Bats, Not Easy to Love, Dying Daily by Thousands

abc News vis World News

Lee Dye

November 24, 2014

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wind-turbines-kill-thousands-bats-day/story?id=20997657&singlePage=true

There has recently been a concern regarding the danger made to the domestic bats in the U.S. The death toll of the species has gone up with the rate of wind turbine plantations. This caused to be rethink, and brought me into the dilemma, that even though renewable energy is used and is a beneficial factor, it is also more harmful to other aspects of the environment.

 

The largest issue from the increased death os the bats is the cost to the agricultural department, as bats eat insects which threaten the crops, saving farmers billions of dollars. However, currently, bats are being threatened by the wind turbines as well as the White Nose Syndrome, a mass extinction disease. However, its not the collision itself which is causing the bats to die from he turbines - it is the turbines’ effect on the air pressure. As the pressure drops, the lungs of bats which are like those of a mammal, expand resulting in haemorrhage. The government and farmers have taken initiative as researchers are looking into possible solutions to this drastic problem.

Even though wind turbines are effective and eco-friendly, by causing the death of many bats they harm many other aspects. This includes the outbreak of insects which damage the crops, the spread of disease, and among all, by removing an organism out of a food chain, everything else will be affected and possible threatened to extinction.

So what can be done to make a change for the better? Knowing that the turbines were already put there with a correct intention, how do we keep them and bring safety to the animals which inhabit the particular habitat?

Scientists have found that increasing the sensitivity of the wind turbines, to automatically turn on at a higher wind speed, would result in less bat deaths. This is, because the bats only fly during low winds, and therefore the turbines wouldn’t affect them if they only work at high speed winds. This change saves up to 93% of the bat deaths, which may over time bring their population back to stable.

In my opinion, this problem doesn’t necessarily influence me directly, however I feel effected in that a small alteration can make such a large scale change to the environment. I also believe, that developers need to look into the habitats in which they are placing their wind turbines, as they are effective but unsafe. Lastly, I was very shocked after reading that bats are facing mass extinction due to many factors such as disease or air pressure changes. By altering their habitat, we are pushing these species into extinction, faster than they were already heading towards.