NA-PAW June 23, 2016 Canada

By the North American Platform Against Wind Power (NA-PAW)

Email: Catherine.McKenna@parl.gc.ca
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0A6

C.c. Honorable Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
The Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A2

C.c. President Barack Obama
Email: president@whitehouse.gov
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC
20500

Delivered by Email and Registered Mail

Date: June 23, 2016

Dear Honorable Minister Catherine McKenna,

We are writing to congratulate you on your decision to protect the Western Chorus Frog in Quebec as per the article today in the National Post. With your decision, you have shown common sense, humanity, and prescience. As the writer, Joseph Brean, states eloquently in his piece in the National Post:

“Within the hierarchy of our planet animals occupy a place which, if it does not give rights to animals, at least prompts us, as animals who claim to be rational beings, to impose on ourselves behaviour which will reflect in our relations with animals those virtues we seek to promote in our relations among humans.”

Your decision gives reverence to this statement. In this letter, we hope also to provide additional “relevance.”

The North American Platform against Wind Power is an organization that works with over 370 groups and tens of thousands of individuals in N. America, as well as gleaning and sharing current energy and environmental information from our European colleagues numbering several thousand additional groups. We communicate daily and share current information, with the objective to impact energy policy positively everywhere, and to educate about the tragedy of environmental dishonesty that is occurring with industrial wind. (With about 268,000 massive turbines worldwide, we yet only produced point two of one percent of the world’s electricity in 2014. Net Zero.)

We wish to take this opportunity to share with you some of the environmental devastation that is occurring with the rampant and thoughtless proliferation of industrial wind projects, both in Canada and the US, as well as in Europe. It is a shameful history of pillage and destruction, with ordinary citizens acting as the most fervent would be protectors. There are creatures small and large, domestic and wild, requiring immediate intervention in the midst of a “Wild West” proliferation of a habitat gobbling, naturally disastrous, non-performing, politically driven, profit taking, turbine agenda.

Industrial wind does not produce meaningful electricity, and will never save the planet; but it WILL and IS contributing to the demise of in cases entire species. It is the most unimaginable series of misconceptions and outright lies that have led to this destruction. It will require leaders like you, and there are growing numbers, to ultimately act to turn the chapter around, and as Mr. Brean says, allow us to more adequately reflect those qualities we wish as humans to have, reclaiming rationality, and acting with respect for all living things, and each other.

We use the word, pillage, with deep purpose. It can similarly be called illegal robbery, plunder, taking. This is an industry that has reflected, sadly, all of these qualities. Wind power is not clean, green, or free. It is the most egregious “taking” from our planet and pocketbooks, as we have seen in this century. It is difficult to say which “taking” is larger: that of human health, or our environment, birds, bats, amphibians, wildlife. (No matter how you parse it, we are all simultaneously included, man and animal, in environmental considerations.) The industry tells us its numbers of wildlife takes and kills, which does its own mortality counting in a bizarre allowance, and we assure you these numbers are false. They are often ten or a hundred times, even thousands of times, beyond what is reported. It is our belief that the final tally of the slaughter and devastation will not be known for generations.

This enormous compounding of errors is based on a mythology that is almost at this point in time, seen as childish gossip: the machines are as quiet as Rice Krispies with milk, says one developer. (The audible and ILFN, and shadow flicker and vibration, and impulsivity of the combination, is noted by experts, to be often debilitating, life altering, with now recognised pandemic scale effects.) Say many, they create jobs and they reduce our need for fossil fuels: More complete myths. They reduce CO2 and GHGs: More gossip and falsehood. Denmark, the poster child of the industry, has not shut down one single coal fired plant and has increased its CO2. Super Model, Germany, “slaughtered” by escalating power costs, is in no shape to speak of environmental gains, either. It is truly embarrassing for this giant of industry: with 800,000 residents in energy poverty, and cut off from electricity, some scouring the woods for trees to provide heat and cooking.

Industrial wind requires 100% back up 100% of the time. Good bye to the falsehood of reducing fossil fuels. Entire economies are being ruined, net jobs lost (Spain, UK, Italy, as examples), and people are often referred to as “refugees”, unable to sell worthless homes and properties, and lacking the resources to relocate. (We will write separately to the Minister of Health.)

Here are a few examples of the impacts to our wildlife, birds, pets, livestock and environment, as noted that will last generations, and in cases not be recoverable at all. It is a laundry list of disregard, cruelty, and ignorance, and the source of the degradation and suffering is not related to common sense and the social “good,” as the industry promotes, at all.

We received an email this week from a family in Colorado:

Hi! I have some information we thought you need to know. We have Great Pyrenees dogs and have had the breed for 20+ years. For 10 years we have been having puppies. Since the turbines have been up & on (Sept. 17, 2015) we have had deformed puppies. Most recently we had a liter of 6. One had a really bad over-bite and had issues walking. Another's eyes started drooping really badly. And now today, a puppy I sold Monday, we were told by the people who bought him that he is deaf! They were perfectly healthy when they went to our vet for shots, deworming, & their vet check. We have never in our lives had a puppy with such issues, especially one being deaf. Now I fear for our other litter of puppies, my baby goats, baby mini horses, & my baby mini donkeys and our poultry. These things are going to kill us yet & they are destroying my animals. I had to give away the first 2 deformed puppies, losing $1000. It will be 9 months tomorrow that these monsters turned on. We’ve had 14 animal deaths, my duck went blind in both eyes, and now deformities in our puppies, and one of our fainting goat babies, has 4 teats instead of 2. I just don't know how much more I can take!

You will wonder how this is possible and question the source. We assure you that this kind of reporting is consistent around the world and the family who wrote this message is completely sincere and honest. We can provide you with the contact for this family, if you wish, or with literally hundreds of Canadian (and American) farmers, who are similarly suffering. One farmer in Amaranth has lost 30% of his livestock this year alone. Unfortunately, the vastness of the reports worldwide create data, not mere anecdotes, and the data increasing yearly tells us that a crisis has been on hand for many years now.

As shocking as this quote may be, here is an equally heady list of damages, a brief sample:

1. Golden Eagles Face Extinction
   greatlakeswindtruth.org/newsworthy/golden-eagles-face-extinction-in-u-s-as-numbers-plummet-new-studies-reveal/
2. Wind turbines kill thousands of bats
   abcnews.go.com/Technology/wind-turbines-kill-thousands-bats-day/story?id=20997657
3. Wind farms vs. wildlife: the shocking environmental cost of renewable energy
   www.spectator.co.uk/2013/01/wind-farms-vs-wildlife
4. Whooping Crane Condemned to Extinction by Wind “Farms”
   savetheeaglesinternational.org/new/whooping-cranes-decimated-by-windfarms.html
5. Bat killings by Wind Energy Turbines Continues: more bats killed by turbines than White Nose Syndrome
   www.scientificamerican.com/article/bat-killings-by-wind-energy-turbines-continue/
6. World Council for Nature: 1600 miscarriages at fur farm, wind turbines
   wcfn.org/2014/06/07/windfarms-1600-miscarriages
7. US Windfarms kill 10-20 times more than previously thought
   savetheeaglesinternational.org/new/us-windfarms-kill-10-20-times-more-than-previously-thought.html

8. Wind Power Environmental Problems
   wind-power-problems.org/wind-power-environmental-problems.html

   Local Environmental Impacts

   • Wind plant infrastructure creates an industrial nightmare in wild and natural settings:
     • Construction of 70ft wide access roads
     • Installation of new transmission lines
     • Construction of power substations
     • Excavations and concrete for turbine foundations
   • 4-6 acres of forest is clear-cut for each turbine.
     • Construction of a 25-turbine wind facility clears enough trees to fill 100 football fields
9. Wind Energy’s Colossal Lies about bird and bat mortality: wildlife biologist
   www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2013/wind-energys-colossal-lies-about-bird-bat-mortality-wildlife-biologist/

10. Wind Turbine Wildlife Hell website
    www.windturbinewildlifehell.org/site/

    A wind turbine acts, in some instances, as an attractor and executioner: The Bat, or a raptor, for example, may circle for prey, and become consumed, eliminated, or wounded to be scavenged elsewhere. Some species are becoming extinct. Imagine, then, with about 225,000 turbines worldwide, producing less than ½ of one percent of the world’s power, this level of destruction, and then imagine a 20% increase in turbine proliferation, which is what some would wish.

    Bird and bat mortality numbers just for the USA, estimated to be at least 37 million by experts Paul Driessen and Jim Wiegand, are likely much larger. The real magnitude of the contribution of wind turbines to habitat disruption and consumption, and obvious mortality, is currently underestimated.

    Additionally, the amount of facile and spotty counting of mortality, and the obvious questionable practice of allowing the developer to conduct the studies, is ridiculous.

    Governments then providing “kill” or “take” permits, for endangered species, pushes the believability envelope to the limit. What has been “sold” to the public consciousness, is “green” wishful thinking. What has been “purchased” is the collusion of governments aiding developers to literally condemn Nature and her processes. The turbine debt will never be repaid. The Whooping Crane and the Golden Eagle are on their way to extinction. How many other species will similarly be condemned?

11. Renewable Energy’s Dirty Little Secret
    mothersagainstturbines.com/2015/11/26/renewable-energys-dirty-little-secret
12. Wind in the Gallows: Study Shows Badgers Suffer Merciless Stress and Torment from Wind Turbine Noise and Vibration
    stopthesethings.com/2016/06/06/wind-in-the-gallows-study-shows-badgers-suffer-merciless-stress-torment-from-wind-turbine-noise-vibration
13. Windfarms, Vertebrates and Reproduction: Open Letter to the Australian Medical Association: a compendium of animal and wildlife disasters
    wcfn.org/2014/03/31/windfarms-vertebrates-and-reproduction/
14. The Truth About Wolfe Island Bird Mortality Rates, Jim Wiegand
    quixoteslaststand.com/2013/01/18/jim-wiegand-the-truth-about-wolfe-island-bird-mortality-rates
15. Globe and Mail: Windfarm turbines deadly for birds, bats
    www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/windfarm-turbines-deadly-for-birds-bats/article4392511

We can provide you with hundreds of pages of examples of the environmental impacts. The articles above are a mere small sample. Impacts without benefits. What is even more cruel and incomprehensible, is the creation of “take” permitting, for developers’ benefits, so that hefty fines and jail sentences may be avoided. Under current consideration at the USFWS, is the 30 year Eagle take permit, which is being vociferously denounced worldwide.

In the judgement for the Western Chorus Frog, Supreme Court Chief Justice Antonio Lamer’s described the “rule of civilization.” Your decision clearly responded to this principle. We deeply appreciate your protective action for an endangered species, the tiny stamp sized Western Choral Frog. If this is an example of Canada’s new perspective on protection of endangered species and habitat, we may now perhaps look forward to a big picture watershed, where the impacts of industrial wind can and will now be independently assessed, and without delay, remediated.

Please use your full authority with gravitas. From your federal mandate: “We support sound environmental decisions. We work to repair the damage of the past, to collect and pass on knowledge, and to develop, implement and enforce policies to prevent future issues. (Our emphasis) We also work to ensure that Canadians have a safe, clean and sustainable environment today, tomorrow and well into the future.”

We respectfully request that the Honorable Minister immediately call for an independent inquiry on the impacts of industrial wind in Canada to wildlife, habitat, including human habitat, with reference to the “rules of civilization,” so clearly negatively impacted. Please also enact an immediate moratorium on all pending wind projects. Additionally, we request that you use your authority to mitigate problematic installations, and compensate families, communities, and repair damaged habitats. An inquiry will frame the damages of industrial wind in perspective with the complete lack of economic and social benefit, and will impute an even more urgent moral imperative.

Dr John Etherington, Former Reader at Leeds University, in his book now in its 14th printing, The Wind Farm Scam, quotes geologist Malcom Rider:

“The Highlands are being humiliated by wind farm developers who insist they are saving the environment: they lie; they are here to make a profit. Wind farms produce very little and intermittent electricity. Most of the time they do not work. How can the blade of a bulldozer ripping up 6,000 years of beautifully preserved archeology be saving the environment? How can the turbine blades smashing a golden eagle to bits be saving the environment? How can the government of Scotland destroy such a prize? And use public money to do it?”

Requesting the favor of a speedy reply.

Sincere best wishes,

Sherri Lange
CEO North American Platform Against Wind Power (NA-PAW)
kodaisl@rogers.com
416 567 5115