Wat was er gebeurd wanneer Shell, BP of EXXON door één van hun activiteiten 3000 steenarenden had gedood? Dan was Greenpeace een proces begonnen, waren alle media er bovenop gesprongen. Maar als de slachtoffers vallen door ‘groene energie’ blijft iedereen stil of verzint excuses. De Altamont Windfarm in Californie heeft de eer om dit jaar haar 3000ste steenarend te doden in de 25 jaar van haar bestaan, en krijgt een vergunning om daar in nog 25 jaar nog 3000 aan toe te voegen. Dat meldt ‘Save the Eagles International’in het hier bijgesloten persbericht. Gefeliciteerd.

De steenarend is de arendste van alle arenden
. Zie hierboven de foto van een steenarend die ik van een valkenier maakte. De arend is zo’n totemdier, was altijd (onvrijwillig) leverancier van de veren in Indianentooien (die zwart witte, dat zijn staartveren). Ze werden door Mayas als heilige dieren in graven van tempels opgenomen, worden door steppevolken afgericht voor de jacht op vossen.

En ze gebruiken de zelfde thermiek en windstromingen rond heuvels waar de milieubeweging haar molentjes nu neerzet. Voor het NRC Handelsblad schreef ik een reportage over de jacht met steenarenden op hazen en herten.

In Europa ging het jarenlang weer redelijk goed met de arenden, nadat ze eeuwen werden vervolgd door mensen/schaapherders/jagers. In Ierland werden verse arenden uit Schotland opnieuw uitgezet, waarover ik voor De Standaard schreef. De nieuwste bedreiging is echter nu de moderne milieubeweging, die met windmolens ‘het klimaat wil beschermen’, door windmolens.

Biodiversiteitswaarschuwing

Save the Eagles International (STEI) is hereby issuing a biodiversity warning concerning the United States. Contrary to dubious studies financed and controlled by vested interests, the population of golden eagles in the Western States is on the decline. Wind farms are the main cause. The issuing of licenses to kill will accelerate the decline towards extinction.

At the large wind farm of Altamont Pass, California, 116 golden eagles (GE) have been reported to be killed by turbine blades yearly. This was established by a comprehensive study realized by Dr Smallwood in 2004 (1). Extrapolating to the 25 years of existence of the wind farm, this would represent a toll of about 2,900 golden eagles.

Adding to this the mortality at other wind farms in the Western United States (2), this is clearly unsustainable. Indeed, recent studies have reported an apparent decline of the GE population at two different locations in California (3), and the number of active nests in the vicinity of Altamont Pass has declined considerably (4).

The Altamont Pass wind farm should have been closed down and decommissioned a long time ago.
But pork-barrel politics have kept it in operation, and now the authorities are minded to authorize its continuation for another 25 years through repowering. Old wind turbines are to be replaced by much bigger ones, which are reported to kill twice as many eagles per megawatt (5). There will be less of them, but the total area swept by their blades will be much larger. So the carnage of eagles is likely to increase, notwithstanding biased studies pretending fewer birds will die. All other things being equal, if as reported a) the new turbines kill twice as many eagles per MW, and b) the wind farm’s rated capacity is also to be doubled, “repowered” Altamont could be killing 4 times as many golden eagles as with the old turbines.

Another aberration is the willingness of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to issue “take permits” (licenses to kill) for golden eagles at new wind farms, for example in Oregon (6) and Wyoming (7). Save the Eagles International firmly opposes this perversion, which has illegally but effectively changed the mission of FWS from preserving biodiversity to that of catering to the interests of an industry, an ineffective and ruinous one to boot.

STEI solemnly warns the Western States that biologically-blind policies will cause the extinction of the Golden Eagle, the California Condor, and other species of raptors.
Considering that the Eastern and Central States are not acting any better, it is biodiversity in the whole of the contiguous 48 States which is in peril, including other species such as the Whooping Crane. No amount of bad science financed by the wind industry and government agencies has been able to convince honest conservationists that wind farms don’t harm bird and bat populations.

    Nota bene de Britse Vogelbescherming RSPB verdient geld aan de plaatsing van windmolens, 10 pond per aangemeld lid via RSPB Energy, en de Nederlandse Vogelbescherming claimt dat er ‘minder vogelslachtoffers vallen door windmolens dan het verkeer’. Laten we hopen dat de moderne milieubeweging snel uitsterft, en een nieuwe mag opstaan.