Going Green

                               
A Florida Snail Kite and Wood Stork
Picture Credits: FFWS & Steve Hillebrand FWS

May we all share a prayer on this  ” World Aids Day.”

Although this is meant to be a “Good News” Sunday story, it comes with an itsy, bitsy,  but……
It was just announced that a long time, proposed Wind Farm, will not be built in the Everglades , which has Florida Audubon, Animal Activists and Environmentalists all over the state, deliriously happy, but….
This IS Florida and both Wind and Solar could help so much with our serious power issues here.
In just the past few months,  the only Solar Farm here in Lake County shut down, and was auctioned off before it ever became fully functional, which was a huge disappointment to those of us who live here and were so excited about having it.
I would much prefer Solar or Wind Power any day, than some of the other alternatives that have been offered in our state recently.
But Audubon and their friends, have a lot of muscle and support here and they are,  for very good reason, most concerned about the expected potential for bird fatalities, as they have happened in other states with Wind Farms.
This is a double-edged sword for me personally, coming from California where Solar and Wind Power have been in place for many, many years and have made such a huge difference.
We need to become a greener state, a greener country, a greener world, because our sickening dependency on non-renewable energy is our past, our future should be a long-term relationship with Mother Earth.
Having been a huge bird lover all of my life, I absolutely want no birds harmed by any type of power, Solar or Wind, and the proposed location of this Wind Farm, in the especially fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, where so much Wildlife is already on the brink of disappearing, had many deeply concerned.
Most, if not all, of the Florida Snail Kites, which have been written about repeatedly on my Blog’s, have already been driven out of their Ancestral homes in the Everglades by human interference.
The Wind Farms project most likely would have finished off any remaining ones and several other Endangered Birds there as well, like the stunning Wood Stork.
So, how about a bit of compromising here?
Can’t we all put our heads together and come up with a place where the birds and Wind and Solar Farms can co-exist peacefully and safely with them?
Yes, it is risky, to have them in close proximity, but so is our never-ending dependency on non-renewable energy sources in this country.
We need to begin to think differently and make some serious changes, if we are to have a future on this planet, but we also need to make sure that when our descendants look around them, they see birds everywhere as well.
Going Green must become our mantra~

The fascinating story is written by an Audubon Associate, as it should be:
Good News For Birds As Everglades Wind Farm Is Scrapped