Copyright 2004 The Irish Times
The Irish Times

March 6, 2004

SECTION: CITY EDITION; HOME NEWS; Pg. 2

LENGTH: 351 words

HEADLINE: Wind energy projects harmful to environment, says Bellamy

BYLINE: By LORNA SIGGINS

BODY:
The Government is mistaken in putting so much faith in wind energy, the
environmentalist and broadcaster, Prof David Bellamy, has said.

Prof Bellamy, who was in NUI Galway yesterday to mark the 10th anniversary
of the Martin Ryan Marine Science Institute, said that anyone familiar with
peat knew that "you don't dig holes in a blanket bog, particularly on a
slope". This had been proven by last year's landslide on the site of a 60
megawatt wind farm project in south Galway.

Installing "big blocks of concrete" for wind turbine bases would "never pay
back the carbon balance", Prof Bellamy added.

"Nowhere in the world has a conventional power station been closed as a
result of the development of a wind farm." Wind turbines killed birds and
bats, and these wind factories were simply weapons of mass destruction.

Prof Bellamy said that his views on wind energy were so anathema to current
British government policy that he had not appeared on a BBC television
programme for the past 12 years.

His last broadcast on the network - for Blue Peter - was on his opposition
to wind energy, he recalled.

"I find myself repeating the words of the late British government scientist,
Dr David Kelly - I don't think Britain is a country I really want to live in
any more," Prof Bellamy said.

A botanist and marine biologist, Prof Bellamy has been coming to Ireland for
the past five decades and was turned down for the post of chair of botany at
NUI Galway 30 years ago. During that time, he has given his support towards
various Irish environmental issues, such as the protest over proposed
interpretative centre on the Burren at Mullaghmore, Co Clare. Speaking last
night at a lecture hosted by Prof Michael Guiry to mark the tenth
anniversary of the Marine Science Institute, he appealed for sustainable use
of the marine environment.

The EU's Common Fisheries Policy had "done to our seas what the Common
Agricultural Policy has done to our land - destroyed wildlife and
fisheries," he said. "I don't blame the small fisherman for this - the main
problem is at international level."

LOAD-DATE: March 6, 2004