Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Required Reading by All-

Seoul, Korea- Green Manifesto

October 23, 2006

“Humankind in the 21st century is suffering from environmental pollution and ecological destruction caused by unchecked industrialization around the globe. It is our obligation to do our best to minimize development and investment which would neglect the protection of natural resources remembering the Dutch philosopher Benedict de Spinoza who once said “even if the world comes to the end tomorrow, I will plant an apple tree today.” Accordingly, the environmental activists in Korea and abroad participating in the 2006 International Workshop on the Landscape Ecology and the Problem with Wind Farms, declare the following three points which should guide our activities in the years to come.”

1] The construction of and governmental support to those huge-size commercial wind farms must be reconsidered with prudence and deliberation, because they are the main source of various environmental problems including the destruction of natural landscape and the lives of inhabitants in local communities.

2] With a definite purpose to correct those prevailing fantasy-like views on wind energy, national governments and international organizations are sincerely advised to provide financial and institutional support to those scientific efforts to reveal the facts of environmental destruction by the massive proliferation of wind energy, as well as its low efficiency.

3] In order to prevent the reckless expansion of those inefficient and destructive wind farm complexes into our precious and beautiful countryside, we must enhance public awareness and education by way of a global network media campaign which could help enlighten citizens, developers, public servants, and political leaders.

Follow this link for more on the above;

”Soon we 'celebrate' the 20,000th wind plant, without replacing even one single small plant of conventional energy.”

Ferdinand Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein, Chairman BLS, Germany.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Sound Views on Wind Energy


The opposition to industrial wind power has been given a bad name by the industry, politicians and an uninformed media.

With this blog, our hope is to establish a dialog with others who believe we don't need to polarize ourselves over the issue but rather to understand what is at stake and come up with viable solutions that will help and not harm our environment. The old Nature vs. Nurture paradigm needs to be replaced with Nature and Nurture and it is our belief that it can.

My background is as an advocate for wildlife, particularly the Birds of Prey. Over 25 years ago I founded a not for profit center devoted to the health and well being of raptors called the Hudson Valley Raptor Center. It is my belief that through these magnificent beings we can learn more about the environment we all share and that with that knowledge of our inborn connection we can, as the Native Americans so wisely suggest, learn to walk lightly on the Earth.

In spite of industry slanted reports on industrial wind power plants having little to no affect on bird mortality, as one who works in the trenches with the injured raptors, I can tell you this is not true. Some suggest that it is worth the sacrifice of our wildlife today for a cleaner environment tomorrow but I do not buy that. To me, the sacrifice must be on a more personal level as in Conservation which is not even being given any plausibility at all but is the key to not only saving energy, lessening our dependence on foreign oil but cleaning up the mess we have made. It makes no sense to me to further harm our already struggling environment, wildlife and wild places in order to save them.

Together we can find solutions that are based on Nature and Nurture not as opposites but as integral parts of this big puzzle we call life.