[Tony_InDevon]

This article in today’s Western Morning news may be of interest to fellow members.

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/display...tentPK=6627097

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Tony,

Excellent article - precisely why I've always been very worried about GM crops, that they will enable farmers to eradicate all other plant species apart from the crop plant, leaving birds with nothing to eat.

Michael

[Tony_InDevon]

Hi Michael

I have heard a report either from Canada or America that the GM crop also becomes a weed in itself, which has to be a threat to crop rotation and leaving land fallow. This would mean a knock on effect to nearby fields.

Interestingly in the same edition was this heathland report. It was one of those days when it was worth buying a paper.

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/display...tentPK=6627125

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Tony,

I've thought it would be nice to set up a GM lab, and introduce herbicide-tolerant editions of all the once-common arable wildflowers ('weeds'), so that they have some chance of competing in today's world . . .

Michael

[Tony_InDevon]

I think I prefer the idea of putting all the pro GM ministers and scientists in a lab and feeding them only what GM products have so far been grown. I wonder what mutants we would have by the time they had eatten it all?

[Andrew]

I read this one too. Shocking the ratio of GM seeds found in diet.

Did you get the local fuss over Wind Farms too?

[Tony_InDevon]

Hi Andrew,

Yes I saw that one, but I've been over to Cornwall several times and have never considered Wind Farms a problem. They do not appear to upset the wildlife and I can never hear the noise people keep complaining about.

If someone said to me take your choice between a conventional power-station, nuclear power-station or a Wind Farm in the fields accross the road from where I live ... no probs I'd have a Wind Farms anytime.

[Andrew]

I am about to start a light hearted thread. . . .

[Michael Frankis]

Must admit, I think I'd rather have a nuclear power station, than the equivalent number of wind turbines. There's getting to be a lot of evidence of wind turbines causing heavy mortality in large raptors, and offshore ones are likely to do the same for seabirds (though we'll never know, as there's no way of finding out).

Nuclear power stations by and large don't kill birds.

Michael

[Tony_InDevon]

I have to admit I had not heard of the raptor issue. Maybe they need some sort or protection like fans in an office or shop.

[Michael Frankis]

Hi Tony,

Here's some info that was posted in a discussion on Surfbirdnews (in reply to someone who was in favour of wind farms)

Michael

Whatever the words, I think your message is clear: there are more important things for ornithologists to worry about. After all, didn’t you tell us before that "best available science" practiced by Grainger Hunt concluded that 60 golden eagles dying at the Altamont windfarm every year, hit by the blades of the turbines, have no effect on the LOCAL golden eagle population, strange as it may seem. Wonderful! - So why worry?

Trouble is, it affects populations further away, as the young eagles that get killed come from all over the Rocky Mountains (Altamont is a juvenile dispersion area, remember?). But the California Energy commission got what it paid for: a soothing and comforting report, so that ornithologists of the world can think: it’s all under control.

No, the bird-mortality problem won’t go away with nice reports paid-for by the wind industry or a government agency, which both have a clear interest in defusing the issue – this is tantamount to having the defense attorney of the victims (the golden eagles in that case) be chosen and remunerated by the aggressor. I will get back on the specifics of that report in due course – there is much to be said.

In Navarre, after a yearlong study of mortality at 368 wind turbines, Dr. Lekuona estimated that the following had been killed in the 12 months period:
- 409 griffon vultures
- 24 other raptors including golden eagles and booted eagles
- 650 bats
- 6450 small birds

The Lekuona report is available at: http://www.iberica2000.org/textos/LEKUONA_REPORT.pdf - The Navarre government tried to shelve it, but an employee with a conscience leaked it out.

And this yearly massacre is not the fact of one poorly-located windfarm: the 368 turbines belong to 10 different “farms”.

Spain is going to have 25,000 wind turbines, most of them placed on high ground, in eagle/vulture/falcon/kite habitat and along migration routes. But, according to you, we should not worry too much about mortality – not a priority, right?

We have documented evidence that short-toed eagles are killed by windfarms in Andalusia, booted eagles in Navarre, peregrine falcons in Belgium, golden eagles in California and Navarre, kestrels in Belgium, Navarre, Andalusia and California, sparrowhawks in Belgium, black kites in Andalusia, eagle owls and griffon vultures in Navarre and Andalusia. And that is just for raptors.

We also have witnessed accounts of red kites being killed by wind turbines in Italy, Germany and Wales. As time passes, more information filters through the hush blanket that many organizations have imposed on the subject (see: http://www.iberica2000.org/Articulo.asp?CodArt=dd4554 )

Windfarms are being erected in more than 30 countries around the world, and spreading rapidly to others. The wind industry has targeted 12.5% of the world electricity: that means we will have in excess of 1 million wind turbines, most of the inland ones set up on hilltops, mountain slopes, in wilderness areas – precisely where raptors had found refuge from our shooting, our wires, our poisons.

But according to you, we should not “dwell primarily on mortalities only". — Maybe we should ask for a seven-year study on the effect of the Navarre windfarms on the reproduction success of birds and bats, so we can assess the overall effect on the populations (like in California)? And in the meantime the windfarms may continue killing thousands of birds (millions in the world), and drive to extinction the griffon vulture in Navarre, the
Bonelli’s eagle in Valencia, etc.?

We have enough evidence to ask for a moratorium on the construction of further windfarms RIGHT NOW. The bird massacre is happening on a large scale, endangered species are in the balance, and you would want us to look elsewhere?

[Tony_InDevon]

Hi Michael,

Many thanks for educating me, until this I was only aware of the usual not in my back yard brigade. But this does shed a very different ight on the issue.

Tony