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Do We Have to Destroy the Earth to Save It?

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Do wind turbines and solar farms hold the keys to saving the environment? Michael Shellenberger, founder of Environmental Progress and noted climate activist, used to think so. Now he’s not so sure. He explains why in this important video.

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Script:

Do we need to destroy the environment to save it?

That’s the question I faced a few years ago. I co-founded a movement that was the precursor to the Green New Deal. It was called “The New Apollo Project.” If we could send a man to the moon, we reasoned, surely we could save our own planet. All we had to do was harness the power of the wind and the sun and get rid of fossil fuels. Compared to the original Apollo mission, how hard could that be?

Well, it turned out to be very hard—practically impossible, in fact. The basic laws of physics and chemistry proved to be very stubborn. But, as I did more and more research, something else began to trouble me: the prospect that pushing the planet toward wind and solar energy would actually cause more harm to the environment than good. There’s no better example of this than what wind and solar energy do to birds. 

Industrial wind turbines—those giant generators of wind power—are the greatest new threat to golden and bald eagles. But the eagles are hardly the only ones threatened. Condors, owls, hawks and falcons all fall prey to the turbines’ mighty blades.   

Big Wind—and believe me, there’s a Big Wind industry now, just like there’s Big Oil and Big Pharma—claims that house cats kill more birds than wind turbines. That’s true. But whereas cats kill small, common birds like sparrows, wind turbines kill big, threatened-with-extinction and slow-to-reproduce species like bald eagles and condors.

Indeed, industrial wind farms are killing fields for birds. The more turbines you put up, the more birds you’re going to slaughter. 

According to the American Bird Conservancy in 2017, “Research shows that hundreds of thousands of birds and bats die every year when they accidentally collide with the…turbine blades. That number grows with each turbine built.” The Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds reports that wind farms built off the coast of Britain could be the “final nail in the coffin” for endangered sea birds. The Center for Biological Diversity calls the Altamont Pass wind farm in California “a population sink for golden eagles as well as burrowing owls.”

As for solar farms, they produce an entirely different set of problems, although they also are very harmful for birds. In California, according to a federal report, massive solar arrays produce heat up to 900 degrees. When birds fly into those arrays, they simply burn up.

Building a solar farm is a lot like building any other kind of massive industrial facility. You have to clear the whole area of wildlife. For example, in order to construct the Ivanpah solar farm in California near the Nevada border, developers hired biologists to pull threatened desert tortoises from their burrows. The tortoises were then loaded on the back of pickup trucks and caged in pens where many ended up dying. 

Solar farms also need millions and millions of gallons of water to clean the mirrors and to generate power. Since most solar farms are built in the desert, we’re talking about a precious resource already in short supply. “When push comes to shove, water could become the real throttle on renewable [solar] energy,” according to Michael Webber, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Then there’s the issue of what to do with solar panels that wear out. The panels contain lead and other toxic chemicals that can’t be removed without breaking up the entire panel. Since it’s far cheaper for solar manufacturers to just buy the raw materials than recycle old panels, those old panels end up in landfills—or, as the New York Times discovered in a 2019 investigation, dumped in poor African nations.

For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/do-we-have-to-destroy-the-earth-to-save-it/

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49 Comments

  1. He forgot to mention the fact that, with all of the great bird destruction by wind turbines comes an increase in the rodent and snake and other pest population, which they feed upon. There in fact better designed wind turbines, vertical axis turbines, that could be surrounded by wire fencing that would not allow the entry of large birds, and thereby not cause the aforementioned animal destruction and increased infestation of rodents and snakes, and these turbines are, or can be, made of steel which can be fully recycled.

  4. Hmm, you know, if we only had access to the greatest energy sources available to know universe kind….

    I’m talking Arc Reactors, Kyber Crystals, and Brickonium Energy Crystals….

    Yep, that’d be great, but who’s going to head out to Illum or Planet U and mine them, especially when we don’t have Hyperdrive Technology? And did I mention the rock monsters on Planet U? Who wants to fight those horrid things? Anybody got some dynamite?

    Also, can we please ask the question of why The Lego Group is putting so much effort in making Lego City solar and wind powered when they already should still have a crapp ton of Brickonium Energy Crystals left from the Powe Miner’s expedition into the earth to stop the rock monsters from shaking the planet apart?

    Anyways, enjoy! I’ve got more Brickonium to buy!

  5. He is talking only about solar pannels and wind turbines. If you did so much reaserch than did you find other renewable energy like water and nuclear and others? I Guess that think with 25% of US be covered to with renewable energy to be 100% renewable was counting only these two

  9. "Cats Only Kill Small Birds!?" FULL STOP! Comments such as that, degrade your intent and credibility. Cats are responsible for at least 63 extinctions of mammals, birds, and reptiles and for the deaths of 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds and 6.9 to 20.7 billion mammals every year. Do your due diligence before making statements.

  14. I love how you just don’t talk about the impact that just getting the material for the coal, natural gas, and oil power plants have on the environment. Things like mountain top removal for coal where they literally clear-cut and detonate entire mountain top. Or fracking for natural gas which is currently destroying so many American aquifers. You make valid points that I agree with, but you didn’t talk about the other side of the argument. I agree that the way people are doing solar farms is terrible and they should find another solution. Although, it sucks because you don’t talk about the WAY WORSE side of the story and just made green energy sound terrible. There is no argument if you did not talk about both sides of the equation.

  16. Wait wait wait. Where are you getting these numbers. Didnt you say 10 percent of energy is from renewable sources? How does 100 percent inflate half a percent to 25 percent??? The math doesn't add up, should be 5 percent. And don't even get me started on your sources

  17. And so…coal, gas, oil…these kill less people and animals…? Didnt conservatives used to make jokes about people saying "save the whales and trees"? Isnt that currently happening again with plastic straws and turtles…?

  19. Nothing turns big dirty fossil fuel money into concerned environmentalists faster than threatening their bank accounts with clean renewable alternative energy. But mine, drill, burn, pollute, spill oil, deforest and remove mountaintops forever, that's all good. lol

  20. Casually omits the fact just coal power plants alone kill roughly 8 million birds a year and causing birth defects and lower brood counts alone due to pollution and acid rain. Y’all bring up the downsides of renewable energy like we literally already didn’t know they existsed while completely neglecting the huge overwhelming harm caused by fossil fuels since we started using them in the industrial revolution. Quit drumming up false narratives using real data to suck up to the oil barons that fund your show.

  27. I dont think saying wind is bad because of birds killed is a good argument, because 2 reasons of reasons
    Placing the turbines far from major migration routs is a simple and easy solution
    It kills less birds per killowhat/hour than fossil fuels
    Multiple kinds of New turbines are being made, some of wich don't kill any birds

  30. Definition of Mother Earth
    —used to refer to the planet Earth as a woman or a goddess
    protecting the resources of Mother Earth. Mother earth is the least repentant least sympathetic spirit it routinely in the past has wiped out 95% of every living creature that has ever walked this planet millions of years before Man was giving his opportunity viruses bacteria all developed long before Man was even a hairy hunched back Simeon screaming and running across the plains

  32. 4:20 If 100% of the energy system of today requires 0.5% of the land and you get about 10% of the energy from solar and wind power. Then – at the very most possible – you would need 5% of the land for an energy system which solely consists of wind and solar power. Where do you get those 25% from? Your statements contradict each other.

  44. So we can't have wind because birds might die, but oil drilling is just fine for wildlife. Turtles in cages is cruel, but children in cages is just border security. Solar is bad because it damages the water supply, but fracking is a safe source of energy. Clearing land for solar farms is bad but clearing land to mine oil sands is good. Wind and solar produce waste that's hard to get rid of, but nuclear energy is the future.

    Conservatives really will say anything.

  46. 🇬🇧 Save the UK 🇬🇧
    The conservative government has set plans for our beautiful island to be completely surrounded by giant wind farms. It will destroy the wildlife; devastating the already endangered species. The aim is to make the UK the world leader of green energy by 2030. Do we want this? Is it worth it? Will it work?
    I think you will find the answer to that is ‘NO’

  47. I love nuclear power and hydroelectricity, but there is still something to wind and solar. We just need to think outside the box. There are solutions. Maybe put solar panels on lakes or inside greenhouses or spread out on every roof? Put wind turbines on the medians of roads or color them with special paint. Maybe bury the generators deep below ground to hide the emf it creates so it wont affect migration patterns or attract birds? Eventually we will crack fusion efficiency, but this is promising too.