{"id":3054,"date":"2017-06-27T09:55:39","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T15:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/?p=3054"},"modified":"2017-06-27T09:56:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T15:56:48","slug":"wind-power-offers-high-environmental-costs-limited-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2017\/06\/wind-power-offers-high-environmental-costs-limited-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind Power is Madness Masquerading as Environmentalism: High Costs to Wildlife, Limited Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Ever get sick of listening to environmentalists preen about their moral superiority? \u00a0I sure do. \u00a0That\u2019s why this article caught my eye about the wind industry being full of hot air<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For all the bragging the wind industry does about the growth of wind power worldwide\u2014and to be fair, due to huge subsidies, it has been growing at an impressive pace for a decade now\u2014it still doesn\u2019t amount to much as a share of power overall.<\/p>\n

According to the International Energy Agency\u2019s (IEA) 2016 Key Renewables Trends, wind provided 0.46 percent of global energy consumption in 2014. This is total energy, not just electricity, which is less than one-fifth of all energy used. Even limiting the question to electricity, all renewable-energy sources combined provided approximately 22 percent of electric power worldwide in 2012, a share the Energy Information Agency expects to grow to about 30 percent by 2040.<\/p>\n

The problem for wind proponents is despite all the subsidies and mandates and the use of its punier but even more expensive cousin, solar power, wind and solar together only make up less than 5 percent of all global electric-power use, an amount EIA estimates will grow to 14 percent by 2040. Since electric power is just 20 percent of total energy use, even in 2040, electric and solar power will provide a mere fraction of the world\u2019s total energy supply. Hydropower and old fashioned biomass\u2014which, for most of us, means burning wood for heat and cooking\u2014dominate the renewable-energy supply.<\/p>\n

The land, wildlife, and climate impacts of this push for wind are horrendous. Ridley points out IEA estimates world energy demand has been growing at about 2 percent each year for nearly 40 years, an amount of annual growth that is expected to continue for decades to come.<\/p>\n

If wind turbines were to supply just the expected growth in energy demand for the next 50 years, wind turbines would need to cover an amount of land equal to Russia, the largest country on Earth, in terms of land mass\u2014and that\u2019s just to meet new demand not displace the huge amounts of fossil fuels we currently use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s just the beginning of the problems. \u00a0(Read more here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a lover of the environment, then you MUST hate wind power.\u00a0 Wind power is inefficient, using massive amounts of resources and land to build, and gobbling up some of the most beautiful, pristine land in America.\u00a0 This is the worst offender among the \u201calternative energy\u201d sources being pursued today, and it must be stopped.\u00a0 It is only being built at all because of the worst sort of crony capitalism, being built on the backs of subsidies that come out of the taxes of working people.\u00a0 And if you live wildlife, you won\u2019t believe the carnage being done to bats and migratory birds by these giant, killer bird grinders.\u00a0 According to the Audubon Society, hundreds of thousands of migrating birds are senselessly slaughtered every year, often in violation of the laws that protect them<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Please\u2026help save the environment, and wild birds.\u00a0 You are sponsoring these wildlife deaths, and the destruction of wild lands, through your taxes, via subsidies to rich corporations that benefit from them.\u00a0 It\u2019s time for this madness \u2013 masquerading as environmentalism \u2013 to stop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image Credit: Pixabay<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s time for this madness – masquerading as environmentalism – to stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2673,"featured_media":3057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWind Power is Madness Masquerading as Environmentalism: High Costs to Wildlife, Limited Energy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's time for this madness - masquerading as environmentalism - to stop.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markmeckler\/2017\/06\/wind-power-offers-high-environmental-costs-limited-energy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wind Power is Madness Masquerading as Environmentalism: High Costs to Wildlife, Limited Energy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's time for this madness - 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