US Interior Department gutting protections for Migratory Birds

Suther

Suther

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Just came across this on the Meateater page (although I had heard about it on podcasts already).

Basically, the Interior Department is changing the rules so that companies are only liable if they purposely kill birds. BP was fined $100M for the birds that died after the Deepwater Horizon accident. Under the new rules, that fine would be $0 because it wasn't intentional.

https://www.themeateater.com/conser...tions-for-waterfowl-and-other-migratory-birds

If you ask me, this is despicable. I'm so sick and tired of hearing stories about the Republican-led Government (or any government, but they're the ones doing it so...) doing everything they can to destroy wildlife and public lands... First the push to sell of Public Lands to the States, then the weakening of protections for California salmon and Delta Smelt, now this...
 
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This one is pretty bad. I'll be emailing my MP, the environment minister and JT. Those are our birds too.
 
That 'interpretation note' came out a couple years ago and they are trying to make it law before the process stalls out in November. Not sure how much the enforcement dropped off in the mean time (each state has their own bird protection legislation which wouldn't be affected by this). But I just read this week of a significant bipartisan effort/lawsuits to get this stopped. Let's hope they are successful &/or the clock runs out on this anti-wildlife proposal
 
blasted_saber said:
Trump's government has been and continues to be awful for the environment and wildlife.
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Great for land owners. Stopping the enviro nazis from stealing my land. Cant build on my own land because some tree hugger found a snail they have never see before. Or I have to get permission to cut down MY trees. Private property rights must be respected and property should not be taken by the government or made useless with compensation ( sound familiar).
 
rkm456 said:
I've seen birds shot here in Ontario that were born in the states many times.
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DU Canada is buying nesting habitat in Canada (the heartland for ducks) so that Americans have more ducks to shoot.
Anyone recall our limits on Sprigs and Mallards just a few years back.
We received limits and the Treaty didnt limit the South of the border limits.
Rob
 
Westward1 said:
Windmills kill birds is a secret ?
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If they treated the bird kill at wind farms the way they did at the oil patch ponds, there would be lynch mobs chasing after every wind mill service truck, and they'd be fire bombing the trucks delivering new wind towers.

But it's 'green', so it gets a pass.

Tacking a few extra million in fines on to a gig as expensive as the Deepwater blowout made pretty much no difference in the end. Like mastrubation, it made someone feel good, but really didn't accomplish anything.

Remember the horrible tragedy of a couple dozen ducks landing in a pond up by McMurray a couple years back? If any of the dozens of experts and protesters had ever bothered to collect a few dozen eggs and hatch them out, the duck populations would have been a lot farther ahead!
 
trevj said:
If they treated the bird kill at wind farms the way they did at the oil patch ponds, there would be lynch mobs chasing after every wind mill service truck, and they'd be fire bombing the trucks delivering new wind towers.

But it's 'green', so it gets a pass.

Tacking a few extra million in fines on to a gig as expensive as the Deepwater blowout made pretty much no difference in the end. Like mastrubation, it made someone feel good, but really didn't accomplish anything.

Remember the horrible tragedy of a couple dozen ducks landing in a pond up by McMurray a couple years back? If any of the dozens of experts and protesters had ever bothered to collect a few dozen eggs and hatch them out, the duck populations would have been a lot farther ahead!
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First off, whether wind power kills birds or not is irrelevant to whether extractive industries should be held responsible for the birds they kill. Wind should be held to the same standards, but that doesn't somehow make eliminating fines and discouraging mitigation from other industries acceptable. While $100M might be a small addition to the cost to BP for deep water horizon, it has the potential to great things if it goes to conservation.

Second, this wind farm thing is totally overblown. Yes they kill birds but compared to other sources of mortality they're hardly the mass murderers you're trying to claim they are.



the estimate means that wind farm-related avian fatalities equated to approximately 46,000 birds in the United States in 2009, but nuclear power plants killed about 460,000 and fossil-fueled power plants 24 million.
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Sovacool, Benjamin. (2012). The Avian and Wildlife Costs of Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power. Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences. 9. 10.1080/1943815X.2012.746993.

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http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/white1/

Exact numbers are hard to come by and estimates vary greatly but they are all in agreement that wind turbines are a small contributor to bird mortality when compared to other sources.
 
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Second, this wind farm thing is totally overblown. Yes they kill birds but compared to other sources of mortality they're hardly the mass murderers you're trying to claim they are.


The same could be said for the Oil sands . :confused: Minuscule compared to those that die from gun shots, a few miles further South.

Grizz
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Second, this wind farm thing is totally overblown. Yes they kill birds but compared to other sources of mortality they're hardly the mass murderers you're trying to claim they are.


The same could be said for the Oil sands . :confused: Minuscule compared to those that die from gun shots, a few miles further South.

Grizz
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And those hunters pay for the right to kill those birds via hunting licenses and bird stamps. The hunters also don't make money from their activity (with an exception for guides of course).
 
not standing up for anyone's point of view here but what about other industries that incidentally kill wildlife? Clear cut logging kills and destroys far more creatures and habitat than oil extraction or windfarms.
And why does everyone get concerned about what happens on land but they never want to discuss our dying oceans.

last I checked there is no shortage of ducks and geese every spring and fall around my neck of the woods but the salmon and steelhead are disappearing rapidly while the general public remains oblivious or obtuse..... or both.
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Second, this wind farm thing is totally overblown. Yes they kill birds but compared to other sources of mortality they're hardly the mass murderers you're trying to claim they are.


The same could be said for the Oil sands . :confused: Minuscule compared to those that die from gun shots, a few miles further South.

Grizz
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The oil sands catch hell for everything that self righteous anti resource people can hold against them as a result of a long standing smear campaign. Meanwhile they consume oil imported from countries that murder their own citizens and cause chaos around the world.
 
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