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CMAJ on PMRA, November 2023 |
EV as empty vessel in car sewers, Eric Reguly, Globe & Mail, May 20, 2023 |
Comic Piccini opera, Redux, Ontario auditor general Env Report, Globe & Mail, May 18, 2023 |
Venal or Venial? letter to Globe, May 16, 2023 |
"Cry me a river over a few bats", Redux, Globe & Mail, May 12,2023 |
Greenbelt "Scam": Barbarian Ford invasions, Globe & Mail, May 12, 2023 |
Barbarian Ford invasions case: City of Belleville Bell Creek dvlpt, Intelligencer, April 25, 2023 |
Road building projects in Wales, UK, cancelled as climate clangers, the Guardian, Feb 14, 2023 |
Unpublshed letter to Globe, 1996 opioids revisited, February 6, 2023 |
Cathal Kelly on climate charade, Globe & Mail, January 27, 2023 |
Ontario Bill 23, letter to the Premier, and Todd Smith MPP, Nov 24, 2022 |
Canola conundrum, letter to Globe & Mail, October 2022 |
3rd (Canadian) arm of U.S. Air Pollution Health Effects Study, the Guardian, Aug 12, 2022 |
Atomic awe and Boris blight, letter to Globe, July 11, 2022 |
Your !!*^%! car, Part II, Globe and Mail editorial, July 16, 2022 |
Your !!*^%! car, Part I, Globe and Mail, June 20, 2022 |
CAPE report on fossil fuels, Globe and Mail, June 9, 2022 |
Traffic Air Pollution Health Effects report, CAPE, April 2022 |
EU Bans Toxics, the Guardian, April 2022 |
Comic Piccini opera: Ontario Auditor General Environment Report, November 2021 |
......RIP Trillium...... November 16, 2021 |
Covid-19 Parlour Sessions 2020/2021, April 1, 2021 |
Mitch Podoluk, Obituary, Globe and Mail, September 2019 |
Notice to (Big Bay) Mariners, August 2019 |
Air Head, Globe and Mail, August 2019 |
Leon Redbone, RIP, June 2019 |
Ontario Endangered Species Act at risk, letter to Rod Phillips, April 2019 |
Slide to Extinction, Chris Humphrey, letter to Globe, October 31, 2018 |
Peter Galbraith, FRCP, obituary, October 2017 |
White Pines on Death Bed, Bruce Bell, Intelligencer, July 17,2018 |
Thucydides Trap, letter to Globe, May 2018 |
Great Lakes toxics down, SUNY Oswego/Clarkson U, April 2018 |
Machine subversion of democracy, letter to Globe, April 2018 |
Air Pollution overrides Ancestral Genes, Globe, March 2018 |
Olympian Cathal Kelly, letter to Globe, March 2018 |
Environmentalists seeking unemployment, letter to Globe, February 2018 |
Less is more on Bike Lanes, National Post, January 2018 |
Tramadol, 10 years on, Globe and Mail, November 2017 |
White Stripes: Belleville bicycle lanes, letters, November 2017 |
Occupational Cancers, CCO research results, Globe and Mail, October 2017 |
Big Pharmoney and Canadian Drug Use Guidelines, Globe and Mail, June 21, 2017, Kelly Grant |
Oxycontin, 20 years on, letter to Globe, May 2017 |
Lake Ontario wind turbines to remain on hold? Feb 2017 |
Obituary, Raold Serebrin, September 2016 |
Sartorial slip or signal? letter to Globe editor, October 2016 |
Weapons of mass distraction, letter to Globe editor, Oct 2016 |
Point O turbines 99% Down the Drain, CCSAGE, July 7, 2016 |
Point O turbines Dead and Damned, PECFN, July 6, 2016 |
Rabid diplomat, letter to Globe, May, 2016 |
More on bats: rabid rocker? letter to Globe, January 2016 |
Lighthouses of eastern Lake Ontario, new book by Marc Seguin, March 2016 |
Continuing corporate windpower malfeasance: Windstream and Trillium Corp, Feb 2016 |
Amherst Island: the next fine mess, Feb 2016 |
Valerie Langer: Thirty years of effort pays off on the B.C. coast, Feb 1,2016 |
Trillium log, 6th annual ELO expedtion, September 2015 |
Trillium Wind Corp intent on Spoliation of eastern Lake Ontario and Main Duck Isle, June 2015 |
Turtles rule? Ontario Court of Appeal Decision: Turtlegate, April 2015 |
Obituaries, Mary Terrance (Luke) Hill, January 2015; Valerie Ingrid (Hill) Kaldes, July 2015 |
Ontario Court of Appeal turtle hearing, December 2014 |
Trillium Log, 5th annual ELO expedition, September 2014 |
Planetary public health manifesto, The Lancet, March 2014 |
Ostrander Bioblitz, butterfly inventory walk, August 10, 2014 |
Victory at Cape Vincent: British Petroleum withdraws turbine proposal, February 2014 |
Stay of execution granted by Ontario Court of Appeal, March 2014 |
Never say die: Will the Court of Appeal let the Ostrander Phoenix fly free again? March 2014 |
Divisional Court ruling in Ostrander: turtles belly up, Trojan horses win, February 2014 |
Lafarge 2020, pushing the air envelope again, Hazardous waste as cement kiln fuel proposal, Jan2014 |
Another fine mess in Port Hope: municipal waste incinerator proposal, January 2014 |
Ostrander: fiasco, or snafu? you decide, December 2013 |
Ostrander rises again, Noli illegitimi carborundum, December 2013 |
British Petroleum backing off Cape Vincent after a decade of aggression? December 2013 |
Turbines best Bald Eagles in U.S law, December 2013 |
SARStock 10 years after, letter to Globe, August 2003 |
Trillium log September 2013: Surfin' USA: Hanging Ten in a Hughes 29 |
ERT Post mortem: Garth Manning lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
ERT post mortem: Cheryl Anderson lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
ERT Post Mortem: Ian Dubin lets it all hang out, August 2013 |
Great Lakes United turns thirty, goes down, RIP GLU, July 29, 2013 |
ERT decision, Ostrander turns turtle, goes down, July 3, 2013 |
PECFN Thankyou, and Appeal for funds, July 6, 2013 |
Minister of Env on Lake Ontario Off shore wind turbine status, June 2013 |
Lake Ontario water level control plan, June 2013 |
Play by Play, Part II, APPEC Ostrander ERT Appeal, June 2013 |
Ostrander ERT June 2013, Appendix VI, an indirect cause of human morbidity and mortality ? |
ELOERG Presentation to Ostrander ERT, Part II, Human Health, May 2013 |
The Dirty E-Word, Terry Sprague, Picton Gazette, April 2013 |
Toxics in Great Lakes Plastic Pollution, April 2013 |
Bill Evans on Birds and Wind farms, April 2013 |
Mayday, Naval Marine Archive, April 2013 |
Experimental Lakes Area, Kenora, Closing by Federal Gov't, March 2013 |
Fishing Lease Phase out on Prince Edward Point, March 2013 |
Windstream makes $1/2 Billion NAFTA claim, March 2013 |
Play by Play, PECFN Ostrander ERT Appeal, March 2013 |
Offshore Wind turbine moratorium 2 years later, The Star, Feb 2013 |
ELOERG ERT submission on Ostrander: Appendix V: Pushing the Envelope of the MoE SEV, Feb 2013 |
Wente on Wind and Bald Eagle mugging, Globe and Mail, February 2, 2013 |
Sprague on Wind and Bald Eagle mugging, Picton Gazette, Jan 25, 2013 |
Cry Me a River over a Few Bats: Submission to Env Review Tribunal, ELOERG, January 2013 |
Lake Ontario's Troubled Waters: U of Michigan GLEAM, January 2013 |
Letter to Minister of Environment re: Ostrander, January 2013 |
No Balm in Gilead: Ostrander IWT's as Trojan Horses, January 2013 |
Ostrander Turbines: another Christmas gift by the MoE, Dec 2012 |
Occupational carcinogens: Ontario Blue Collar breast cancer study, November 2012 |
Fresh water fish Extinctions, Scientific American,November 2012 |
Great Lakes Toxics revisited, November 2012 |
Frack the What ? November 2012 |
$ 2 1/4 Billion Trillium Power lawsuit knockback Appeal, November 2012 |
Canada Centre for Inland Waters decimated, October 2012 |
Birds, Bats, Turbines, and the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, October 2012 |
Ecological public health, the 21st centurys big idea? British MedicalJournal Sept1,2012 |
Trillium log, Sept 2012 |
George Prevost, Saviour of the Canadas, 1812 - 1814. June 2012 |
The Victory at Picton: Bicentennial Conference on War of 1812-1814, Differing Perspectives, May 2012 |
Carleton Island and the 1812, letter to the Globe, October 2011 |
Queen's Fine Arts Department Succumbs, letter to Principal, December 2011 |
Mr. Kumar and the Super 30, November 2011 |
Letters, Articles and Projects from the Nineties |
Alban Goddard Hill, web site manager |
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Biodiversity Not Important in Turbine Issue |
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Written by Terry Spraque |
Jan 25, 2013 at 09:00 AM |
BIODIVERSITY NOT IMPORTANT IN WIND DEBATE
Thursday, January 24, 2013
(see Readers' Comments at end of column)
The unbelievable foibles of both the Ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment have been all too
evident this past month in the province. As if the Ostrander Point decision by the very ministries that are charged with protecting
our natural environment wasn’t bad enough, they somehow managed to top that decision by authorizing the removal of a
bald eagle’s nest down in the Fisherville area where an American company is planning a wind turbine project there. The
eagles made the tragic mistake of building their nest in the path of a planned access road to one of the turbines. Clearly,
the nest had to go, along with the tree, under the pretext of protecting the eagles from harm. Isn’t this so-called
pro-action synonymous with saying that there is, in fact, a problem with birds and turbines, by the same agency that claims
through its Ostrander Point decision that there are no issues with migratory birds?
Frankly I think most of us are sick to death of hearing the pro wind people drone on monotonously about cats,
cars and hydro wires killing more birds than wind turbines. This is not a contest. There will not be a stuffed toy awarded
to the structure that wipes out the least birds and bats, or the most. It’s not about the criteria that made the South
Shore an Important Bird Area; whether it was waterfowl that was the clincher or whether it was songbirds. Whether it was wigeons
or whether it was warblers that created the IBA, doesn’t make the South Shore any less important. We have radar images,
hard data, banding records and surveys that support our assertion that these nine wind turbines that proponents are jumping
up and down claiming will save the earth, can, and likely will, result in high mortality in a staging area that hosts millions
of migrants every year as they migrate to and from northern nesting grounds. We don’t need yet another killing field
on top of those that we have already created, and we don’t need to hear more drivel about how, despite any mortality,
the population is sustainable. It is not sustainable, and it hasn’t been for many decades as species numbers continue
to plummet, some beyond recovery. Wood thrushes for example have declined over 80% in population. Does that sound sustainable?
And we don’t need to hear nonsense like I did a few weeks ago about how the birds in Europe are so
used to wind turbines that they actually perch on the rotating blades and ride them around as though on a Ferris wheel! These
are claims from the desperate – desperate to not let money slip through their fingers, claims from landowners, and even
government, who had never before given one iota of concern about our environment, until the folding green was introduced.
Suddenly green and clean energy, which wind power is not, has become fashionable. It’s all about money, pure and simple,
and it is a very dirty game when legislation, rules and regulations can be bent, adjusted and altered without apology to accommodate
those with power and money, despite overwhelming evidence that Ostrander Point, and a whole lot of other locations in eastern
Ontario, are not appropriate areas to establish wind power.
However, bird and bat mortality is just scraping the surface in the fallout that this misdirected movement
toward “doing the right thing” will create. The habitat in the entire project area at Ostrander Point will be
unceremoniously destroyed, forever – habitat that took many decades to settle into a very delicate and specialized biodiversity.
One cannot compensate as companies would have us believe, by constructing new habitat somewhere else. Wildlife is being portrayed
as cartoon characters that will shed a tear, then be seen with suitcases in hand moving to their new synthetic homes. Biodiversity
that takes centuries to evolve cannot be reinvented overnight, neither can the bald eagles that nested in a 100 year old cottonwood
tree at Fisherville be expected to accept a Tupperware nest platform on a pole somewhere, when their instinct tells them they
should be in a natural tree somewhere else. Legislation is purportedly in place to protect species at risk – that’s
why it is there. Legislation that can be bought, and then twisted to serve the needs of development is not legislation. It
smacks of a corrupt system of the worst possible kind perpetuated by money and greed, especially given the deliberate and
offensively transparent timing of the announcement, only a few days before Christmas.
This column congratulates the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists (PECFN) and the Alliance to Protect
Prince Edward County (APPEC) in their efforts to appeal this decision of raping our South Shore under the guise of clean energy.
There are currently two separate appeals that have been registered: The PECFN appeal is environmentally based, while that
of APPEC is based on human health effects. This column also recognizes the challenge that environmental agencies likely have
in trying to balance the development of renewable energy while mitigating any adverse effects to wildlife populations. The
Ostrander Point decision, however, clearly leans in the direction of development, and the hell with anything or anybody that
stands in the way.
Cheques toward PECFN’s efforts should be made payable to the Ostrander Point Appeal Fund and mailed
to Myrna Wood, 59 King St. unit 2, Picton K0K 2T0 or donate online at http://saveostranderpt.causevox.com/ . Cheques toward
the efforts of APPEC can be sent to APPEC Legal Fund, P.O. Box 173, Milford, Ontario K0K 2P0
READERS' COMMENTS
"Hey, Terry. This is the best article I've seen yet on our Ostrander Point turbine issue.
You sure know how to write! Thanks for the boost. Fantastic." - S.D., Bloomfield
"Dear Mr. Sprague, Thank you for your intelligent and accurate column in today's Gazette." -
B. & D. M, Bloomfield
"Your article was outstanding. Absolutely superb. Thank you very much. I am really very, very impressed
by that piece of writing. Hard hitting. Thank you so much for being so clear, forthright and direct." - M.M. Mountain
View
"Thanks for your recent article in the Beaver/Gazette. It is disheartening when Government agencies fail
to act on their mandates." - J.D., Bloomfield
"Outstanding article in the Gazette Terry, well done indeed.You speak for all of us." –
L.J., Big Island
"I appreciated you speaking out about turbines in this week's column. I'm incensed that
when there are reports on wind energy on the national news, no one mentions all the bird and bat deaths that have been recorded
on Wolfe Island. Because you provide such an important service to conservation, I hope you're not planning to give up your
column when you retire." - P.R., Selby
...."a strong and well-written article about wind turbines
this week. Congratulations!" - P.S., Picton
"outstanding column this week. Definitely your best" - D.B., Belleville
"This was an excellent article. The comment submit was not receptive at the base of the article
-- but this article said what needed to be said most profoundly. This is just my note of thanks. I have forwarded this to
my communication group's e-list of 150+ people at Central Bruce Wind Concerns, sub group of WCO. I would like to donate, but
we are committed to some legal battles stretching our funds to the limit." - K.B.,
Central Grey-Bruce Wind concerns
Thank you so much for your article in the recent Picton Gazette. Aggressive, accurate and bang-on.
– G.M. , CCSAGE
Thought that I would drop a note to you re your recent article. It is a superb explanation of our situation and you didn't
mince words. I forwarded it to my two adult children who are proturbines. We have had rough arguments in the past so I don't
mention it anymore. They do not have access to information as most Ontarians do and believe the gov't propoganda. Your article
turned my daughter around----thank you so much. – V.J., Bloomfield
Great article in the Beaver. Keep up the good work!! I am in the process of organizing a visit by MPP Vic Fedeli (Ontario
Opposition Party Energy Critic). Vic has agreed to visit our area to boost the awareness of area projects and draw attention
to concerns of the public. Still in the planning stage, but if you or group you know want to join in I am sure we could arrange
a visit and media tour from Kingston through to your area. Let me know if you are interested. Cheers. - Mark Bain.
Ontario PC Candidate, Kingston and the Islands.
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Last Updated ( Jan 28, 2013 at 11:26 AM ) | | | | | | |
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Enter supporting content here
Eastern Lake Ontario Environmental Research Group
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