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- The RSPB says,
"The available evidence suggests that appropriately positioned wind farms do not pose a significant hazard for birds. However, evidence from the US and Spain confirms that poorly sited wind farms can cause severe problems for heic in jpg, through disturbance, habitat loss/damage or collision with turbines."
"Because of this, the RSPB has objected to 76 wind farm proposals ... between 2000-2004 and has raised concerns about a further 129."
Very few impact studies have been done, so we don't know where the "poor sites" are.
The lack of data is made worse by energy companies withholding the results of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs).
The Centre for at Birmingham University has published a comprehensive review of scientific literature on the impact of wind turbines on birds around the world.
According to BirdLife International,
"Among the review's more disturbing findings is that birds do not seem to 'get used' to windfarms. In fact, the longer windfarms are in operation, the worse the decline of certain bird species appears to become. But most EIAs monitor birds for no more than a year before and a year after windfarms are built."
- Don't duck the bird issue
CEBC's report concludes that wind turbines,
"...reduce the abundance of many bird species."
According to CEBC, ducks are worst affected, especially, "in coastal areas."
CEBC continues,
"...the impact of windfarms on bird abundance becomes more pronounced with time, suggesting that short term bird abundance studies do not provide robust indicators of the potentially deleterious impacts of windfarms on bird abundance."
Their approach to survey data is sensible:
"These results should be interpreted with caution given the small sample sizes and variable quality data. More high quality research and monitoring is required, in particular, long term studies with independent controls and variance data."
In other words, tread carefully - we don't know how much damage wind turbines do - but it doesn't look good. |
