Althouse: "Windmills to shut at night following demise of rare bat."

October 19, 2011

"Windmills to shut at night following demise of rare bat."

It's so sad when goodnesses collide.

Can't we just make bats evil again? So the windmills can save us?

60 comments:

KCFleming said...: More evidence that, try as he might do good, man is inherently evil and must leave this Earth.; 10/19/11, 11:07 AM
BarryD said...: Windmills kill about a half-million birds a year already. This shouldn't surprise those monitoring. Some members any species that flies through the area will eventually be killed by the huge clubs flying through the air.; 10/19/11, 11:08 AM
gerry said...: Windmill farms are good? Who knew?; 10/19/11, 11:11 AM
Sal said...: I'd rather have birds, bats, and nuclear power plants than a bunch of big wind farms.; 10/19/11, 11:12 AM
Scott M said...: How do they know it wasn't a vampire?; 10/19/11, 11:13 AM
RLB_IV said...: Well, at least we will have some bats for Halloween.; 10/19/11, 11:14 AM
Anonymous said...: HEY!!! What about

www.globalslowing.org; 10/19/11, 11:15 AM
AmPowerBlog said...: "Demise" almost implies "extinction," so I'm clicking the link to see if windmills caused the extinction of bats. But they've only found a couple of dead bats. Endangered, yes, but not extinct.; 10/19/11, 11:20 AM
Calypso Facto said...: The data I've seen say wind turbines produce about 2/3 of their total power at night. Oops. Sorry about that 66% reduction in your energy production. That's gotta leave a mark on the return on investment.; 10/19/11, 11:21 AM
Dustin said...: Nuclear.

Oh, and that reminds me of the pandering idiots in the debate last night RE Yucca.

This is a serious problem with a legitimate big government solution for dealing with waste (Which is greatly reduced, but still a sober problem).

Nuclear power is our future. Had Obama done that instead of graft style stimulus, the country would be better off.; 10/19/11, 11:22 AM
Scott M said...: But they've only found a couple of dead bats.

What they need to do is start checking the castles and tombs nearby looking for a dude with a serious head wound. Either that or find out what George Hamilton's been doing.; 10/19/11, 11:23 AM
Anonymous said...: Calypso....return on investment? since when does political feel good need ROI?; 10/19/11, 11:24 AM
Scott M said...: Had Obama done that instead of graft style stimulus, the country would be better off.

One wonders what he would have done from day one if he would have known with certitude (lol) that he would be a one-term president.; 10/19/11, 11:24 AM
edutcher said...: The snail darter rides again.

gerry said...

Windmill farms are good? Who knew?

Somewhere, Teddy Kennedy is saying, "Toldja so".; 10/19/11, 11:26 AM
MikeinAppalachia said...: Robert said:
HEY!!! What about
www.globalslowing.org

It is interesting that while Billions have been spent on "studies" of how an increase in a trace atmospheric gas might affect climate/weather, there's been very little (none?) research into how removing energy from the winds might affect the same.
Strange that.
Anyone familiar with preparing grant applications?; 10/19/11, 11:27 AM
Drew W said...: They're turning off the windmills at night, but local energy authorities think they can make up for the power shortfall by leaving their solar panels on 24 hours a day.; 10/19/11, 11:27 AM
Anna said...: Has anyone seen Count Duckula recently?

Add the fear of a bat to other reasons environmentalist lefties want to return humans to hunter-gatherer status. Along with the opposition to Yucca Mountain and Sierra Club suing to shut down a solar farm because it might hurt a desert creature.; 10/19/11, 11:28 AM
traditionalguy said...: Conflicting myths are entertainment at its best.

It is like watching Godzilla vs King Kong.; 10/19/11, 11:35 AM
coketown said...: Our energy policy cannot be held hostage to the interests of Big Bat.

(I can't help LOL! at the thought of the crime scene beneath the blades of the windmill, with police tape and a chalked outline of the bat. CSI: Indiana.); 10/19/11, 11:37 AM
caplight said...: The Green Movement increasingly has a Monty Pythonesque quality to it. "Welcome to the Office of Silly Ideas. Mr. Twit will be glad to help you.}; 10/19/11, 11:40 AM
Anonymous said...: No, it's more like watching Daffy Duck versus the Roadrunner.; 10/19/11, 11:42 AM
Lambchop said...: Good one, t-man!; 10/19/11, 11:43 AM
Anonymous said...: Wrong thread, Lambchop. Is your brain full of wool?; 10/19/11, 11:44 AM
Lambchop said...: No, but this hand up my a** is very distracting.; 10/19/11, 11:46 AM
Paddy O said...: Can the windmills save us from all those pesterous bugs?! I shall put my stock in those bats!; 10/19/11, 11:49 AM
Peter said...: Does that mean that if someone should discover that a car has killed a bat, driving after dark will be prohibited?; 10/19/11, 11:59 AM
Curious George said...: "Somewhere, Teddy Kennedy is saying, "Toldja so"."

That "somehwhere" is hell. That's where murderers go. WHich is fine with Teddy, because I have it on good authority that there are no bars in heaven.; 10/19/11, 12:01 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: All this over a couple of fucking bats?; 10/19/11, 12:01 PM
Anonymous said...: Bats are killed in droves- the sudden increase/decrease in air pressure explodes their lungs.

Science....; 10/19/11, 12:05 PM
Anonymous said...: Shouting Thomas....that's what they get for trying to f**k on the blades of a windmill...; 10/19/11, 12:08 PM
Paco Wové said...: "...return on investment? since when does political feel good need ROI?"

Indeed. Non-profitable investments are inherently more virtuous than ones that make ...(shudder) money.; 10/19/11, 12:12 PM
rhhardin said...: They are not counting the mosquitos killed, which offsets the bat.; 10/19/11, 12:33 PM
ic said...: "Can't we just make bats evil again? So the windmills can save us?"

No, bats are good, humans are evil.; 10/19/11, 12:44 PM
Anonymous said...: Because the CBO scored the dead bats as "savings" when calculating the costs of Obamacare (projecting reduced treatment costs for rabies), this new development will also increase the budget deficit.; 10/19/11, 12:49 PM
Crunchy Frog said...: Maybe this can count under the stimulus as "number of bats saved or created".

wv: spalso - just because; 10/19/11, 1:00 PM
Michael said...: Windmills would bother the view of rich liberals who look out from Nantucket or Hyannis. Windmills do bother raptors flying about during the day. Windmills whap the bats at night.

Windmills should be purely decorative. things people can take field trips to view. Ultra green, however, as they produce nothing and cost a lot.; 10/19/11, 1:23 PM
MadisonMan said...: removing energy from the winds might affect the same.

Reducing the amount of energy transported by the wind should increase the number of storms.

I doubt that windmills have an appreciable effect, however. You'd have to do a credible energy analysis on page 1 of the grant application to get very far.; 10/19/11, 1:48 PM
AllenS said...: Put a couple of windmills around Lake Mendota, and let them whack a bunch of geese. Then garage could pick them up and eat 'em.; 10/19/11, 1:53 PM
Kirk Parker said...: Colliding goodnesses naturally leads one to think of the opposite. Here, from Ted Pauker's "A Grouchy Good Night To The Academic Year", one of the best-ever pair of lines on colliding badnesses:

...
Where psychology meets education
A terrible bullshit is born.

...; 10/19/11, 3:10 PM
Carnifex said...: Ah children there are hidden chains to this though. The dead bodies of bats and birds are provender for various scavengers like coyotes, and oppossum, and skunks. So their population grows. And they spread diseases through their own interaction with humans. Or better yet , the spread of fleas. The fleas spread the bubonic plague which ravages the population. The population of humanity falls to where civilization is unsustainable. Humanity ceases to exist except in small hunter/gatherer enclaves. The upkeep and repair of the windmills falls off, the windmills cease to function, the bat population is restored and all is good with Gaia. See, that wasn't to hard to follow was it?; 10/19/11, 3:19 PM
The Dude said...: Echo-location fail.; 10/19/11, 3:20 PM
Astro said...: Wait just a darn minute here.
Bats use sonar to navigate and can maneuver extremely well. I find it very difficult to believe that the bat died due to a collision with something relatively slow and steadily moving like a turbine blade.

I bet if an autopsy were performed they find some other cause [or primary cause] of the death of the bat.; 10/19/11, 3:49 PM
Scott M said...: I bet if an autopsy were performed they find some other cause [or primary cause] of the death of the bat.

The turbines in that windfarm are coated with garlic. Look it up.; 10/19/11, 3:50 PM
AllenS said...: Astro, they probably got hit in the back of the head, a place where the sonar doesn't work.; 10/19/11, 3:57 PM
Anonymous said...: Since ignorance is afoot-

And some are too lazy to read:

Wind Turbines Kill Bats Without Impact
Jessica Marshall, Discovery News

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Wind Power Victim
Wind Power Victim | Get Earth News Video

Aug. 25, 2008 -- Researchers have found the cause behind mysterious bat deaths near wind turbines, in which many bat carcasses appeared uninjured.

The explanation to this puzzle is that the bats' lungs effectively blow up from the rapid pressure drop that occurs as air flows over the turbine blades.

"The idea had kind of been floating around, because people had noticed these bats with no injuries," said Erin Baerwald of the University of Calgary and lead author of a study about the finding in the journal Current Biology.

Researchers examined a large sample size of hoary and silver-haired bats found under wind turbines, performing necropsies on the bats within hours of their death.

The damage from rapidly expanding air in the lungs caused by the sudden drop in pressure was clear. Ninety percent of the bat deaths at the southern Alberta site involved internal hemorrhaging consistent with such damage, called barotrauma....

To read more visit "Google.com"; 10/19/11, 4:06 PM
Deloras said...: A few years ago the nuts in Madison said no to turbines cause they ruin their view - hypocrites.; 10/19/11, 4:09 PM
AllenS said...: Good work, Browndog,

One of these days during a high wind, one of these windmills will come loose, and destroy an entire city like a whirling dervish.; 10/19/11, 4:13 PM
JAL said...: Usual eco-idiocy.

Jump into something out of self righteoussness and get slammed with reality.

The mercury in the CFLs will catch up with the purists someday soon.

Drill baby, drill.; 10/19/11, 4:27 PM
john bord said...: Fine close them down..... on one condition that a coal fired plant be built to replace the lost wind power and provide a place for the bats to inhabit.; 10/19/11, 4:39 PM
Alex said...: We need more wind power says garage!; 10/19/11, 4:41 PM
Dutch Canuck said...: Drew said:

They're turning off the windmills at night, but local energy authorities think they can make up for the power shortfall by leaving their solar panels on 24 hours a day.

They could do what the Spanish did last year: they hooked up diesel generators to the output transformers of their solar panels and ran them all night long. That way, they could generate electricity at 7 cents/kwh, run it through the solar panel circuits, and sell it to the state at the subsidized "renewable" rate of 44 cents/kwh.

And no bats were harmed.

Win win!; 10/19/11, 4:46 PM
Anonymous said...: I am waiting to see if the government fines them for killing the bat, like they fined the oil companies who killed a couple of birds.

Of course, there were not conflicting goodnesses there, as oil companies are inherently evil.; 10/19/11, 5:01 PM
Curious George said...: Windmills. Tilt at them.; 10/19/11, 5:07 PM
Pettifogger said...: "It's so sad when goodnesses collide."

I always enjoy the schadenfreude when greenies are forced to face trade-offs, a phenomenon the existence of which is counter to their world view.; 10/19/11, 5:32 PM
Astro said...: @ Browndog

Well, damn me for not knowing about a not-linked-to story about a study done in Canada 3 years ago. Sheesh, how f'n stupid of me.

And as someone else pointed out, for not knowing about the garlic, either.

Personally, I think it was Colonel Mustard, with a lead pipe, whackin' those poor little bats. Or maybe Albert Pujols. He has shattered a bat or two this year.; 10/19/11, 6:14 PM
jeff said...: thankfully, there is no real need for electricity after dark. Hey, at daytime its light out, so you could shut those down then to save the birds!!; 10/19/11, 7:07 PM
Paul said...: Of course you know hydroelectric dams kill fish, right? Sometimes ENDANGERED fish.

Now ain't that a gas!; 10/19/11, 7:59 PM
Wince said...: Don't feel too badly.

It was an "old bat".

Windmills, doing the work death panels can't.; 10/19/11, 10:32 PM
Anonymous said...: @ BarryD

"Some members any species that flies through the area will eventually be killed by the huge clubs flying through the air."

I had this vision of a set of Louisville Sluggers beating their way through the air clubbing down anything that passes through their arc.

Thank you for a tremendously amusing morning coffee! :)

wv: pradi. plural of prada. e.g. the pradi promenaded along 5th ave.; 10/20/11, 9:13 AM
Anonymous said...: @Astro

Touchy, ain't we?

What make you think I was addressing you specificly?

In fact, your post displayed a spot-on curiosity that others seem to lack-

But since you stepped in it-

I posted a 2008 article to illustrate how "old" the science of bats deaths is-

And....it's not just "Alberta bats"-

I've linked and discussed this issue at length on Althouse before...and mentioned it in my post above.....one that appears nobody took seriously.

So, lay off. I'm not your enemy-; 10/20/11, 9:44 AM