Wind turbines are destroying wildlife, including endangered species, such as whales, eagles and migratory birds, due to collisions, sonar surveys and other hazards.
The construction and operation of wind turbines and their associated infrastructure, such as transmission lines, can have devastating effects on marine life, including physical deformities, disorientation and disruptions to migratory patterns and habitats.
In addition to the hazards to marine and bird life, wind power increases the demand for rare earths, the mining for which involves serious threats to human health and the environment.
How Wind Turbines Are Destroying the Environment and Ecology of Planet Earth
By Al Christie
“Wind turbines and generators require very strong permanent magnets. Rare earth magnets, like neodymium magnets, are used in some of the largest wind turbines in the world. These magnets, made of neodymium, iron and boron, are the strongest type of commercially available permanent magnet. Neodymium magnets provide efficient electricity generation. They’re used in wind-turbine designs to reduce costs, improve reliability, and lower the need for expensive maintenance.”
The first problem: The demand, limited supply and destructive mining practices of rare earth elements
From the Union of Concerned Scientists:
The most common type of magnets used in wind applications are neodymium–iron–boron magnets (NdFeB). These magnets typically contain four rare earth elements: neodymium and praseodymium strengthen the magnet, while dysprosium and terbium make it resistant to demagnetisation at high temperatures … Global demand for neodymium for wind turbines is estimated to increase 48% by 2050. Rare earth elements are critical to the renewable energy future and are the main “critical metals” used in wind turbines.
Mining rare earth elements can also involve serious human and environmental health threats. The fluoride and arsenic unearthed through rare earth element mining can cause lower birth rates and cause diseases such as skeletal fluorosis, which causes deformation in bone structure. In Baotou, Inner Mongolia, 1 in 7 Baotou residents – a city of several million – has cancer. A large rare earth element waste lake is located twenty minutes from the city centre … [it’s toxic].
In 2010, China was producing 95% of rare earth elements, but since 2016 has decreased rare earth element mining down to 60% of world production today [some with slave labour]. Fifteen per cent of rare earth elements are produced in the US, and 9% in Myanmar, where mining – particularly unregulated, illegal mining – has been increasing since the military coup in 2021. Kachin-based environmental groups estimate that there are over 100 rare earth element mines in the Pangwa and Chipwe Townships, owned by Myanmar military-affiliated militia. Radioactive waste from the mines pollutes the soil and waterways of dozens of nearby villages. A Pangwa activist told Radio Free Asia earlier this year, “These miners usually clear the ground and then dig holes. After that, they pour in chemically treated liquid into the holes. When they are done, they don’t cover up the holes in the ground, causing landslides when the rains come.”
The next problem: Deadly destruction of wildlife, including endangered species
Last September, I wrote an article titled ‘Wind Turbines- a Heartbreaking Story of Environmental Destruction’, read HERE.
Thomas Shepstone’s ‘Energy Security and Freedom’ writes, “Systematic statistical analysis indicates that offshore wind development has likely been killing lots of whales since it began around 2016. This long-standing conjecture that wind kills whales has now been clearly confirmed.”
A study by the British Ecological Society discovered “hot spots” where migratory birds get killed, presumably where wind turbines are in or close to the birds’ migratory paths.
Note: The graphic above was published in June 2022. Since then, wind turbine towers have gotten even higher – up to 280 metres (919 feet); and the blades can now be 130 metres (430 feet), so that much more slaughter of birds. Where are the environmentalists?
Also, the graphic points out that transmission towers are a hazard for birds. Since wind farms are out on the prairies and deserts and so on, out of the cities, where the wind blows the most, miles and miles of new transmission lines are being built – and killing even more birds.
Eagles – According to AP News, wind farms get a free pass from the Fish and Wildlife Service to kill eagles: “Criminal cases brought by US wildlife officials for killing or harming protected bald and golden eagles dropped sharply in recent years, even as officials ramped up issuing permits that will allow wind energy companies to kill thousands of eagles without legal consequence.”
Whales – Energy Security and Freedom wrote: “Professor Gerasoulis [Rutgers University computer science professor emeritus] has confirmed with profound statistical evidence the widespread conjecture that offshore wind sonar surveys have been killing whales. There is now no reasonable doubt that the extensive sonar harassment authorised by NOAA since 2016 has caused the massive increase in whale deaths that NOAA first flagged in 2016-17.”
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