Wind Turbines Chomp Dozens of Rare Eagles

A NSW gold mine was ordered to shut down after some kangaroos drowned in a tailings dam. Greens demanded a stop put to a coal mine because it might kill some finches. Green activists lost their minds when a fishing trawler killed a single dolphin.

Yet, when dozens of endangered eagles are hacked to pieces by wind turbines in Tasmania?

Complete and utter silence from the Greens.

The only time greens even mention the rampant slaughter of Tasmania’s wedge-tailed eagles is to splutter denials. Their most common excuse is that “cutting edge technology” stops turbines cutting eagles to pieces.

Yeah, about that…

A wind farm with so-called “industry-leading” bird avoidance technology has killed at least eight endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles, prompting calls for an urgent moratorium on new turbines in eagle zones.

Cattle Hill Wind Farm in Tasmania’s Central Highlands uses IdentiFlight camera technology – which it describes as a “cutting-edge avian detection system” – to stop the wind turbines when birds approach.

However, the system – which is spruiked by the industry and regulators as the foremost solution to wind turbine bird deaths – has failed to prevent the deaths of at least eight eagles in less than four years.

There are estimated to be less than 100 breeding pairs of wedge-tailed eagles in Tasmania. At this rate, one single wind farm will wipe them out in decades.

But it gets worse. This is the “best” wind farm. There are a whole lot worse ones.

[Eagle expert and wildlife biologist Nick Mooney] was aware of 61 wedge-tailed eagles and five white-bellied sea-eagles being found dead or incapacitated during periods of formal mortality monitoring at Tasmania’s existing wind farms.

Don’t think it can get worse than even that?

Oh, brother — are you in for an unpleasant surprise.

This was likely the tip of an iceberg, with some wind farms no longer required to monitor for bird deaths and formal monitoring restricted to areas under ­turbines, missing birds that die further afield after being struck.

And it’s only going to get worse. There are at least nine large-scale wind farms proposed for Tasmania.

The eagles don’t stand a chance.

Even worse still, the renewables troughers and the bureaucrats knew this was going to happen. They planned for it.

Cattle Hill Wind Farm confirmed the deaths. It said its modelling had predicted its turbines would kill 14 eagles after four years and this was allowed under its permit conditions.

They were allowed to kill an endangered species. At a rate that would drive them to extinction in less than a decade.

And where’s the Environment Minister?

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said her revamp of national environment laws would “better protect nature by considering cumulative impacts on threatened plants and animals with clear thresholds”.

The Australian

In other words, they’re going to do sweet fuck-all.

So, say goodbye to Tasmania’s wedge-tailed eagles. When it comes to choosing between endangered species and their precious eco-crucifixes, we know where the Green left really stand.