WINDFARMS KILLING RARE BIRDS IN JAPAN TOO

(note: "ojirowashi" means "white-tailed sea eagle")

"Between February and March, several ojirowashi were killed in collisions with 100 meter tall windmills in Tomamaecho, Hokkaido. On Dec. 10, an ojirowashi was killed after colliding with a giant windmill at a facility recently built in Nemuro, Hokkaido. The incidents occurred above marine terraces where rising air currents make it easy for the raptors to fly. The ojirowashi is a species facing possible extinction, with the number in the country estimated at about 150. The deaths resulting shocked many people.

Cape Soya in Wakkanai, Hokkaido, is another location that can be dangerous to wild birds. The cape, which many migratory birds, including ojirowashi, pass on their way from Russia and Sakhalin, is currently constructing the largest wind power plant to date, with 57 windmills. Saiko Shiraki, a researcher specializing in ojirowashi at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, said construction of wind power plants should be given a second look because about half of the world's 5,000 ojirowashi pass by Cape Soya."

What is more: Steller's eagles (the world's largest) fly down from Kamchatka to winter on Hokkaido. They will be at risk too, say Japanese ornithologists.

In the UK, we have about 30 pairs of the magnificent white-tailed sea eagle. All of them are in Scotland, mainly in the Hebrides. Yet our politicians want to cover these islands with wind turbines. - Is that smart? Apart from killing the sea eagles, they will also wipe out the golden eagles, which are slow to reproduce (all eagles are). And where is the biggest windfarm in the world (700 MW) to be constructed? - In the Hebrides, within and around the Lewis peatlands Special Protection Area (for birds), Special Conservation Area (for peat), and RAMSAR wetland. Our politicians will get away with this crime if we don't stop them."

More here. Background information here





ECO-TERRORISM RISING

The Earth Liberation Front - the underground environmental network that has used sabotage, arson and vandalism to attack everything from logging equipment to genetically engineered crops and SUVs - has hit the foothills town and fast-growing nearby communities. And this time, the radical group's target is sprawl.

In late December, crude incendiary devices were found in three houses under construction at a luxury subdivision in Lincoln, Calif. Graffiti that read "Enjoy the world as is - as long as you can" was found along with buckets filled with gasoline, diesel fuel, wires and kitchen timers. In January, five more devices were found at a commercial building under construction in Auburn. And last month, a newly built apartment complex in the Amador County hamlet of Sutter Creek was targeted. "We will win," was scrawled in red paint at the site, but a sprinkler system rendered most of the devices useless before they went off.

No one has been injured. But the spate of attacks - and the arrest of four young locals in connection with the arson attempts - has stunned residents, infuriated developers and contractors and intrigued law enforcement officials who have tracked the elusive "elves" for years. Investigators still have not caught the members who burned down a San Diego apartment complex in August 2003, causing $50 million damage. The ELF has been tough to crack because its members operate in autonomous cells and are savvy about technology, surveillance and forensics. ELF attacks - which have occurred across the country - are often marked by two calling cards: graffiti and politically charged missives claiming responsibility for and explaining the "action." "It was done in honor of everyone who has felt helpless to sprawl and development, everyone who feels their rural lifestyles are being threatened by these mass-produced designer communities," reads the communique about two of the three arson attempts in the foothills near Sacramento, Calif.

Last month, a tip led FBI agents to Newcastle, Calif., resident Ryan Daniel Lewis, 21. He was indicted Feb. 24 in all three incidents, and was denied bail. Lewis, who lives with his parents on a 17-acre mandarin orange orchard, has pleaded not guilty, and his defense attorney has requested a jury trial. After Lewis' arrest, pipe bombs were found at the historic Placer County Courthouse in Auburn and a local DMV office. And last week, three other Newcastle residents - Jeremiah Colcleasure, 24, and sisters Eva and Lili Holland, ages 25 and 20 - have also been arrested in connection to the first three attempted arsons.

Joyce Estey, 65, agrees that the foothills are growing too quickly. But she questions why someone would turn to arson and pipe bombs to make their point. "You feel like you live in a rural area, and something like this doesn't happen here," said Estey, shortly after the news of Lewis's arrest. Estey regularly meets her daughter and grandson at the courthouse. Built in 1894, the majestic three-story building is the crown jewel of Old Town Auburn. But the attempted bombing makes her uneasy. "Why would they put a bomb in a courthouse that's more than 100 years old?" said Estey. "And doesn't a bomb or a fire pollute the environment?"

More here





Potential potato cure But it's biotech so the Greenies will oppose it: "Each year, about 350 million people worldwide are chronically infected with hepatitis B virus. Spread through blood and other bodily fluids, this virus puts them at high risk for cirrhosis, chronic liver disease and liver cancer -- diseases that kill about 1 million people each year. Yet through the magic of biotechnology, the lowly spud may change that. For centuries, potatoes have saved lives with their nourishment. Now they'e tackling diseases spread by viruses and bacteria. Using potatoes with a protein gene (called antigens) from HBV spliced into them, researchers have produced high levels of immunity-providing antibodies in volunteers who ate them. Their findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online, should lead to cheaper, safer and easier-to-deliver vaccines."

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

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