the greatest, long-term threat to biodiversity worldwide and to limit this, the RSPB advocates improving energy efficiency, managing the demand for energy and generating more from renewable sources, including wind and solar. However, birds and other wildlife, and the habitats that support them, must not be harmed in the process. Wind turbines can cause three main problems for birds: disturbance (scaring birds away from their usual locations during construction and maintenance of wind farms), habitat loss, or damage and collision with tower or blades. There is evidence from the US, Spain and Norway that wind farms can cause serious problems for birds if they are not carefully designed, sited and managed. The RSPB objects to any proposed wind farms that it believes could pose a serious threat to important bird populations or their habitats.
The recent article in the Spectator, and picked up by other journals, highlighted concerns about wind farms. Although some legitimate concerns were voiced, the whole tone of the article was sensational. Even in the case of the worst sited wind farms (and yes there are a small number in very much the wrong places) we are yet to see evidence of the population level effects that were talked about. The impacts are exaggerated by selecting the worst known cases (often of dubious scientific rigor), extrapolating beyond reason and presenting them as typical examples. However, in recent years our understanding of bird ecology has improved, as has our appreciation of the range impacts of wind farms on birds; better environmental legislation means that many of these developments would not be allowed today.
I hope that this has helped to reassure you that our policy on wind farms keeps birds, other wildlife and their habitats at the forefront of any decisions we take.
I hope you will enjoy your time on the forums.
Watch out for swifts