Center, Internet, Wildlife Damage Management
Human–Wildlife Interactions
Impact of Wind Energy on Wildlife: Synthesis
Date of this Version
Spring 2016
Document Type
Article
Citation
Human–Wildlife Interactions (Spring 2016) 10(1): article 10
doi: 10.26077/srnd-8307
Special topic: Wildlife and wind energy: Are they compatible?
Abstract
Humankind on Earth is desperate for energy. Fossil fuels including coal, oil, and natural gas have served as the main energy source since oil’s discovery by Colonel Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania during 1857, with the first well drilled in 1859 (Hubbert 1949). However, 2 issues have become gravely important regarding our use of fossil fuels. It is estimated that there are < 44 years of oil remaining, with primary oil ę elds already showing declines in production (BP 2015). Secondly, continued fossil fuel consumption will only exacerbate effects of global climate change (Baes et al. 1977). Therefore, the search for new sources of renewable energy not based on fossil fuels has begun. One promising source is wind energy. Consequently, we invited the key scientists, knowledgeable on wind energy impacts on wildlife, to contribute to this Special Topic volume. We hope that you agree after reading these papers that wind energy development is an important energy source, but also a profoundly important mortality factor for 2 ecologically important types of wildlife: our avifauna and chiropterans.
. . .
Harnessing the energy of the wind is indeed a promising energy source. However, as our authors have noted, we do not want to rush into wind energy development without ensuring that we do our best to minimize impacts to our natural resources. We only need to look at the promise of clean energy that hydroelectric dams represented before their considerable environmental impacts were fully understood to realize that this is an important question. Our colleagues in their papers have shown that we should be more proactive regarding ecological impacts as we move forward with “green energy” development, including energy from wind turbines, underwater turbines harnessing energy of water currents, and solar energy. We should also realize that climate change is merely a symptom of exponential human population growth and consumption, both of which are the major drivers of a myriad of environmental problems, including pollution, forest loss, and species extinctions. In order to have a future for the world’s wildlife, we’ll need to address these issues as well.