Whirling Triffids are now Invading our Seashores

By Viv Forbes


“I saw them now with a disgust that they had never roused in me before. Horrible alien things which some of us had somehow created, and which the rest of us, in our careless greed, had cultured all over the world. One could not even blame nature for them.” – Bill Masen, in “The Day of the Triffids”

Wind turbines need a huge area to generate significant electricity. An area the size of Wales would need to be covered in wind turbines just to meet one sixth of UK’s daily energy needs.

So for years now, subsidised wind energy investors have been razing ridge-lines, felling forests and slicing birds, bats and insects.  They trash the landscape to benefit a few landowners and speculators in a vain attempt to produce cheap reliable electricity from a low density, unpredictable, intermittent energy source. This is all driven by a blurry green vision that humans can change the climate by manipulating the atmosphere.

But neighbours and nature-lovers are fighting back. So now the wind speculators are racing for off-shore space in shallow seas.

“The Day of the Triffids” is coming for coastal communities as these towers of whirling knives accelerate their invasion of coastal waters. They pose lethal danger to sea birds – beheading or de-winging pelicans and petrels, seagulls and sea eagles, gannets and grebes, kites and gliders. They also endanger coastal shipping, barges, helicopters, fishermen and tourists. And the noise pollution from pile driving and turbine whine is affecting whales and seals.  And they need a mess of new transmission cables to get the electricity connected, ashore and distributed to users.

“Net Zero” targets and subsidies threaten to drive a nine-fold increase in demand for wind turbine ocean space – estimated to cover an area the size of Italy well before green energy nirvana is reached.

These turbines need energy to mine and manufacture the rare metals, steel, concrete and plastics needed to build and erect the towers and transmission lines in offshore waters – a careful analysis will show an energy deficit over their short lifetimes. And after every cyclone or tsunami, mangled turbine trash will pollute coastal waters and beaches – most of this trash cannot be recycled and will become toxic landfill. Mining operations have to lodge financial bonds to cover decommissioning, waste disposal and land rehabilitation at the end of the mine life – why are wind and solar “farms” exempt from these liabilities?

And imagine the defence vulnerability of scattered towers and transmission lines to sabotage from hostile submarines or drones.

Proven electricity generators driven by coal, gas, hydro or nuclear with a small land footprint are far less damaging to the environment of land and sea than the Whirling Triffids.

Where are the Green objectors now?

Food for Thought:

“The Day of the Triffids” (a novel) touches on mankind’s advances in science and technology as a possible contributor to the collapse of society.

“I saw them now with a disgust that they had never roused in me before. Horrible alien things which some of us had somehow created, and which the rest of us, in our careless greed, had cultured all over the world. One could not even blame nature for them.” – Bill Masen, in “The Day of the Triffids”

A Press release from DNV:
“Ocean’s Future to 2050 report: Rapid growth of offshore wind will trigger an unprecedented race for ocean space.”
Høvik, Norway, 16 December 2021 – The exponential growth of offshore wind power will be the main driver of a nine-fold increase in demand for ocean space by the middle of the century, according to DNV’s Ocean’s Future to 2050 report. The report forecasts that by mid-century, offshore wind will require ocean space which is the equivalent to the landmass of Italy. The growth will be particularly pronounced in regions with long coastlines and presently have low penetration of offshore wind. Demand for ocean space is set to grow 50-fold in the Indian Subcontinent and 30-fold in North America.”

“. . as the world decarbonizes and the need for renewable energy grows, countries not able to be part of the age of fossil fuel can be part of the age of wind.”

Are Wind Turbines killing Whales?
https://www.cfact.org/2016/03/04/are-wind-turbines-killing-whales/

The Subsidised Green Energy Disaster in Texas:
https://www.instagram.com/prageru/tv/CXxIRFhBiES/

Who Cleans up When a Wind Farm Dies?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBsuN0uFfc8
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759376113/unfurling-the-waste-problem-caused-by-wind-energy
https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2021/03/16/the-tragedy-of-wind-turbine-blade-disposal/

14,000 Abandoned Wind Turbines Litter the USA:
https://www.riteon.org.au/14000-abandoned-wind-turbines-litter-the-united-states/

The wind farms angering renewable energy fans – ABC News:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-12/queensland-wind-farms-clearing-bushland/100683198

7 thoughts on “Whirling Triffids are now Invading our Seashores”

  1. Years ago in the 1970s I read in an English science magazine which was the equivalent of Scientific American (I can’t remember its name.), that there is not enough copper in the world, including unexploited known deposits, to supply the windings for the number of wind turbines that would replace the current, then, existing world electricity supply. At best alternative energy sources can supplement the existing coal, oil, gas , hydro and nuclear generated base load power, they cannot replace it.

  2. This is certainly an example of proactive ‘Green Murder’? for the next ?? years. Ironically approved by the miscell Qld state Govt authorities, that a few short years ago were blocking developt of Adani’s proposed coal mine based on the threat to a single species of Finch? Duh…The Hypocrisy stinks!

  3. A further major problem is that in a few short years the current rate of building new turbines will only be sufficient to replace dying/dead turbines. Therefore the rate of building will need to increase dramatically if the aggregate capacity of turbines is to increase substantially as envisaged coupled with a massive programme of removal of dead turbines.
    Questions:
    Who pays and how are the huge concrete bases going to be removed?
    Once the targeted aggregate capacity is reached there will be a massive ongoing building programme to remove and replace circa 5% of the total number of turbines every year as they die.
    Financial and environmental Armageddon.

  4. What I find staggering is that I have yet to hear, from any of those world leaders or world (so-called) business leaders, who have succumbed to the climate change virus, any coherent explanation of what causes contribute to climate change and to what degree. One might have thought that millions of years of “living with it”, would allow someone to stand up and talk about nature, rather than hysteria.
    Those who suggest that “the science is settled”, whatever that may mean, plainly don’t have the faintest idea.

  5. The Federal and State Governments don’t even comply with their own laws:

    Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

    3A Principles of ecologically sustainable development
    The following principles are principles of ecologically sustainable development:
    (a) decision-making processes should effectively integrate both long-term and short-term economic, environmental, social and equitable considerations;
    (b) if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation;
    (c) the principle of inter-generational equity—that the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations;
    (d) the conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity should be a fundamental consideration in decision-making;
    (e) improved valuation, pricing and incentive mechanisms should be promoted.

  6. I am probably becoming boring on the topic but really the problem is inadequate engineering. Not just building these massive Triffids (and all the land based ones as well) but the whole of life engineering, engineering under cyclones, recovery of broken units and responsible disposal. There is NONE of that! They will fail therefore and leave a terrible ecological disaster behind them, plus of course e massive financial losses. Oh yes, they don’t work very well either, what is the average output? Less than 30% of rated output!! Why do governments invest in such poor engineering design? If an engineer designed a road or bridge to this level of inadequate functionality they would be sued into the Black Forest.

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