Oil and gas more important than sage grouse?

[A_Britishcolumbian]

what do prairie folk have against this beautiful bird? why would they choose to push the sage grouse to the brink of extinction?

Endangered sage grouse to be protected by emergency order
Unprecedented move comes after environmental groups sue federal government

For the first time, Environment Canada will issue an emergency order to protect an endangered species, a rare Prairie bird called the greater sage grouse.

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Tuesday that the order will be issued in the coming months and will impose restrictions to protect the habitat of the sage grouse on provincial and Crown lands in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

According to Environment Canada, fewer than 150 of the birds remain in the two Canadian provinces where they are found, Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the bird’s population has fallen 98 per cent since 1988. The sharp decline has been blamed on the destruction of its habitat by industry, especially the oil and gas industry.

The new proposed restrictions will not affect activities on private land. Nor will they restrict animals from grazing on provincial and Crown lands, said an Environment Canada news release.

An emergency order can be issued under Canada’s Species At Risk Act when a species faces “imminent threats to its survival” and existing protection measures are deemed inadequate. However, this would be the first time since the act went into effect in 2002 that such an order has been issued.

The announcement comes after environmental groups represented by Ecojustice took the government to court in an effort to force it to issue an emergency order to protect the bird.

Oil and gas industry affected

Ian Davidson, executive director of the conservation group Nature Canada said in a statement that he and his colleagues are treating the announcement as a "very positive development" even if some of details are still unknown.

He added that the precedent set by the order makes the Species at Risk Act a stronger piece of legislation.

Cliff Wallis, a spokesperson for the Alberta Wilderness Association, one of the groups that took part in the lawsuit, said environmentalists are working with the oil and gas industry to clarify the implications.

“There may be some areas where they're contained in a very small part of the landscape and activities can continue,” he said. “But we would presume a) there would be no new activities and b) that some of their existing structure actually would be unbuilt.”

In a statement, he added that new money would "obviously" be needed to fund implementation of the order.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/endan ... 98?cmp=rss

[logicalview]

I hope that the trend toward saving birds continues, and environmental groups fight to shut down all of the stupid wind farms in Alberta and California that are wiping out the bat populations as well as bird populations. It's high time that all of those "bird blenders" be shut down forever.

http://toryaardvark.com/2011/08/17/wind ... s-extinct/

http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/aug2008/batdeaths

[maryjane48]

I hope that the trend toward saving birds continues, and environmental groups fight to shut down all of the stupid wind farms in Alberta and California that are wiping out the bat populations as well as bird populations. It's high time that all of those "bird blenders" be shut down forever.

if you fight for the sage grouse ill fight for the bats :)

[logicalview]

if you fight for the sage grouse ill fight for the bats :)

LOL. You'd fight against your precious horrible wind farms? I highly doubt that. I do think that we should protect all wild life, and therefore, IF there is any damage being done to the sage grouse, and the oil and gas industry is doing anything to harm them, then practices should be changed to ensure the grouse is allowed to continue existing in its natural habitat. I just find it extremely hypocritical and mildly amusing that "environmentalists" always crap their pants over 100 ducks landing in an oil sands tailing pond, or a sage grouse being harmed by the oil industry, and yet continue to turn a blind eye to entire species of birds and bats being wiped out by bird-blending wind farms. I know the old tactic is to show stats that more birds are killed by buildings or whatever, but that's just crap. If the same amount of birds were dying in tailings ponds in Alberta, the enviro-nuts would be popping a valve. Wind farms and the global warming fraud trump birds in the tiny hypocritical brains of leftists. Every time.

[Atomoa]

Well I checked this thread to see what the story was but was presented with someone debating for the banning of windfarms to protect birds. The government would have to ban large bay windows in homes, businesses and glass skyscrapers before taking any action against any other threat to birds (such as airports and domesticated cats) before getting all the way down to windfarms as threat elimination, as the surface area of those combined makes the total area covered by "windfarms" a fraction of a percentage.

Hope this gets the thread back on topic.

[logicalview]

Well I checked this thread to see what the story was but was presented with someone debating for the banning of windfarms to protect birds.

If you are referring to me, then you are wrong. I'm not debating just getting rid of wind farms. I am debating hypocrisy. Either all birds count or no birds count. You can't cry about the Sage Grouse being wiped out, supposedly, by the "oil and gas" industry, and yet turn a blind eye to how the white throated needletail is being wiped out in Scotland, and the golden eagle is being wiped out in California, by wind turbines. You can't have it both ways.

http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/u ... ppeal.html

http://wcfn.org/2013/07/01/tip-of-the-iceberg/

http://toryaardvark.com/2011/08/17/wind ... s-extinct/

The government would have to ban large bay windows in homes, businesses and glass skyscrapers before taking any action against any other threat to birds (such as airports and domesticated cats) before getting all the way down to windfarms as threat elimination, as the surface area of those combined makes the total area covered by "windfarms" a fraction of a percentage.

And this is just plain nonsense. It's propaganda from the shysters still trying to ram the wind farm industry down our throats. As stated in the cut and paste I've added below, the wind farm industry has been trying to suppress bird kill numbers, by simply making sure they aren't monitored or recorded, and governments are complying by turning a blind eye, in order that the public not truly be informed of the situation and how bad win turbines truly are. That way they can continue to parrot lies about "bay windows". This is about energy production, not bay windows. People get extremely angry to hear about species being threatened by one form of energy production (oil) yet say nothing about species of birds being wiped out by a feel-good supposedly "renewable" source like wind farms. Its crap. This is nothing but politics at work here. This is why leftist enviros make me sick. They are such massive hypocrites. It's ok to kill birds as long as we promote a form of energy that is inefficient, is causing mass pollution in China from acid-boiling, and most important of all, not oil or gas or nuclear. Trotting out garbage about bay windows is just deflection, and extremely poor deflection at that.

Hope this gets the thread back on topic.

I know that this was supposed to be yet another "bash oil and gas" thread from the enviro-lefties, but it is also about extinction of species of birds, who are being sacrificed in order for mankind to have electricity and energy. If we are going to cry about one species of bird in Canada, then we should cry about all species. Ban wind farms, right now.

The fatal impact of a white-throated needletail with a wind turbine in Scotland (1) raises serious concerns, with ramifications far beyond the sad loss of a single, spectacular vagrant. As a rare visitor, this individual bird was being very carefully observed, and thus there was a far higher chance of a turbine impact being detected than is the case for most small birds. Only a minuscule fraction of birds are intensively monitored in this way, and if the movements and fates of many other individual birds were being monitored, then what appears to be a rare event might prove to be frequent – or indeed probable. The death of this needletail should remind us that numerous small birds are being hit by turbines without detection or raising alarm. However, other hirundine deaths have already been documented amongst Europe’s wind turbines (2).

The needletail encountered a small, lone turbine. On the face of it, this is highly unlikely – unless the bird was actively attracted to the vicinity of the turbine. Indeed, some insects are attracted to wind turbines, and some bats are attracted to their deaths by unknown features of the turbines – possibly the food concentration around them (3, 4, 5). Remarkably, there are reports of bats commuting to wind turbines up to 14 km offshore for such food resources, as well as others stopping, perching and feeding around them during migration (4). This attraction exerted by wind turbines extends their ecological footprint to new, unsuspected dimensions.

We hypothesise that hirundines (including swifts, swallows, martins, swiftlets and needletails) might also be attracted to insects flying around these machines – onshore and offshore. Indeed, awareness has already been raised about the potential attraction of insectivorous birds to wind turbines (5). Reports (5, 6) that hirundines can comprise a third of turbine victims in Sweden and are being killed by domestic microturbines in Britain merit further investigation. Another consideration is that certain landscape features and air flows might attract both wind farm developers and hirundines, putting them on a collision course as they do with raptors.

We propose that wind turbines, let alone wind farms, may create extensive population sinks which could deplete and exterminate populations of birds and bats. We doubt the woeful amount of independent monitoring of turbine impacts would be capable of detecting this threat in most regions or for most species.

In the circumstances, a precautionary approach would be particularly appropriate in areas with populations of already threatened endemic hirundines, bats and other species – as in Seychelles or the Mascarenes for instance. For such areas, irreversible global extinction might be caused by wind turbines, yet even the highest standards of monitoring (including videos and radio transmitters) might be insufficient to alert us in time. We predict the extinction legacy of wind turbines will become an increasing source of concern, as ecological traps are set in vast numbers across the planet.

A white tailed eagle killed by a Norwegian wind turbine

The wind turbine symbol of all that is good, renewable, green and politically correct is in reality an environmental holocaust for the countries like China that manufacture components for them, a subsidised failure at reliable electricity generation globally, they blight the lives of people forced to live within their shadow and they kill birds in huge numbers.

Yesterday Aardvark blogged about the desecration of the D Day beaches by bird choppers and finished the post with “Now if the area around the Normandy beaches were home to a threatened species of aquatic fruit bat then every NGO from Greenpeace to the WWF would be up in arms,” seems that Aardvark was wrong Wind Turbines are, in fact, the most sacred icon in the political Church of Climatology:

As California attempts to divorce itself from fossil-fueled electricity, it may be trading one environmental sin for another — although you don’t hear state officials admitting it.

Wind power is the fastest growing component in the state’s green energy portfolio, but wildlife advocates say the marriage has an unintended consequence: dead birds, including protected species of eagles, hawks and owls.

“The cumulative impacts are huge,” said Shawn Smallwood, one of the few recognized experts studying the impact of wind farms on migratory birds. “It is not inconceivable to me that we could reduce golden eagle populations by a great deal, if not wipe them out.”

California supports roughly 2,500 golden eagles. The state’s largest wind farms kill, on average, more than 80 eagles per year. But the state is set to triple wind capacity in the coming years as it tries to become the first state in the nation to generate 33 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2020.

“We would like to have no bird deaths and no bird injuries. But, once again, we have to balance all the needs of society. All the people who want to flip their switch and have electricity in their homes,” said Lorelei Oviatt, Kern County planning commissioner.

Kern County has identified some 225,000 acres just north of Los Angeles as a prime wind resource area. Unfortunately, the area’s rolling hills and mountains are prime hunting grounds for raptors and a layover spot for migratory birds traveling between Canada and Mexico. The updrafts enjoyed by birds of prey are ideal for generating power.

Balancing the needs of society against something eco, green and fluffy; but only when Climate Religion is being blindly followed.

Imagine the hue and cry if it were “Big Oil” or frakking involved.


“Politics plays a huge role here,” Smallwood said. “Our leaders want this power source so they’re giving, for a time being, a pass to the wind industry. If you or I killed an eagle, we’re looking at major consequences.”

Smallwood and others say it is almost inconceivable the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which enforces the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, hasn’t acted.

“There’s a big, big hypocrisy here,” Sue Hammer of Tehachapi Wildlife Rehab in Kern County said. “If I shoot an eagle, it’s a $10,000 fine and/or a vacation of one to five years in a federal pen of my choice.”

She’s not far off from the reality.

In 2009, Exxon pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of about 85 migratory birds in five states that came into contact with crude oil in uncovered waste tanks. The fine for this was $600,000.

Likewise, PacifiCorp, an Oregon utility, owed $10.5 million in fines, restitution and improvements to their equipment after 232 eagles were killed by running into power lines in Wyoming.

And in 2005, the owner of a fish hatchery was ordered to serve six months in a federal halfway house and pay a $65,000 fine for shooting an eagle that was feeding at his uncovered hatchery.

Wind power in the U.S. generates 41,400 megawatts of electricity. California represents just a fraction of that total, suggesting the number of raptor kills is considerably higher nationwide. Yet according to records, USFWS has not prosecuted a single company for violating one of the many statutes protecting threatened and endangered birds.

God Al Gore forbid that there should be anything negative ever publicised about the planet saving bird chopper, prosecute a company that distributes electricity and has birds fly in to its power lines, but sweep under the carpet any violations of law by a Church of Climatology approved generation facility.

Hypocrisy has always been a foundation stone of Al Gore’s Religion where us lesser beings are told how live our lives by the self appointed guardians of the planet, the mantra we are supposed to follow is “Dont do as I do, do as I say“.

[fluffy]

I'm not debating just getting rid of wind farms. I am debating hypocrisy. Either all birds count or no birds count. You can't cry about the Sage Grouse being wiped out, supposedly, by the "oil and gas" industry, and yet turn a blind eye to how the white throated needletail is being wiped out in Scotland, and the golden eagle is being wiped out in California, by wind turbines. You can't have it both ways.

So, in essence you're saying that if we can't fight the really big fight then we shouldn't fight at all ?

I'm not particularity on board with the OP's stance, he opens his argument with by inferring that Albertans are deliberately trying to wipe out this species and then goes on the describe government efforts to save it, a flawed position to say the least, but you counter with an argument that if he's not willing to take on the entire energy industry he should just be quiet ? Sorry but that is far from a logical view. I can't donate to cancer research unless I donate to the entire health research community ?

[logicalview]

So, in essence you're saying that if we can't fight the really big fight then we shouldn't fight at all ?

I'm not particularity on board with the OP's stance, he opens his argument with by inferring that Albertans are deliberately trying to wipe out this species and then goes on the describe government efforts to save it, a flawed position to say the least, but you counter with an argument that if he's not willing to take on the entire energy industry he should just be quiet ? Sorry but that is far from a logical view. I can't donate to cancer research unless I donate to the entire health research community ?

Fluffy - what I am saying is that it's hypocritical of envirogroups, with silly names like "Ecojustice", to sue the government over a bird that is being put under threat of survival, by oil and gas companies, and yet turn a blind a eye to birds that are being put under threat by wind farms. That's my main point. For every thread about the sage grouse, there could be two or three threads about other birds being made endangered by bird-blending wind farms. Yet you don't see any lawsuits from "Eco-justice" or any other silly enviro-group against wind farms. If someone can find one, I'll apologize.

It's a pretty simple point. If you need further clarification, feel free to inbox me. I'm pretty passionate about what a disgusting horrible invention the wind turbine is, and all the damage they do to wild life.

[fluffy]

Passionate you may be, and perhaps with good reason, but you're criticizing someone for fighting a completely different fight on the grounds they're not fighting yet another cause. I see your point but it's a weak one in my mind, taking on too many causes dilutes resources beyond the ability to fight any of them with any level of efficiency.

[logicalview]

Passionate you may be, and perhaps with good reason, but you're criticizing someone for fighting a completely different fight on the grounds they're not fighting yet another cause. I see your point but it's a weak one in my mind, taking on too many causes dilutes resources beyond the ability to fight any of them with any level of efficiency.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. The day that I see Ecojustice or other eco-loon organizations actually admit and address the bird species being wiped out by wind turbines is the day that I can support them whenever they freak out over every single bird that may or may not be affected by an oil and gas operation. It is a massive double-standard, and high hypocrisy, that these groups can get in a snit about the Sage Grouse, yet continue to be completely silent regarding the golden eagle in California. Just ridiculous.

[fluffy]

Are there activists campaigning to reduce bird mortality from wind turbines ? And if so what are they doing for the sage grouse?

[logicalview]

Are there activists campaigning to reduce bird mortality from wind turbines ?

There may be localized "activists" that are trying to bring attention to bird species being wiped out in their areas. But none of these professional groups like "Ecojustice" or even Greenpeace, WWF etc, that suck massive amounts of dough from peoples' pockets in fund-raising, are paying any attention on purpose, purely out of the desperate need, at all costs, to ensure no negative image of their precious wind turbines leaks to the general public. Instead, it's "look over here" at the Sage grouse, it's been impacted by those mean nasty oil companies, while pulling up a sheet to cover the bodies of the dead Golden eagles and white-throated needletails from wind turbines.

[Rwede]

Wind turbines make bird soup. They should never be allowed, but the enviro nuts that promote them are too far into their lies raising money from the gullible to speak against them now.

[Hassel99]

Oil and gas more important than sage grouse?

Yes

[logicalview]

Yes

LOL.

I am not in that camp, where I think we should do nothing. I do think we can find ways for man to produce energy and not harm wild life, and I admire the people who dedicate their lives to protecting those other beings on this planet who can't look out for themselves, or suddenly find themselves in the way of our development and can't adapt or find new breeding grounds. That's why I hate hate hate wind turbines with a passion. I have read some stories about how new turbines are being developed that are more bird friendly, and so I do have some hope that perhaps, one day, these turbines will just do what they do best - waste government money and make bleeding heart liberals feel better about themselves - and not also harm animals. That's the part that I just can't stand, and the fact that enviro-groups that are supposed to be looking out for these animals just stand around and ignore this issue just makes me sick.