”Save the planet” : by killing birds ?!

The plague of wind turbines on the populations of birds and bats

By GERMAIN DE LUPIAC - Translated from The Epoch Times

The Montpellier court reported to April 7, its decision expected at the start of the week in the file of wind turbines operated in Aumelas in Hérault by EDF renewable and which are accused of being responsible for the death of hundreds of protected birds.

According to the France Nature Environnement Occitanie-Méditerranée (FNE-OCCMED) association, the Aumelas wind turbines caused 150 to 300 kestrel falcons, a migratory species threatened with disappearance. These small hawks, as well as ash buses and bats, also protected species, regularly come to fall on the blades despite the scaling devices put in place.

These cases are not isolated in France or abroad where massive mortalities of birds and bats are observed on wind power sites, threatening an often protected and unbalanced fauna an entire ecosystem.

Hundreds of deaths of birds protected in the Hérault

The FNE-WCCMED had filed in 2022 a direct quotation for "destruction of protected species" targeting EDF renewable France and its CEO Bruno Bensasson-which leaves its post on April 5, as well as nine companies operating this park of 31 wind turbines established for twenty years on the Causse of Amelas, a plateau dominating the Mediterranean in the middle of a heart Zone labeled "Natura 2000".

With only some 700 specimens on the entire hexagon, the kestrel hawks are small migrants who had practically disappeared from Hérault before returning to settle on the Causse d'Aumelas in the early 2000s. They would now be a few hundred.

During the hearing held in December 2024, the prosecution claimed a fine of 750,000 euros (including 500,000 suspended) for each of these companies and six months suspended prison sentence and 150,000 euros fine (including 100,000 suspended) against Mr. Bensasson, as well as a suspension of the activity of the wind farm.

The FNE, civil party, demanded a compensation of 500 euros per killed bird and that operators pay 168,000 euros to the national action plan for the kestrel Falcon, in compensation for the "ecological damage" suffered by the species.

According to the renewable EDF spokesperson, the impacts of kestrel falcons observed on the Aumelas park are 4 to 5 per year, evoking "exponential (+ 12 % per year)" growth since the year of commissioning of the Aumelas wind farm, in 2005. Civil justice, however, found that "this destruction would continue to be implementation in 2014 in 2014 in 2014 frightening.

“Nearly 70 corpses were found at the foot of the wind turbines. Knowing that there are some who disappear with the foxes, etc., it would rather be around 150 to 300 kestrel hawks that would have been killed by these wind turbines, "replied Simon Popy, a biodiversity specialist, according to whom this mortality" slowed down 22 % "the growth of these little hawks, in one of the rare sites in France.

In a similar file, the same Montpellier court must render its decision on April 9 on the park of seven wind turbines operated in Bernagues, still in Hérault, by renewable Energy of Languedoc (ERL), a subsidiary of the Valeco group. The group must answer for the death of the reproductive male of a couple of royal eagles. Again, the prosecution has claimed significant fines.

Wind turbines responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of bats per year in France

According to a worldwide investigation, wind turbines would have the death of around 250,000 bats in France each year. For an article La Croix, this figure would be 350,000 individuals per year. An echo article, citing the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), advanced the death of 1.6 million bats over the period 2002-2015 caused by wind turbines, while 6000 were then installed in France against nearly 10,000 in March 2024.

Bats, like birds, are necessary for pollination and play a big role in the ecosystem. They disperse the seeds, which is favorable to the regeneration of groves and forests; They eat insects, allowing farmers to save millions of euros in antiparasitic control each year.

It has been observed that bats are attracted to wind turbines, because they confuse the posts and pale with the large trees on which they are used to landing. If the animal does not come up against the pale, it can still be subject to a phenomenon called "barotrauma".

This phenomenon, due to the air pressure that suddenly changes around the blades, leads to an internal hemorrhage of the animals that approach it. This happens because of lesions of their blood vessels induced by the pressure of the movement of the blades, ultimately causing their death. This leads to incompatibility between renewable energies and the conservation of biodiversity.

More than 300 eagles, in the process of extinction, killed or injured by wind turbines in Australia

Over the past decade, wind turbines have resulted in death or have injured 321 eagles threatened in Tasmania-an Australian state located 199 km from the south-eastern coast of continental Australia-, according to a study published in 2023. It is believed that more cases are not reported because of the lack of systemic research on wind farms and information to the public.

Published in the magazine Australian Field Ornithology, the study focused on the two largest raptors in Australia, white -tailed pygargues and Blagres pygargues. The study revealed that between 2010 and 2022, the wind farms caused the death of 268 eagles and injured 53. The public electricity company Tasnetworks reported 139 deaths, and the rescuers of Eagles were witness to 91 deaths and 50 injured.

"The actual number can only be higher, because the surveys carried out in wind farms remain incomplete," notes Gregory Pullen, the author of the study. "More specifically, investigations are only carried out near the turbines, are periodic and do not relate to all the turbines or to all the habitats located around each turbine, the brush being often excluded. »»

These two species could be further threatened if the expansion of wind turbines continued in accordance with the will of the federal government to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas to zero.

The populations of seabed divers in the North Sea decrease by 94 % near the offshore wind farms

A study by German scientists revealed that the populations of a group of aquatic birds known as Catmarine dives or "divers" have decreased by more than 90 % in the North Sea since the construction of wind farms at sea.

The results of the study, entitled "Large-Scale Effects of Offshore Wind Farms on Seabirds of High Conservation concern" [Large-scale effects of wind farms at sea on sea birds whose safeguarding of the species is very worrying], were published in the journal Nature on April 13, 2023.

They found that "the distribution and abundance of dives have changed considerably between the previous period and the period following the construction of wind farms", the Catmarine diving populations decreasing by 94 % in an area of ​​one kilometer around wind farms and 52 % in an area of ​​10 kilometers around the wind farms.

The authors of the study note that it is difficult to establish what will be the consequences for diving populations or how the displacement will affect individuals and populations. "Nevertheless, the reduced availability of the main housing and the search for lower food research can represent risks for diving populations due to a reduced physical condition, a delayed departure towards reproductive areas and a lower reproduction success, with negative effects on the evolution of their population," write the authors.