Solar roasted eagle. Mmmm!
Posted on 07/09/2014 4:33:28 PM PDT by RightGeek
For proponents of renewable energy, it seems like every time a technology is primed to save the world, it gets dogged by some ironic bit of environmental unpleasantness. Wind turbines can be dangerous to birds and bats. Biofuels require so much land, fertilizer, and water that they may use more energy to produce than they provide. Hydropower dams screw up a whole lot of river habitat and stop fish from spawning.
The latest on this list of “dark green” technologies is thermal solar power, which is coming into vogue in the southern California desert.
[snip]
U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees and energy company staff found 233 birds of 71 different species at three California solar facilities—Ivanpah, Genesis, and Desert Sunlight—during random surveys over two years. That’s not a huge number of birds (though the limited scope of the collections means it’s just a fraction of the actual deaths), but what’s shocking is the way some of these birds are dying: They are literally being burned alive, in midair.
[snip]
Birds came to feed on the insects, and bigger birds came to feed on the insect-eaters. When birds flew into the hottest areas, observers saw them emit streams of smoke from their feathers. On-the-ground staff found birds with their flight feathers burned away, some still alive but unable to fly. During their visit to Ivanpah, the report states, USFWS staff saw birds burn in midair “every two minutes.”
[snip]
Researchers found an unusually high number of water birds dead at the Desert Sunlight facility. These birds, including grebes, herons, ducks, and even pelicans, died not from the heat but from blunt force trauma. The cause was clear, as stated in the report: “A desert environment punctuated by a large expanse of reflective, blue panels may be reminiscent of a large body of water.”
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Hey. Now I have a reason to buy one of these solar boondoggles. I will be able to walk out into my front yard and pick up fried chicken off the lawn.
I’ve joked before about birds being roasted by it in flight and now its true! WOW!
Way cool...the death ray WORKS!
Add some salt, pepper, rosemary......
Bastard assholes!
That settles it. We’ll just have to make do without energy.
I’ve said for years combine this with windmills and you have a steady supply of cooked shredded poultry to feed the starving victims of the Baraqqi Depression.
Yup, go back to living in grass huts and caves.
The EPA has no problems with wind turbines slaughtering eagles, I am sure they are fine with some fried ones.
Oh great.. We’re harnessing the sun’s intense heat and reflecting it back into the sky. Won’t that contribute to “global warming”?????
You may want to gut it first...and remove feathers.
El Condor Pasa!!
Open a Chick Fil A close by
I hear that Flying Chickens taste better than the ones that can’t Fly. I just don’t know where to find any.
Make that an Eagle-Fil-A!
Solar roasted eagle. Mmmm!
I wonder how the folks at Slate deal with these conflicting concerns given the usual gratuitous, vapid nonsense it normally spews.
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