Category Archives: Environment

Adverse Health Effects, Environment, Health

Rally to raise awareness of electromagnetic hypersensitivity

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Wind turbines have sensitized a number of rural folk to health problems arising from electricity generation and it’s associated infrastructure.  Reports are increasing of individuals newly diagnosed with electromagnetic hypersensitivity after wind turbines and associated infrastructure (eg- transmission lines, substations, etc) were built adjacent to their homes.

Woman’s College Hospital runs a multidisciplinary Environmental Health Clinic which is one of a kind in Ontario.  The clinic provides leading edge access to clinical care and diagnosis for people with chronic complex environmentally-linked conditions such as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Fibromyalgia (FM) and Environmental Sensitivities, including both Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (ES/MCS) and Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity.

queens-park_480
Queen’s Park, Toronto Ontario

Rally to Increase Awareness Regarding Electrosmog and Electromagnetic Illness

updates

Rally is being rescheduled for a later date.  Conference will proceed as planned.

 

womans college hospital
Woman’s College Hospital

Impacts of Wireless Technology on Health Symposium

May 31/19 ~8:00AM-4:30PM~ Women’s College Hospital, Burton Auditorium~ Toronto

Hosted by  Woman’s College Environmental Health Clinic the event  includes 13 speakers on topics ranging from IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) implications, health impacts and epidemiological evidence of EMF exposures, home assessments, legal issues, impacts on students and teachers, advocacy and next steps.

Register at: Impacts of Wireless Technology on Health

($100 registration fee)

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM_FLYER

Adverse Health Effects, Cost Benefit, Direct Effects, Environment, Health, Ireland fights big wind., UK Wind

Irish Wind Energy Apologies to Adversley Impacted Communities

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ireland turbines

Agriland|Aisling Kiernan|

IWEA apologises to wind farm communities across Ireland

The Irish Wind Energy Association (IWEA) has apologised to communities across Ireland who have been negatively impacted by the development of wind farms – via its members – in their localities.

The association’s head of communications and public affairs Justin Moran also confirmed that a new focus on community and public engagement would ensure that relations between residents and developers will improve “going forward” as wind energy gets set to step up a gear in this country.

Moran’s comments come in the aftermath of the publication of a series of articles by AgriLand in which community groups from Donegal to Kerry laid bare the difficulties both they and the local environment now face as a direct result of wind farm developments in their area.

He also pointed out that the latest phase of the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) – which the organisation anticipates will be up and running early next year – will place an obligation on all wind farm developers to offer an investment opportunity to people in the community.

IWEA, meanwhile, is a trade association that represents companies involved in the planning and development of wind farms in Ireland. It represents all the big players in the industry including Brookfield, Coillte, Bord na Móna, ESB and SSE.

‘Bridging the great divide’

Speaking about the fallout between developers and communities Moran said there was “an acceptance” in the industry that the way in which member companies engaged with communities in the past “was not the way”.

There would be an acceptance in the industry that the way in which we engaged with communities in the past – and the way we have engaged with communities – is not the way to be doing it.

He continued: “Wind farm developers need to realise that the people who live in these areas have been there long before they arrived.”

Moran went on to say that it was public knowledge now that situations have arisen in rural Ireland where, when locals tried to explain to developers why they simply could not place a wind turbine in a particular area or on a specific piece of land, communication subsequently broke down.

“We need to listen to what local people are saying to us. We all know there are cases where developers came in and locals were able to tell them that they would not be able to put a wind turbine in such and such a location for whatever civic or environmental reason it was,” he added.

Developers very often don’t know these things and the feedback from the community is very, very important in all of this.

“Engaging with the community and sharing knowledge will result in a more effective project for everybody concerned.

“Information that is given in an open, transparent, accessible and a factually correct way is the way forward and results in a better experience for everyone.

“We need to be more conscious of doing that.”

Environment

Renewable Energy & Radioactive Trash

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radioactive

By Noel Wauchope | |Independent Australia

Toxic waste: Lynas Corporation and the downside of renewable energy

In some cases, renewable energy can have profoundly harmful environmental effects if not managed correctly, writes Noel Wauchope.

AUSTRALIA’S LYNAS CORPORATION is currently under the business and political spotlight. The current controversy over Lynas rare earth elements company is a wake-up call to an area of vulnerability in renewable technologies – the radioactive pollution produced by developing the rare earth elements essential for today’s hi-tech devices. Electric cars, batteries, energy efficient lighting, smartphones, solar panels, wind turbines and so on all need some of the 17 mineral elements classed as rare earth. The mining and processing of this produces radioactive trash.

Environmentalists, in their enthusiasm for renewable energy, seem unaware of this fact, while they rightly condemn coal and nuclear power, for their toxic by-products.

Australia’s Lynas Corporation has two major rare earth facilities — mining at Mount Weld, Western Australia, and processing at Kuantan, Malaysia. For years, there’s been a smouldering controversy going on in Malaysia, over the radioactive wastes produced by the refining facility at Kuantan.

Now, this has come to a head. On 17th April, the Malaysian Government insisted that Lynas Corp must remove more than 450,000 tonnes of radioactive waste from the country, for its licence to be renewed in September.

READ HERE
Adverse Health Effects, Children Affected, Environment, Health

Infrasound Effects

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Infrasound is found within our natural environment but it is the emissions generated by sources such as industrial wind turbines that are raising concerns.  There are growing reports of adverse health symptoms from residents whose homes are adjacent to electrical generation complexes powered by the wind.  The following letter points out negative health effects arising from exposure to man- made sources of infrasound were known and studied prior to current day rapid expansion of wind powered installations.

infrasound_orig
The Advertiser-Tribune| Letters to the Editor|December 1, 2018

Infrasound effects

I congratulate Seneca County for being selected to participate in one of the largest experiments to determine the effects of infrasound on human organ systems. With large numbers of massive wind turbines planned in this densely populated county, medical effects on internal organs can be analyzed.

The size of the proposed wind turbines ensures the generation of low-frequency infrasound. The proximity of wind turbines to schools guarantees that as children age, internal organ deterioration can be compared to child control groups from similar demographic locations lacking wind turbines. After 10, 20 and 30 years, researchers can evaluate effects on human internal organs from infrasound. This is important, because western scientific research and medical literature has little written concerning short, or long-term infrasound effects on human organs such as lung, heart and kidney.

However, infrasound effects on internal organ tissue have been studied by numerous researchers in the former Soviet Union. They found that infrasound waves cause significant changes to heart tissue and other internal organs.

In the 1990s, European investigators studied internal organs in animal subjects and human workers exposed to infrasound. They found significant changes in lung tissue and heart pericardium. The authors also were concerned with potential damage to internal kidney structures.

In January 2018, German researchers presented results concerning infrasound effect on cardiac tissue contractility. They found cardiac tissue exposed to infrasound decreased tissue contractility by 25 percent.

Seneca County wind farm companies state that wind farm sound levels will only approach 55dbA. That information is misleading concerning infrasound. The“A” designation is a filtration formula including only audible sound between 20Hz and 20,000Hz. Infrasound is defined as occurring between 0-20Hz and is not identified with the dbA formula.

With multitude turbines planned, decibel level determination may be problematic. Overlapping sound wave energies add together, similar to overlapping ripples on water from multiple stones dropped simultaneously. Some waves cancel out. Other waves enlarge. Wind turbine numbers become directly proportional to infrasound wave energy multiplication. Also, infrasound waves are stable, traveling great distances.

For those interested in their own personal research on infrasound effects, information was obtained for this letter from the PubMed website (Key words: infrasound AND heart, or infrasound AND physiological effects) and the Wikipedia website. Soviet research, translated from Cyrillic, was obtained from the archives at The National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

Retired Capt. Michael T. Curran,

U.S. Navy,

New Riegel

Adverse Health Effects, Environment, fighting big wind., harm to wildlife, Health, Unite the Fight!

Lake Erie Groups Rev Up Opposition

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Cleveland.com| By Laura Johnston| April 15, 2019

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Lake Erie Shoreline

Lake Erie groups rev up opposition to Cleveland wind turbine project, as developers negotiate with state

By Laura Johnston, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The project has been on the horizon for a decade and a half: six wind turbines erected in Lake Erie, in the first freshwater wind project in North America.

But fervor over the issue is revving up now among boaters, as the developer, the nonprofit Lake Erie Energy Development Co., works through stipulations with the state.

The Lake Erie Marine Trades Association — made up of boat dealers, clubs and other enthusiasts — opposes the $126 million, 20.7-megawatt project dubbed Icebreaker, planned for 8 miles north of Cleveland. So does the nonprofit Lake Erie Foundation.

Both LEEDCo. and its opponents point to hundreds of pages of documents they say prove their points.

The fight is not so much over the six turbines up for state approval right now – but for the wind farm it could precipitate: thousands of spinning blades the Lake Erie Foundation fears will desecrate Lake Erie.

LEEDCo. CEO Lorry Wagner says there are “currently no plans” for more turbines. “You can have all the dreams and aspirations you want, but until you climb that first hill and see what’s out there, you better focus on that first hill.”

But Icebreaker is a pilot project, with a $40 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. LEEDCo. has partnered with Norway-based Fred Olsen Renewables, and its website says “we can build an industry and supply chain in Northeast Ohio that will creation 8,000 new good paying jobs and pump nearly $14 billion into our economy by 2030… as the industry grows here.”

An expansion would require more studies and more approvals.

Said foundation board member John Lipaj: “You cannot treat this as a six-turbine stand-alone project. We have to be realistic and treat it for what it is.”……

READ MORE HERE

Adverse Health Effects, Animals and turbines, Cost Benefit, Direct Effects, Environment, harm to wildlife, Health, Uncategorized, Unite the Fight!

No wind turbines on Great Lakes

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wolfe island foggy
Wolfe Island Wind Turbines

Boating Industry|April 9, 2019

MBIA urges boaters to voice their opposition to wind turbines in the Great Lakes

April 9, 2019

The Michigan Boating Industries Association, along with environmental groups, boating associations, and property owners are urging boaters to raise their voice in opposition of the proposed Icebreaker wind power turbines in Lake Erie.

Nicki Polan, executive director of MBIA says: “MBIA is not opposed to alternative sources of energy. But, regarding wind farms in our Great Lakes, we find far too many unanswered questions and documented risks to the health and aesthetics of these unique and often times fragile bodies of water. We stand opposed to plans such as the one being considered in Ohio now and we encourage all boaters and boating businesses to join us in communicating this to Ohio.”

Michigan borders on four of the five Great Lakes including a large portion of Lake Erie. Many Michigan residents’ boat on Lake Erie, and many Michigan businesses and citizens live and work along its shores.

Only 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh water, and 20% of that is coming from the Great Lakes.

“Building wind turbines in Lake Erie will threaten clean water, boating access, one of the world’s best perch and walleye fisheries, bird migration, the safety and health of coastal residents, and so much more,” said Polan.

The initial goal of the Icebreaker plan is to place 6 wind turbines, with a final goal of 1,200 wind turbines in Lake Erie, costing an estimated $24 billion.

“Wind power has proved to be very high cost with low return,” said MBIA Board Member Jim Coburn of Coburn & Associated in Macomb, Mich. “Many wind turbine projects in the U.S. and overseas have been abandoned because of this. Why this is even being considered in our Great Lakes is beyond me.”

The case against turbines is extensive, including the fact that exploding and burning turbines can be commonplace. Each turbine contains over 400 gallons of industrial lubricants in their gearboxes.Gearbox seals are known to fail and will leak oil into the waters below. But when they burn there is no way to reach and extinguish them. As the 300-foot turbine blades burn, they create toxic emissions polluting the air and waters below.

Source: Boating Industry

Animals and turbines, Destruction from turbines, Direct Effects, Environment, harm to wildlife

White-Tailed Eagle Collision with Industrial Wind Turbine

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“A wind turbine located at northern Hokkaido, Japan with a high risk of bird strikes was monitored using a webcam surveillance system that was activated during the daytime every day from December 2013 to March 2014, which was the wintering season for the white-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla). A collision carcass of the white-tailed sea eagle was observed at the wind turbine on January 29, 2014 at 15:00. On analysis of the recorded data, we found that the moment of the collision was captured by both cameras.”

Turbine strike of White-tailed Eagle January 29, 2014
(Video 13 seconds length)

Unser Dorf hat Zukunft? Oder werden unsere Dörfer zerstört?/Our village has a future? Or are our villages destroyed?
(Video 4:59 minutes)

Adverse Health Effects, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Contracts Cancelled, Environment, Green Energy, legal challenges, Ontario Wind, Unite the Fight!

Charter Challenge Against Green Energy Act

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The Green Energy Act is far from being repealed in Ontario.  The Charter Challenge led by CCSAGE continues on with the recent filing of a Notice of Application to proceed filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Read Notice of Application here:

Source:
Notice of Application required to continue the Charter Challenge to the Green Energy Act by Alan Whiteley

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Animals and turbines, Direct Effects, Environment, harm to wildlife

Avoidance=Habitat Loss

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dead birds 3Wind industry in damage control over avian deaths and significant adverse environmental impacts of avoidance of essential ecosystems such as migration corridors.  Reading spin below it begs many questions least is how do dead raptors, birds and bats killed by wind turbines “learn”?

For a sobering reading of industry generated reports (self counted and self reported) of avian kills at wind facilities submitted to a voluntary data base please review:   Bird Study Canada

Freedom of information requests made by citizens in Ontario demonstrate industry reported kill rates are much worse: Bird-Bat-Mortality-SUMMARY

Journal for the Energy Transition|March 5, 2019|Benjamin Wehrmann

global flyways

Many migrating birds have learned to avoid potentially deadly wind turbines, but this behaviour equals a loss of habitat for the animals, researcher Ana Teresa Marques and others write in the Journal of Animal Ecology. “Soaring birds are among the most affected groups with alarming fatality rates by collision with wind turbines and an escalating occupation of their migratory corridors,” the researchers write. They equipped 130 migrating black kites with tracking devices to trace their travel routes at the migratory bottleneck of the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco — an area that is crucial for many bird species and which is also used for wind power production — and found that the animals fly about 700 metres around the turbines, effectively reducing the area available for the birds to migrate by up to 14 percent. “Authorities should recognise this further impact of wind energy production and establish new regulations that protect soaring habitat,” the researchers write.

Wind power in Germany has seen increasing resistance in recent years not least due to its possible negative effects on wildlife. Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) recently said that more attention had to be given to the impact of renewable power development on habitats and species. “An ecologically sound renewable roll-out is possible,” BfN president Beate Jessel said. Environmental NGO Nabu estimates about 100,000 birds in the country could be killed by rotor blades each year. To put this figure into perspective: Environmental organisation Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) says that about 18 million birds in Germany die every year by crashing into windows.

Source: Journal for the Energy Transition

Griffon Vulture hit by wind turbine in Crete (Video Duration: 5 minutes 54 seconds)

Wind turbines cause functional habitat loss for migratory soaring birds

First published: 14 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12961

Abstract

  1. Wind energy production has expanded to meet climate change mitigation goals, but negative impacts of wind turbines have been reported on wildlife. Soaring birds are among the most affected groups with alarming fatality rates by collision with wind turbines and an escalating occupation of their migratory corridors. These birds have been described as changing their flight trajectories to avoid wind turbines, but this behaviour may lead to functional habitat loss, as suitable soaring areas in the proximity of wind turbines will likely be underused.

  2. We modelled the displacement effect of wind turbines on black kites (Milvus migrans) tracked by GPS. We also evaluated the impact of this effect at the scale of the landscape by estimating how much suitable soaring area was lost to wind turbines.

  3. We used state‐of‐the‐art tracking devices to monitor the movements of 130 black kites in an area populated by wind turbines, at the migratory bottleneck of the Strait of Gibraltar. Landscape use by birds was mapped from GPS data using dynamic Brownian bridge movement models, and generalized additive mixed modelling was used to estimate the effect of wind turbine proximity on bird use while accounting for orographic and thermal uplift availability.

  4. We found that areas up to approximately 674 m away from the turbines were less used than expected given their uplift potential. Within that distance threshold, bird use decreased with the proximity to wind turbines. We estimated that the footprint of wind turbines affected 3%–14% of the areas suitable for soaring in our study area.

  5. We present evidence that the impacts of wind energy industry on soaring birds are greater than previously acknowledged. In addition to the commonly reported fatalities, the avoidance of turbines by soaring birds causes habitat losses in their movement corridors. Authorities should recognize this further impact of wind energy production and establish new regulations that protect soaring habitat. We also showed that soaring habitat for birds can be modelled at a fine scale using publicly available data. Such an approach can be used to plan low‐impact placement of turbines in new wind energy developments.