By P Gosselin
Blackout News here reports on the The hidden high price of “green energy”.
Wind farms are often celebrated as the glowing symbol of the energy transition—clean, renewable, and future-proof. But behind this “green” lies an underestimated chain of destruction causing extensive, possibly irreversible damage to our ecosystems.
Photo made at the North Sea coast: Copyright P. Gosselin.
Recent research indicates that the true cost of wind energy is far higher than generally acknowledged, paid directly and painfully by nature.
Erosion and nutrient loss
While the massive towers are the most visible aspect of wind farms, the real damage begins deep underground.
The construction of wind turbines, along including necessary access roads, leads to significant soil erosion. Studies show that hundreds of tons of precious topsoil are stripped away per turbine annually. This loss weakens existing vegetation and exacerbates erosion issues.
What remains is often depleted soil with a decline in vital nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon. Simultaneously, soil moisture content decreases. The result? The balance of local ecosystems collapses—a process researchers describe as a “cascade of ecological consequences.”
When the soil loses nutrients and moisture, vegetation growth is severely limited. Plants fail to reach the height and density found in undisturbed areas. This is particularly noticeable in sensitive habitats like forests and hedges. This then impacts the insect population. A study conducted in the Ningxia steppe of China shows a clear correlation: the number and diversity of insects dramatically decrease with higher turbine density. Insects lose their food source, which further strains the natural cycle of soil and topsoil. The result? A “chain of destruction”: soil damage leads unhealthy plants and plant scarcity, which then leads to the loss of biodiversity.
Disrupts animal behavior
Wind farms also cause other, broader damage to nature. They disrupt the mating behavior of animals. Noise pollution and electromagnetic radiation can interfere with the reproduction and orientation of various species.
Widespread local damage, zero impact on climate temperature
Wind farms are not the pristine solution they are often presented as. The massive interventions into soil and vegetation, and the associated burden on biodiversity, demonstrate that a significant part of climate protection policy is being carried out at nature’s expense. While a single wind farm theoretically impacts the global temperature by a few millionths or billionths of a degree, the damage they cause to the surroundings are profound.
The invisible chain of destruction—from the earth to the insect—weakens entire ecosystems and casts a new shadow over seemingly “green” energy.
It is time to be honest about their real impacts on nature.
Full article at Blackout News
Another day another clusterfcuk-
Budget blowout and delays hit major power transmission line construction | Watch
There you go again, singing the climate zealot national anthem. 😁
Well first waste taxpayers money in finding a solution for a non existing problem, then waste more money on studying what problems this solution causes, then spend even more money on solving a problem that you caused yourself and had the arrogance of calling it a solution.
Welcome to the stupidity of government intervention. If someone would tell you that you should lit half on your money on fire before you could spend it the outcome would make no difference to this con, except no harm done by others.
Anyone that even remotely thinks wind turbines are good for the environment at any stage of their short life…
.. is either extremely ignorant and/or totally brainwashed.
“Green” environmentalist are actually environment destroyers…
And when you show them the damage done…. they just don’t care.
Agree completely. Where have all the so-called envromental save the whale types been hiding? Or the Auduban Society, etc-you know, the ones who’ve been yowling for years about habitat destruction and extinction scenarios?
It is why you can’t use motor vehicles in a wilderness area. Even a single track can start soil erosion and end up destroying a landscape.
If the federal government recognizes this in wilderness areas, why don’t they also require wind farms set aside an escrow for putting the back to its original state, the same as strip mines.
The answer is that taxpayers on BOTH ends. The banks get paid up front and care nothing for the aftermath.
They do allow forest fires in wilderness areas that kill plants and animals, pollute the air and water, cause massive erosion, and destroy entire watersheds. So the gooberment is not some kind of benevolent enviro keeper. Instead they are scourges of the environment. Be careful who you vote for; they might be lying snakes from Hades.
No mention of the direct destruction of insects by the spinning blades and their pressure waves, and the subsequent attraction of bats and birds to the killing zone.
Where I live many species of birds fly south for the winter. Wind farms are located where they are likely to have the most utilization, where the winds are most constant. Exactly along the path of these migratory birds.
With apologies to the songwriters for The Lion King, I call it “Circle Of Death”.
There are studies which illustrate the incredible devastation among insects.
https://docs.wind-watch.org/Interference-of-Flying-Insects-and-Wind-Parks.pdf
This is ignored at OUR peril.
From whales to insects, the wind turbine is the destructor.
Advocates brag that the land can still be used for crops and livestock on wind farms. Unfortunately I cant find any studies that compare actual crop yields with or without windmills.
There are numerous self promoting advocacy articles masquarating as intellectual studies, but no actual studies.
If anyone has a link to any actual studies, can you provide such a link
Grok gave me a few examples, but all small potatoes. Generally, it is a sales pitch.
At one time a state (Minnesota?) had a hunting season on some types of migratory birds. (Geese, ducks, maybe others)
Then the US signed a treaty protecting migratory birds. They had to scrap their hunting season during the period the birds where passing through that state.
How many migratory birds do wind turbines kill?
Much more than even the best hunters can take!; bet on it. As a former waterfowl hunter, I’d bet on it.
I am against wind and solar for all the reasons mentioned ere but more importantly I am against them because they don’t work. Stop wasting money, time and resources on stuff that doesn’t work.