Bats vs. Wind Power

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how wind turbines are possibly attracting and killing bats and other wildlife. The paper relates that bats are a "keystone" species responsible for plant dispersion and pest control and serious environmental problems will result if bats die out. Since wind energy is of vital importance, the paper maintains that more research needs to be done to discover ways to avoid bat death on wind farms.

From the Paper:

"Energy is a "hot button" issue in politics and in the news. Finding new ways to produce energy domestically, and free of additional pollution sources like coal, is important to people and governments around the world. Wind power offers cleaner energy production than coal and many other methods, and is less controversial than nuclear power (Williams, 20). Wind power has already proven a successful source of alternative power in the European Union. As a result, new wind farms have been built in a number of United States locations, including New York state, California, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (Whittelsey 39). The new wind farms have been lauded as an answer to the call for cleaner energy. However, the one downside cited by environmental impact studies is that migrating bats and birds are regularly killed by the wind farm turbines(Whittelsey, 39). These animal deaths seem to happen at wind farms in all areas of the country."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Holden, Constance. "Batting at Windmills." Science 304.5668 (2004): 203.
• Tuttle, Merlin D. America's Neighborhood Bats. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1988.
• Whittelsey, Frances Cerra. "The Birds and the Breeze." Sierra 92.1 (2007): 39.
• Williams, Wendy. "When Blade Meets Bat." Scientific American 290.2 (2004): 20-21.

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