Zionist-led ‘Lebensraum’ of the US is Bringing About its Demise By Sajjad Shaukat (JR 174 SS 48)

Zionist-led ‘Lebensraum’ of the US is Bringing About its Demise By Sajjad Shaukat (JR174SS48)

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party had come to power with the avowed purpose of conquering colonies and foreign lands for the Germans. They must have a living space-‘Lebensraum’ as the Nazis called it for the living surplus German population and find raw materials and markets for German industrial goods.

Religious fervour inspired by ‘Hitlerite’ Germany, which was supported by the country’s industrial and financial magnates, wanted to establish its domination first over Europe and then over the entire world.

Renowned historians opine that Hitler was impulsive ruler, guided by ungoverned temper—he was the most ambitious leader who wanted to make Germany the greatest power. He believed in the principle of “world power or downfall.” he had a firm faith in the superiority of German race and inferiority of other races. Anti-Semitism and the Nazi ideology played a major role in Hitler’s thinking. He believed that the path to German greatness was through aggressive military actions. He started a programme of enormous armament by developing German military on modern lines. Hitler became powerful ruler and acted upon an aggressive foreign policy to subjugate other nations.

Particularly, Hitler’s character and adverse circumstances in Germany helped him to come to power. The Germans were badly humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles (Peace Settlement 1919) which resulted into multiple crises, especially unemployment in Germany. Hitler was a great orator and his techniques of propaganda helped him to influence millions of people. The Germans felt that Hitler could not only resolve their problems, but could also restore the glory of Germany in the eyes of the world. The more Hitler manipulated the injustices of the Treaty of Versailles, the more he became popular with the public.

After coming to power, Adolf Hitler’s internal policies were authoritarian and totalitarian. Liberty disappeared completely. The secret police-Gestapo was formed to deal with the slightest indication of opposition. He mixed politics with religious fervor and massacred several Jews in the concentration camps. However, under Hitler’s rule, ‘Lebensraum’ was the genesis of all the internal policies of Germany.   

It was due to Hitler’s unskilled diplomacy that militarization of Germany alarmed France, England and Russia. Thus, they humiliated the Germans, as their country was defeated in the World War II.

It is misfortune of the Americans that in one way or the other, like Germany of the Hitler’s period, the US has been following Zionist-led ‘Lebensraum’ in modern era.

In the United States, Zionist Jews shape the internal policies, while molding American external policy in accordance with their own interests, devoted to Israel.

Visibly or invisibly, many big cartels of the world are owned by the Jews. By controlling the major multinational corporations, arms factories, five star hotels, oil companies, liquor business, food industries, technologies, mining and mineral resources, banks, film industry, print and electronic media in the US in particular and the world in general—having influence on the UNO, financial institutes like World Bank, IMF through America, Jews have direct and indirect hold on the global economy.

The extent of Jewish grip on the US Administration and American policies could be judged from the observation of Mike Stathis who, while quoting Senator William J., writes, “The great majority of the Senate of the United States…somewhere around 80 percent…are completely in support of Israel, anything Israel wants.” And “without the all out support by the US in money and weapons and so on the Israelis could not do what they have been doing.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States. The New York Times has described it as “the most important organization affecting America’s relationship with Israel,” while other sources calls it “as one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, DC, stating that it “acts as an agent of the Israeli government with a stranglehold on the US Congress with its power and influence.”

According to the Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, “It is long been clear that the pro-Israel, ultra-Zionist network have absolute control over the United States. The idea that our leaders are pursuing America’s vital national interests abroad…is a myth.”

In the words of Senator Fulbright, “Israel’s control over Washington has grown tremendously like a malignant cancer…making the US as a puppet nation of Israel.”

It is notable that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US emerged as the sole superpower in the unipolar world. In consultation with his Zionist-advisers and neo-conservatives, American former President Bush, (The Senior) replaced the old bipolar order with the New World Order, with America acting as a kind of global policeman to protect the political and economic interests of Israel and the American Zionist Jews.

In the unipolar world, even the United Nations system underwent a tremendous change. It became an instrument of the US policy to establish American hegemony in the world. The Third World and the Muslim countries were compelled to realign their domestic policies according to Washington’s dictates. In order to obtain the hidden agenda of the Jews, the US imposed its sudden terms of globalisation such as free markets, privatization, de-nationalisation etc. on the ill-prepared developing countries, which left behind shattered nations and a global financial crisis. It further widened the gap between the poor and the rich countries or G-7 countries. Despite its failure, the Jews have continued to drive the project of glaobalisation through the sole superpower. Besides, America’s child-killing sanctions against Iraq and Iran; late action to curb ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, support to Israel’s aggressive occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, with vetoing any effective action by the UN to curb the Israeli state terrorism greatly annoyed the Muslims all over the world.

It is mentionable that on the one hand, the Jews have made the Holocaust the greatest device of gaining sympathy, while, on the other, they have used it for wars, anti-Muslim policies, expansion and foreign-aid, and to fulfill the Zionist ambition of greater Israel. With the support of American-Zionist Jews who manipulate the Holocaust, Israel has also become the sixth strongest military power of the world owing to the US assistance.

Notably, the holocaust of the Muslims had started in 1991, when the Islamic Salvation Front won nearly two thirds of the seats in the first phase of elections. Supported by the US and some Western powers, the army created panic and cancelled the second phase of the elections. That triggered a brutal civil war which lasted a decade and thus, killed tens thousands of the Muslims.

When President George W. Bush became the US president, he and the neo-conservatives crossed all the limits in securing the political, economic and religious interests of the Jews and Israel at the cost of Muslims and patriot Americans. Under the mask of the 9/11 catastrophe, preplanned strategy of the neo-conservatives and Zionist Jews headed towards unexpected developments such as employment of pressure-diplomacy on the weak states—Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia etc., including almost all the Arab states which joined Bush’s anti-terrorism war. US did not bother for rise of more militancy and internal instability in these countries because it wanted to destabilise these countries for a greater Israeli.

By justifying the unjustified war on terror, a number of Muslim countries were deliberately destabilized and converted into concentration camps to attain the interests of the Jews and those of Israel. For the purpose, double game and false flag operations (Terror attacks) which still continue became the part of the American CIA, Israeli Mossad and Indian RAW. Their main target is Muslims and the Islamic countries, though false flag terror attacks also keep ongoing in the US and Western countries.

During the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and after occupation, the brutal tactics of the US-led NATO like heavy air bombardment and ground shelling by the sophisticated war machinery, including special military operations and extra-judicial assassinations killed many innocent persons. Especially, the US military strategic warlords who preferred to create a paralyzing effect of ‘shock and awe’ displayed the terrible inferno of destruction in Afghanistan and Iraq.

American soldiers also massacred many wounded people and civilians in Iraq. In November, 2004, a number of world’s televised channels, including those of America showed footage of a US marine who was shooting and killing an already captive and wounded Iraqi prisoner at close range in a mosque in Fallujah where civilians had taken shelter.

It is noteworthy that the US-led troops, assisted by CIA have carried out indiscriminate mass round-ups in catching up suspected Muslim men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq, including some Arab countries without evidence. Mossad has helped the CIA officials in arresting the Muslim men, having beard and ladies, wearing scarves. Besides Guantanamo Bay and Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, CIA torture cells were present in several Muslim countries and were also set up in ships where US secret agencies, including FBI and military personnel employed various methods of torture on the militants and suspected persons like physical violence and even murder. American notorious private military firm Blackwater also eliminated countless Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

According to Hans J. Morgenthau, “The true nature of the policy is concealed by ideological justifications and rationalization. Therefore, the ideology provides a mask behind which the ulterior motives are concealed…there is a close relationship between interest and ideology…the annexation of the backward states by Great Britain and France as their colonies was described as educating, civilizing and humanitarian mission, a sort of white man’s burden, while the real objective was economic exploitation of the former. Annexation was an act of imperialism. But to disguise it humanitarian ideology was advanced…one of the significant aspects of ideology is that it can be described as a cloak for real foreign policy objective.”

Palmer and Perkins write, “Just as power became the instrument of ambitious nationalism and state’s leaders, it has now become the tool of ideologies…ideologies, in fact, are futile source of international conflict…they can be used to obscure the real facts of a situation or the real motives of ambitious leaders.”

Karl Mannheim also uses ideology in this sense by saying, “In this form the ideas are more or less conscious disguise of the real nature of a situation.”

Similarly, after the 9/11 tragedy, by using the ideologies of colonialism and neo-imperialism (Indirect control), under the cover of freedom and democracy, the aim of democratizing Afghanistan and the Middle East was propagated by the United States. But, the real motive behind was to get control over the gas and oil of Central Asia, the Caspian Basin, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East. The pretexts of Osama Bin Laden and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) were also used in case of Afghanistan and Iraq respectively with a view to rationalizing the objective. While Bin Laden had denied his involvement in the 9/11 catastrophe and no WMDs were found in Iraq.

Influenced by the Zionist planners, Bush’s family, some neoconservatives and the Jews who are well connected to oil and energy companies wanted to enhance their business interests in the pretext of rooting out Islamic militants or terrorism. Under the cover of the so-called war on terror, they also planned to weaken the Muslim countries to obtain the sinister designs of Tel Aviv.

Nevertheless, in the aftermath of 9/11 tragedy, besides other volatile Islamic countries, Somalia and Yemen where the US was indirectly involved also become target of American-led state terrorism.

The drastic aftermath of 9/11 was fully manipulated by Israel to target Iraq, Iran and Pakistan. Pakistan survived due to American prolonged war in Afghanistan and because of its army and intelligence agency ISI which are very strong in defending their country.

Following his predecessor, President Barrack Obama also continued the ruthless killings of the Muslims to complete the unfinished agenda of the Zionist Jews and Israel. Apart from air strikes on funerals, marriage-ceremonies and mosques in Afghanistan, he converted Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen etc. into concentration camps. As part of the US double game, CIA which created Al-Qaeda, also formed the Islamic State group (Also known ISIS or ISIL or Daesh), including Al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front and Syrian rebel groups in fighting against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iraqi regime is responsible for the mass murder of more than 2 million Muslims who were killed in civil wars—ground and aerial strikes of the US-led Western countries, including suicide attacks and bomb blasts, conducted by Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Besides, during the fake global war on terror in these countries and Iraq, especially in Syria, millions of Muslims became homeless. The plight of refugees—countless deaths, particularly of children due to lack of medical treatment and starvation has displayed the holocaust on larger scale.

If Hitler had erected concentration camps for Jews, Bush and Obama also converted Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria, Somalia and Yemen into concentration camps to obtain the illegitimate interests of the Zionist Jews and Israel. CIA also conducted Shia-Sunni violence in Iraq and Pakistan. In case of Iraq, the US unleashed a deadly sectarian militia which terrorized the Sunni community and germinated a civil war, and claimed tens of thousands of lives. Now, terror-attacks on sectarian lines could also be noted in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria.

President Obama had also broken all the record of human rights by extrajudicial killings of the innocent people through illegal CIA-operated drone attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen etc. in general and Pakistan in particular.

It is worth-mentioning that through the phony global war against terrorism, President Bush and Obama provided a golden chance to Israel and India to accelerate the systematic genocide of the Palestinians and Kashmiris by equating the wars of liberation in the controlled territories of Palestine and Kashmir with terrorism. Their forces have been employing military terrorism such as curfews, crackdowns, sieges, massacre and targeted killings to maintain alien rule on these territories.

If President Bush and Obama implemented the policies of the Zionist-led ‘Lebensraum’ secretly, President Donald Trump has been pursuing the same openly.

Like Hitler, during the presidential election-campaign, Donald Trump promised to restore American prestige and to make America great again. Like Hitler, Trump succeeded in mobilizing the electorate of the Republican Party with promises to restore jobs and to resolve the internal problems of the US. During his emotional speeches, Trump’s body language and way of speaking were not less than those of Hitler, and he managed to consolidate popular support among Republican voters, despite the resistance from his own party. He won over his fellow candidates in the nomination race.

After becoming American President, Donald Trump started acting upon the agenda of Tel Aviv. His decisions such as tough screening process for the Muslims and executive order regarding a ban on arrivals to the US from a number of mainly-Muslim countries might be cited as instance.

President Trump’s connections with Israel were undoubtedly proved when Trump Administration announced the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, last year. President Trump implemented his decision of December 6, 2018 by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and reversed nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and set in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City.

During his visit to Israel, the President Donald Trump said on May 23, 2017 “Israelis have experienced firsthand the hatred and terror of radical violence…Hamas and Hezbollah…The United States is firmly committed to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon…America’s security partnership with Israel is stronger than ever.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump and his wife, daughter and son-in-law for visiting the Western Wall.

It is of particular attention that it is owing to the encouragement of the President Trump that the Israeli regime officially declared their status as “the Jewish State” where only Jewish people have rights to self-determination.

Undoubtedly, the US president Trump’s move on Jerusalem and anti-Muslim strategy have created new risks for all of Washington’s allies in the Middle East, and will offer extremist groups a valuable opportunity to capitalise on anti-US sentiment and direct such anger towards those regimes which are close to America and non-confrontational towards Israel. While, the world is already witnessing various kinds of terrorism-related assaults, acceleration of terror-attacks would further destabilize the world by harming the political and monetary interests America.

But, Donald Trump seems determined to continue pro-Israeli and anti-Muslim policies which would result into establishment of more concentration camps to complete the covert agenda of the Zionists and Israel.

In fact, ‘Lebensraum’ of the Germany caused its downfall. It is also true in case of the United States.

In this connection, Russia-Turkey alliance to fight the ISIS, victory of the Russian-led alliance over the CIA-Mossad-led rebel groups and ISIS terrorists in Syria, including Trump’s announcement to withdraw forces from Syria, Senate’s resolution against Trump regarding withdrawal from Saudi war in Yemen, Qatar-based direct talks between America and the Afghan Taliban with a view to withdrawing the US-led NATO forces from Afghanistan which has, rapidly, increased the cost of war, bringing about multiple internal crises, affecting the ordinary Americans and Western citizens, particularly those of Europe might be cited as example.

Moreover, America’s external policies are failing everywhere. In this context, failure of flawed strategies such as new trade wars, backing out of the agreement with North Korea regarding Pyongyang’s nuclear programme/missiles tests, anti-China rhetoric, rift between America and its European partners on a number of issues, new cold war with Russia and preparation of interference in Venezuela crisis (US-supported failed military coup) will also cause the downfall of the US. 

Furthermore, following Hitler’s racialism in its worst form, Trump’s fanatic policies have given a greater impetus to racialism. President Trump is fueling racism between the Muslims and Christians, the black people and the white people—white nationalist and neo-Nazi hate groups in wake of intensification of domestic extremism in the US. He is also creating and leading the ‘Christian Taliban’. It seems that the fundamentalist President Donald Trump will take the US to the “state of nature” when there was a war of “all against all” in the sense of Thomas Hobbes. Such phenomena could also culminate into a civil war in the US.

Nonetheless, we can conclude that Israel has become the ‘bleeding wound’ of America and Zionist-led ‘Lebensraum’ of the US is bringing about its demise.

Note: I have taken points/references from my related articles and vital points updated.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com

Negative impacts of variable renewable energy (Wind and Solar) JR 173

Negative impacts of variable renewable energy (Wind and Solar) JR173

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Introduction

The wind and sun may be free, green, renewable and sustainable. But the energy, land and materials required to harness and utilize that energy certainly are not. Renewable power technologies such as wind and solar are becoming economically competitive with fossil fuels. As ecological need and economic reality converge, renewables are going to make up an increasingly large percentage of the world’s power supply. It’s a necessary technological transition. But at the same time, renewables have a downside that needs to be addressed:

Life of plants

Wind and solar systems also break down faster and must be replaced earlier and more often than coal, gas or nuclear power plants—which have operational life spans of 30-50 years, and generate power about 95% of the time. Wind energy proponents claim turbines last half that long: 20-25 years. They don’t.

A 2018 UK analysis of 3,000 onshore wind turbines found that they generate electricity efficiently for just 12-15 years (and maybe 25-30% of the time)—generating more than twice as much electricity, in their first year than when they are barely 15 years old. So wind turbine raw materials depletion and land use impacts are far higher than advocates have admitted. These realities are no better for solar installations.

All of this also means the cost of wind and solar electricity is far higher than their advocates admit   

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Rare-earth, metals.

To read more about rare earth metals : Negative Impacts of Renewable Energy.docx , https://javedrashid.blogspot.com/2018/10/rare-earth-metals.html

Rare-earth elements are used in virtually all electronics. This includes solar panels, which require rare earth metals such as yttrium or europium, and wind power, which uses vast quantities of neodymium in the magnets that help convert wind energy to electricity.

Rare earth elements are actually fairly abundant in the Earth’s crust. But these metals are typically found in extremely low concentrations. That means a lot of destructive mining for minimal effect. Rare earth mining produces large quantities of contaminated mine waste, creating a disposal problem.

Additionally, many of the most productive rare earth mines are in countries with weak environmental regulations. Political instability and national security concerns provide further risks to long-term supply. Accordingly, Smith writes, recycling these elements is big business, employing thousands of mostly unskilled workers worldwide. Formal, supervised recycling processes are needed to safely dismantle and recycle the materials, in contrast to the informal recycling systems that are currently in place. These informal systems are cheaper but may expose workers to health risks. Even so, the formal and informal economies often work in tandem. Smith suggests charging a fee upfront so electronics producers and consumers have to pay for the costs to properly recycle these products. The most efficient solution would be to reuse electronics when possible. One positive trend is that reuse is becoming more and more common. Smith suggests a global collection system to maximize reuse and keep electronic waste away from smugglers and illegal disposal.

Another idea suggested by scholars Robert U. Ayres and Laura Talens Peiró is maximizing “material efficiency” for rare earths and other crucial materials. Currently, when high grade ore is mined, lower quality ores or unwanted side materials, the mining equivalent of fisheries’ by catch, are excavated but not used. In addition to recycling, finding uses for these mining byproducts could potentially reduce waste in the electronic and renewable energy sector. One drawback is that some of these lower-grade materials are energy intensive to collect, given the low yield.

In the short term, the risks of mining rare earth elements do not outweigh the benefits of renewable power, but improvements are needed. And when it comes to each individual’s impact, forgoing that latest smart phone upgrade may just be the best thing you can do.

Impact of Wind turbine vibrations on Ground water and Shale

Ground water contamination has been reported from Canada, from areas where the bedrock is comprised of shale,. This needs to be investigated as in Pakistan we have areas where wind is feasible and the bedrock or geology is shale based. Large wind turbines are getting larger and therefore require a large pylon to support the machine. This requires to pile-drive a massive steel beams into the bedrock. The problem is that the bedrock may be made of shale and is known to contain uranium and arsenic. Vibration from the pile-driving breaks up this toxic shale below the groundwater and contaminates it. Area residents can’t drink, bathe, or wash their clothes because of this. Water wells are being poisoned  . Construction of wind turbines continues even though scientific tests at several farms show that well water has been contaminated. 

Canadian users of ground water, attribute contamination of ground water to the wind turbines being built nearby and the companies developing them.  A large number of local rural residents who believe the problems with their well water owe to the interaction between local wind farm development and the area’s unique geology. The sedimentary bedrock — dark in color and fine-grained — lurks beneath most of Chatham-Kent. It’s known to contain sulphur, carbon, and toxic heavy metals. A resident says that his well was drilled by his father half a century ago and had always run clear — until sediment clogged it last October. Now, the water is the color of tea and when poured and small particles sink to the bottom of a glass. 

Ensuing government research debunked some of the claims. A 2014 health federal health study, for instance, showed that “annoyance” was the sole condition found to increase as levels of wind turbine noise increased. (The report did note that community annoyance was statistically related to health effects such as migraines, blood pressure changes, tinnitus, and stress.). But events in Chatham-Kent raise the possibility that the massive wind catchers pose unique and under-considered risks to the region’s environment, and the health and safety of its residents. 

Spokesman for Water Wells First and an area farmer says the concern is that vibrations — either from pile driving during the construction phase or, eventually, the everyday operations of the turbines — might disturb the fragile Kettle Point black shale bedrock and contaminate the ancient aquifer that serves as the local source of well water. The worry was justified: It is well established that vibrations from pile driving can damage nearby structures. As for ordinary turbine operations, one recent Canadian study found a relationship between the vibrations and ground material within 100 meters of the structure.

Moreover, Water Wells First contends that the company and ministry didn’t take the special characteristics of the local geology into account. Residents realized their worst fears as the project began the construction phase last summer. Nineteen wells began to experience sediment problems, nearly a third of the 64 wells that the group members had tested at their own expense. Bill Clarke, a hydro geologist for Water Wells First who gathered and analyzed the samples, says follow-up testing showed the affected wells experienced changes in water turbidity, amount of particles, color, and rate of flow. While he says some of the changes were marginal, others were alarming. In one instance, the black shale particle count jumped from 47 particles per milliliter to 681,939 — with nearly half of the particles being as tiny as those found in cigarette smoke.

Tiny particles are potentially dangerous because they can be too small to settle to the bottom of a well, nor can they be controlled using conventional water filtration systems. A medical geologist based in Ingersoll, says the acidic atmosphere in the stomach can break down the binding between a clay-based shale particle and any heavy metals attached, allowing the metals to settle in other areas of the body rather than to pass through our digestive system

Wade said turbines can be retrofitted to dampen vibrations and alternative anchoring systems are available, but those would cost more. The water table is fragile in Dover, part of a geological area stretching from Lake Huron to Chatham-Kent. There are just 50 to 70 feet of overburden in most places covering black shale bedrock. 

Jakubec and Stainton said there are studies from Scotland and Italy that have identified seismic coupling. Jakubec, a green energy researcher, said impacts tend to be felt from 1.5 to five kilometers away from turbine locations. Geological engineer Maurice Dusseault wasn’t surprised to hear that Chatham-Kent water wells were contaminated in the wake of pile driving for wind turbines.“Pile driving emits a lot of low-frequency energy, and it is not at all surprising to me that there could be related groundwater effects. The concept of large-amplitude, low frequency excitation as an aid to liquid flow is reasonably well-known,” the University of Waterloo professor said. “Low frequency deformation waves are absolutely known to lead to fluctuation in ground water levels as well as changes in the particulate count in shallow groundwater wells.”

In addition, Dusseault said affected residents were well-advised in having their wells baseline tested prior to construction last summer. It’s the type of evaluation he recommends. Before and after tests sent by the Water Wells First citizens’ group to RTI Laboratories in Michigan show an exponential increase [in] turbidity among the 14 affected wells, including [a] large proportion that can be attributed to Kettle [Point] black shale particles that are known to contain heavy metals, including uranium, arsenic and lead.

That’s not the conclusion reached by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, as outlined in letters recently sent to affected well owners living near the North Kent One project in the northern part of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Whilst there’s been an admission that wells have indeed been contaminated.  That contamination can only be attributed to “unidentified factors.” Pile-driving activities associated with wind turbine development are not to blame, the MOECC maintains.

The MOECC, in coming to its conclusion, relied upon the vibration evaluations prepared for the developers Samsung and Pattern Energy, by Golder Associates Limited. Golder measured changes to particle velocity as a measure of vibration intensity created by pile driving. 

The concerns have been dismissed by Chatham-Kent’s Medical Officer of Health who concluded that there is no health risk from undisclosed particles in water when no bacteria are present. Jakubec, however, said there are at least two potential pathways through which the heavy metals in black shale particles can enter the human body.

The issue is discussed, in detail,  at:  https://javedrashid.blogspot.com/2018/08/impact-of-wind-turbine-vibrations-on.html

 Environmental impacts of Wind Energy  

Despite its vast wind potential and benefits, there are a variety of environmental impacts associated with wind power generation that should be recognized and mitigated. 

Land Use

The land use impact of wind power facilities varies substantially depending on the site: wind turbines placed in flat areas typically use more land than those located in hilly areas. However, wind turbines do not occupy all of this land; they must be spaced approximately 5 to 10 rotor diameters apart (a rotor diameter is the diameter of the wind turbine blades). Thus, the turbines themselves and the surrounding infrastructure (including roads and transmission lines) occupy a small portion of the total area of a wind facility.

A survey by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of large wind facilities in the United States found that they use between 30 and 141 acres per megawatt of power output capacity (a typical new utility-scale wind turbine is about 2 megawatts). However, less than 1 acre per megawatt is disturbed permanently and less than 3.5 acres per megawatt are disturbed temporarily during construction. The remainder of the land can be used for a variety of other productive purposes, including livestock grazing, agriculture, highways, and hiking trails . Alternatively, wind facilities can be sited on brownfields (abandoned or underused industrial land) or other commercial and industrial locations, which significantly reduces concerns about land use   (Hybrid solar and wind farms save land and have other benefits, read more at https://javedrashid.blogspot.com/2018/10/hybrid-solar-wind-power-plants.html)

Offshore wind facilities require larger amounts of space because the turbines and blades are bigger than their land-based counterparts. Depending on their location, such offshore installations may compete with a variety of other ocean activities, such as fishing, recreational activities, sand and gravel extraction, oil and gas extraction, navigation, and aquaculture. Employing best practices in planning and siting can help minimize potential land use impacts of offshore and land-based wind projects 

Wildlife and Habitat

The impact of wind turbines on wildlife, most notably on birds and bats, has been widely document and studied. A recent National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC) review of peer-reviewed research found evidence of bird and bat deaths from collisions with wind turbines and due to changes in air pressure caused by the spinning turbines, as well as from habitat disruption. The NWCC concluded that these impacts are relatively low and do not pose a threat to species populations  

Additionally, research into wildlife behavior and advances in wind turbine technology have helped to reduce bird and bat deaths. For example, wildlife biologists have found that bats are most active when wind speeds are low. Using this information, the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative concluded that keeping wind turbines motionless during times of low wind speeds could reduce bat deaths by more than half without significantly affecting power production. Other wildlife impacts can be mitigated through better siting of wind turbines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services has played a leadership role in this effort by convening an advisory group including representatives from industry, state and tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations that made comprehensive recommendations on appropriate wind farm siting and best management practices  

 Offshore wind turbines can have similar impacts on marine birds, but as with onshore wind turbines, the bird deaths associated with offshore wind are minimal. Wind farms located offshore will also impact fish and other marine wildlife. Some studies suggest that turbines may actually increase fish populations by acting as artificial reefs. The impact will vary from site to site, and therefore proper research and monitoring systems are needed for each offshore wind facility  

Public Health and Community

Sound and visual impact are the two main public health and community concerns associated with operating wind turbines. Most of the sound generated by wind turbines is aerodynamic, caused by the movement of turbine blades through the air. There is also mechanical sound generated by the turbine itself. Overall sound levels depend on turbine design and wind speed.

Some people living close to wind facilities have complained about sound and vibration issues, but industry and government-sponsored studies in Canada and Australia have found that these issues do not adversely impact public health . However, it is important for wind turbine developers to take these community concerns seriously by following “good neighbor” best practices for siting turbines and initiating open dialogue with affected community members. Additionally, technological advances, such as minimizing blade surface imperfections and using sound-absorbent materials can reduce wind turbine noise .

Under certain lighting conditions, wind turbines can create an effect known as shadow flicker. This annoyance can be minimized with careful siting, planting trees or installing window awnings, or curtailing wind turbine operations when certain lighting conditions exist .

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that large wind turbines, like all structures over 200 feet high, have white or red lights for aviation safety. However, the FAA recently determined that as long as there are no gaps in lighting greater than a half-mile, it is not necessary to light each tower in a multi-turbine wind project. Daytime lighting is unnecessary as long as the turbines are painted white.

 When it comes to aesthetics, wind turbines can elicit strong reactions. To some people, they are graceful sculptures; to others, they are eyesores that compromise the natural landscape. Whether a community is willing to accept an altered skyline in return for cleaner power should be decided in an open public dialogue.

Life-Cycle Global Warming Emissions

 While there are no global warming emissions associated with operating wind turbines, there are emissions associated with other stages of a wind turbine’s life-cycle, including materials production, materials transportation, on-site construction and assembly, operation and maintenance, and decommissioning and dismantlement.

Estimates of total global warming emissions depend on a number of factors, including wind speed, percent of time the wind is blowing, and the material composition of the wind turbine . Most estimates of wind turbine life-cycle global warming emissions are between 0.02 and 0.04 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour. To put this into context, estimates of life-cycle global warming emissions for natural gas generated electricity are between 0.6 and 2 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour and estimates for coal-generated electricity are 1.4 and 3.6 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour.

Environmental Impacts of Solar Energy

The potential environmental impacts associated with solar power  are : land use ; habitat loss; water use; and the use of hazardous materials in manufacturing , these can vary greatly depending on the technology, which includes two broad categories: photovoltaic (PV) solar cells or concentrating solar thermal plants  The scale of the system — ranging from small, distributed rooftop PV arrays to large utility-scale PV and CSP projects — also plays a significant role in the level of environmental impact.

Land Use

Depending on their location, larger utility-scale solar facilities can raise concerns about land degradation and habitat loss. Total land area requirements vary depending on the technology, the topography of the site, and the intensity of the solar resource. Estimates for utility-scale PV systems range from 3.5 to 10 acres per megawatt, while estimates for CSP facilities are between 4 and 16.5 acres per megawatt.

Unlike wind facilities, there is less opportunity for solar projects to share land with agricultural uses. However, land impacts from utility-scale solar systems can be minimized by siting them at lower-quality locations such as brownfields, abandoned mining land, or existing transportation and transmission corridors. Smaller scale solar PV arrays, which can be built on homes or commercial buildings, also have minimal land use impact.

Water Use

Solar PV cells do not use water for generating electricity. However, as in all manufacturing processes, some water is used to manufacture solar PV components. Concentrating solar thermal plants (CSP), like all thermal electric plants, require water for cooling. Water use depends on the plant design, plant location, and the type of cooling system.

CSP plants that use wet-recirculating technology with cooling towers withdraw between 600 and 650 gallons of water per megawatt-hour of electricity produced. CSP plants with once-through cooling technology have higher levels of water withdrawal, but lower total water consumption (because water is not lost as steam). Dry-cooling technology can reduce water use at CSP plants by approximately 90 percent . However, the tradeoffs to these water savings are higher costs and lower efficiencies. In addition, dry-cooling technology is significantly less effective at temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Many of the regions in the World that have the highest potential for solar energy also tend to be those with the driest climates, so careful consideration of these water tradeoffs is essential

Hazardous Materials

The PV cell manufacturing process includes a number of hazardous materials, most of which are used to clean and purify the semiconductor surface. These chemicals, similar to those used in the general semiconductor industry, include hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, and acetone. The amount and type of chemicals used depends on the type of cell, the amount of cleaning that is needed, and the size of silicon wafer. Workers also face risks associated with inhaling silicon dust.  

 Thin-film PV cells contain a number of more toxic materials than those used in traditional silicon photovoltaic cells, including gallium arsenide, copper-indium-gallium-diselenide, and cadmium-telluride. If not handled and disposed of properly, these materials could pose serious environmental or public health threats. However, manufacturers have a strong financial incentive to ensure that these highly valuable and often rare materials are recycled rather than thrown away.

Life-Cycle Global Warming Emissions

While there are no global warming emissions associated with generating electricity from solar energy, there are emissions associated with other stages of the solar life-cycle, including manufacturing, materials transportation, installation, maintenance, and decommissioning and dismantlement. Most estimates of life-cycle emissions for photovoltaic systems are between 0.07 and 0.18 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour.

Most estimates for concentrating solar power range from 0.08 to 0.2 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour. In both cases, this is far less than the lifecycle emission rates for natural gas (0.6-2 lbs of CO2E/kWh) and coal (1.4-3.6 lbs of CO2E/kWh)

Agriculture and Solar Cells; Jan., 23, 2020: It’s increasingly been suggested that solar panels could be used on agricultural fields, producing clean electricity while maintaining agricultural fields. Mint plants have been analyzed after having grown on contaminated soil samples. Image credits: Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University.

Perovskite cells have become some of the most efficient and productive types of solar cells. Their efficiency can be well over 20% (long considered to be a landmark in solar energy), and they can be built from relatively low-cost materials — which means that in the long run, the produced electricity can be quite cheap. They’re also the fastest-advancing solar technology, raising even more hopes about their potential.. But there are some issues to be considered, especially when it comes to lead. The most commonly studied perovskite absorber is something called methylammonium lead trihalide — a fiendishly complex substance which can leak lead into the environment. In fact, all perovskite cells contain methylammonium ions surrounded by heavy metal atoms. Most commonly, these metal atoms are lead. If some of this lead does reach the ground, researchers found, it can be easily absorbed by plants — even more easily easier than lead from other sources.

To test this, Prof. Antonio Abate at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and colleagues from Germany, Italy, and China, set up an experimental design. They contaminated soil samples with lead from either perovskite solar cells or other lead sources and then cultivated different plants (mint, chili, and cabbage). After allowing the plants to grow and develop naturally, they analyzed how much lead could be found in the plant body and leaf.

Surprisingly, the lead from perovskites was 10 times more bioavailable than other sources of lead contamination — so if any perovskite lead reaches the soil, it is very likely to be accumulated in plants. Similar trends were observed when the lead was replaced with tin.

Needless to say, lead is toxic and should not reach the food chain in any form. But the scale of the problem also warrants some clarification. A square meter perovskite solar module contains a total of only 0.8 grams of lead — which is very little compared to other technical sources of lead, such as batteries. Furthermore, it’s unlikely that all the lead content would leak into the environment. Nevertheless, it’s a problem that warrants further investigation, says Professor Christos Markides, Head of the Clean Energy Processes at Imperial College London, who was not involved with the study.

“This is an interesting study concerning the environmental impact of lead in perovskite solar cells, a photovoltaic technology that has attracted significant attention recently owing to its excellent performance and promise of lower cost compared to conventional and other alternatives. It is of note because it explores the impact on plants of the use of lead in such solar cells and provides evidence that this is something that should be considered with great care,” Markides explains.

“Concerns relating to the widespread deployment of lead-based perovskite solar cells have been raised for some time, given that these toxic materials are soluble in water, so contamination can lead to environmental but also health issues once they enter the food chain.”

In addition, there are important limitations to this study. We don’t really know how much lead actually leaks from these cells, and how it is absorbed by plants — particularly plants other than the ones trialed here. So this study shouldn’t be interpreted as “solar panels leak a lot of lead into plants”.

Andrew Meharg, Professor of Biology at Queen’s University Belfast, also highlighted the study’s limitations: while this does pinpoint a reason for further study to better understand the leakage and absorption of perovskite lead, it is very unlikely that this poses a major environmental problem.

“Lead contamination of soils is multiple and extensive, and in cases extreme, globally, from a wide range of industrial and domestic activities, yet lead in crops is not really a concern due to lead’s poor mobility in soils, its limited uptake by and restricted translocation within plants.”

“The lead from the peroskovite lead is only 0.1% of panels, and only doubles in the edible parts (leaves) of one plant (mint), tested on one soil. The break-up and leaching scenarios to soils of solar panels needs investigated, this was not conducted here, To state that all lead in solar panels should be replaced, with another toxic and problematic element tin, from such limited findings is not warranted without further extensive testing in a range of actual soils that have been contaminated in situ by disused solar panels.”

https://www.zmescience.com/science/solar-panels-lead-plants-21012020/

Drawbacks of VRE: Jun., 12, 2020: The film starts by highlighting the primary limitation of wind and solar power: They’re weather dependent and sometimes produce no electricity. Consequently, these intermittent sources need to be backed up by something more reliable, and, as the filmmakers found, those reliable electricity sources are often fossil fuels. In addition to sometimes not showing up for work, wind and solar plants require nearly 100 times more land to generate the same amount of electricity as a natural gas plant. The film illustrates this in detail, showing a football-field-sized solar array only capable of powering just 10 homes in a Michigan town. At one point, the site developer notes that to power the whole town, it would take a solar array so large it would require 15-square miles.

The alternative to relying on fossil fuels for backup is large-scale lithium battery storage. The film notes, however, that these batteries are prohibitively expensive, and the current world supply of energy battery storage can hold just one tenth of one percent of global energy usage. 

These obstacles are enough that, after several decades and half a trillion dollars of investment (even more globally), wind and solar combined generate just 9 percentof America’s electricity and less than 4 percent of its energy. 

But even these challenges deal only with fully functional green technologies. The film shows that creating wind turbines, solar panels and batteries relies on a mining and manufacturing process so intensive that one wonders if saving the planet really is the goal. The production of each of these technologies depends on the very fossil fuels they’re attempting to replace and creates indispensable toxic waste in the process. The film also notes the frequent large-scale habitat destruction that accompanies green energy installations, underscoring the inescapable fact that every energy source has an environmental impact.

Further, wind turbines and solar panels have lifespans of roughly 20 years, which means this process must be repeated. This lifespan is less than half the lifespan of any traditional plant, adding to the land use disparity. For instance, natural gas plants can last 40 years, and nuclear plants between 60-80 years. 

All these challenges underscore the point made by environmental scholar Richard York interviewed in the film: Contrary to popular belief, green energy does a poor job displacing fossil fuels. It takes “between four and thirteen units of non-fossil energy to displace one unit of fossil energy.”

This isn’t to say, though, that the pursuit of green energy is futile. When used in moderation, wind and solar power can relieve pressure on the grid by providing low-cost electricity. As the film notes, however, problems arise when green energy integration is stretched beyond its useful limits. It doesn’t matter how cheap green energy gets if it can’t provide electricity when you need it.

While the film indulges in overpopulation theories and anti-capitalist rhetoric typical of Moore’s films, it nonetheless is an important contribution to the green energy discussion. The general public has largely been shielded from green energy’s intermittency, scale, land use and lifespan barriers that energy analysts have written about for years. By introducing these matters to a wider audience, Moore has reminded us that while green energy certainly has its place, it also has its limits.

https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2020/06/09/green_energy_finds_an_unlikely_critic_michael_moore_495764.html

Painting wind turbines black can help birds not fly into them The white, sleek exterior of the wind turbine definitely looks good to me. But birds probably wouldn’t agree. According to a new paper, the current design of our wind turbines makes them hard to see for birds, promoting impacts. Image credits Roel May et al., (2020), Ecology and Evolution. Not only would such a change help save bird lives, but it would also help our bottom line. Birds in flight hit hard, and turbines are expensive to repair or replace. Taking one of them off for repairs also incurs costs (as they can’t produce power during the same time). All in all, the paper argues, painting one of the three rotor blades black is enough to help birds see the turbines and avoid collisions. Seeing is avoiding “As wind energy deployment increases and larger wind‐power plants are considered, bird fatalities through collision with moving turbine rotor blades are expected to increase. However, few (cost‐) effective deterrent or mitigation measures have so far been developed to reduce the risk of collision,” the authors explain in their paper. “We tested the hypothesis that painting would increase the visibility of the blades, [which reduced bird fatalities] by over 70% relative to the neighboring control (i.e., unpainted) turbines.” Growing awareness of climate change has prompted countries all over the world to move away from fossil fuels into clean energy sources; wind is a particular favorite, as wind farms can be installed in otherwise unusable (and quite unpleasant areas) such as windy coastal areas. ADVERTISEMENT That isn’t to say, however, that wind energy is flawless. As with everything else in life, it comes with good and bad both. Although they won’t release CO2 and heat up the planet, turbines can be quite disturbing to wildlife as they’re quite noisy, they bring humans to the area, and they’re a significant collision risk for birds. We have procedures in place to ensure that the sites we choose for such farms pose the lowest possible risk to wildlife. However, as more and more wind capacity is being installed, it’s unavoidable that it will impact local animals. The current paper tested whether painting one of the three rotor blades of each turbine can help lower collisions with birds. The experiment was carried out at the Smøla wind-power in Norway. The plant was built in two phases: 20 turbines of 2.1 MW were finished in September 2002, and an additional 48 turbines of 2.3 MW in August 2005. the team used trained dogs to look for bird carcasses in a radius of 100 m around the turbines “at regular intervals”. Roughly 9,560 turbine searches were performed between 2006–2016, finding 464 carcasses. The team explains that “there was an average 71.9% reduction in the annual fatality rate after painting at the painted turbines relative to the control turbines”. Despite this, they note that annual fatalities fluctuated significantly. All in all, there is enough evidence to seriously consider this approach as an effective way to protect birds from impacts with wind turbines. However, more long-term research is needed to establish exactly how effective it is in absolute numbers. “The in situ experiment was performed comparing only four treated turbines to the neighboring four untreated turbines. We must therefore be careful what we deduce from the experiment given the limited number of turbine pairs,” the authors note. “However, the experiment ran over a long timeframe, encompassing seven and a half years pretreatment and three and a half years post‐treatment” The paper “Paint it black: Efficacy of increased wind turbine rotor blade visibility to reduce avian fatalities” has been published in the journal Ecology and Evolution. https://www.zmescience.com/science/painting-wind-turbines-black-birds-223423/

Solidifying Hindutva–BJP Nominated Sadhavi Pragya for Elections By Sajjad Shaukat (JR 172 SS 48)

Solidifying Hindutva–BJP Nominated Sadhavi Pragya for Elections By Sajjad Shaukat

General elections 2019, which started in India on April 11 are being held in 7 phases and will continue till May.

In a recent move, the ruling party Bhartia Janta Party (BJP) has announced that Sadhavi Pragya Singh Thakur (an accused in Malegaon blast case-2008) joined the party and subsequently, was nominated for Lok Sabha seat from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. It is one of the four seats in MP where polling is scheduled on May 12. BJP has remained undefeatable in Bhopal since 1989 though it has a sizeable Muslim population. By fielding Sadhavi Pragya Singh against a strong Congress candidate, the BJP is hoping for polarization.

Sadhavi Pragya Singh Thakur is presently, out on bail in “2008 Malegaon bomb blast case”. On September 29, 2008, two bombs fitted on a motorcycle exploded resulting in killing of seven people and injuring over 100 (mainly Muslims) in Malegaon. Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS)–headed by the then ATS chief Hemant Karkare had booked Ms. Thakur, Lt Col Purohit and several others in the case within months of the incident. Karkare was later killed in false flag operation of Mumbai terror incident on November 26, 2008. Since then, the case was handled by three different agencies, including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). She was accused of supplying her bike and sending two of her confidantes–Ramji and Sandeep Dange–to do the job of planting the bomb in Motorcycles at Bhikku Chowk and Modassa Chowk, Malegaon.

Sadhavi Pragya Singh Thakur has spent nine years in jail. In 2015, the NIA apparently gave her a “clean chit” in Malegaon blasts, however, investigation/court proceedings against her continued. She is also an accused in 2007 Ajmer Dargah case. In 2017, the NIA cleared Ms. Singh as well as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Indresh Kumar of their involvement in that case as well. Interferingly, RSS activist Swami Aseemanand had confessed in the court that several Hindu extremists—RSS preachers and Sang activists were directly involved in planning, financing and executing Malegaon, Samjhauta Express, Ajmer and Mecca Masjid blasts. He stated that various leaders of Hindu communal organizations including Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Abhinav Bharat, Jai Vande Matram and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram were also behind these blasts.

In this regard, exposing the nexus between the BJP and the RSS, the then Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde disclosed on January 20, 2013 that organized training camps run by the fundamentalist parties, RSS and BJP were promoting Hindu Terrorism. He also explained that these extremist parties were behind the Samjhauta Express, Meccca Masjid and Malegaon blasts. He added, “We will have to think about it (Saffron terrorism) seriously…Hindu extremist parties BJP and RSS were involved many times in Hindu Muslim violence in India, especially Gujarat and Babri masjid incident.”

The then India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid endorsed Shinde’s statement, saying that it was based on facts. Meanwhile, Indian Home Secretary R K Singh revealed that during investigation the government had found ten names of the Hindu extremists, associated with RSS, who were involved in these terror attacks including Ajmer Sharif.

Similarly, on July 19, 2013, the Indian ex-investigating officer Satish Verma disclosed that terror-attacks in Mumbai in November 26, 2008 and assault on Indian Parliament in January 12, 2001 were carried out by the Indian government to strengthen anti-terrorism laws.

While, New Delhi has always accused Pakistan’s primary intelligence agency ISI of these acts of terrorism, but it is quite silent over Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) related terrorism which has obtained a new face, under the fundamentalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Indian RAW, country’s high officials and fundamentalist parties have co-relationship.

However, Sadhavi Pragya Singh Thakur’s nomination as BJP candidate in Lok Sabha polls has generated censure, dislike and criticism from all the walks of Indian life. Commenting on the development, former minister of the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “Imagine the anger if I’d field a terror accused. Channels would’ve gone berserk by now trending a Mehbooba terrorist Hashtag!”.

Nevertheless, the NIA played its role in exonerating the accused Hindu extremists in Malegaon, Ajmer Sharif, Samjhota Train, Gujarat programmes and other incidents where Muslims were targeted. NIA’s role in IOK in harassing Kashmiri leadership, arrests and killings of Kashmiri people in NIA custody are also notable.

It is mentionable that despite the confessions of Swami Aseemanand, instead of taking action against the culprits of the Samjhota Express explosion, the Supreme Court of India accepted the bail of Swami Aseemanand after the covert interference of the Modi-led authorities who changed the investigations in this respect in order to weaken the case. However, other accused persons who were involved in various terror-related incidents (as already mentioned) were also released. It has exposed biased Hindu dominated judicial system of India.

In fact, ideology of Hindutva prevails in every field at the cost of other minority groups. It is even supported by Indian defense forces secretly.

It is of particular attention that Indian Prime Modi’s extremist BJP had got a land sliding triumph in the Indian elections 2014 on the basis of anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan slogans. Therefore, since the Prime Minister Modi came to power, he has been implementing anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan agenda with the support of fanatic coalition outfits.

Notably, the Constitution declares India to be a secular state, granting equal rights to the religious minorities, but in practice, ideology of Hindutva prevails. Hindu politics and culture, dominated by the fundamentalists parties such as BJP, RSS, VHP, Shiv Sena and other similar groups have been propagating Hindutva agenda. Under Modi rule, Muslim anxiety in India is multiplying due the fact that during the election campaign, Hindu majority was mobilized on ‘hate Muslim’ slogans. 

Nonetheless, if we focus on the Indian Lok Sabha elections, we can note that insignificant number of Muslims candidates have been nominated by all the parties. The trend strongly indicates that India has evolved into a Hindu dominated country (Hindu rashtra) and so-called secularist mask is used to hoodwink the world. In this connection, nomination of Hindu extremist accused person like Sadhavi Pragya Singh Thakur is vivid manifestation of the same with a view to solidifying Hindutva.