Like An Old Joke

What do you do if you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?

From Jawa Report.

Wind-power has demonstrated some unexpected and serious drawbacks. Micro-climate changes directly downwind cause localized drought conditions, and everyone knows about the birds that die when they get whacked by a turbine blade.

Now there's a new unintended victim:

Bats, like other mammals, have delicate alveoli in their lungs. The thin membranes can't withstand extreme pressure changes, and suffer from "barotrauma," like scuba divers' ears and lungs when they go deep under water without equalizing properly.

Ninety percent of the bats that researchers at the University of Calgary found under turbines had died of internal hemorrhaging, not from collision with the blades. In fact, only fifty percent of the bats showed signs of impact.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Despite claims that wind-power is *free* and has limited impact on the environment, it just isn't so. Once again, mankind will have to make the decision about what kind of changes they're willing to accept as the price of adopting new technology.

The more things change...