Consider Marine Life When Implementing Offshore Renewable Power
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
With countries such as Iceland, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and Norway adopting green energy practices, renewable energy now accounts for a third of the world's power. As this trend continues, more and more countries are looking to offshore energy sources to produce this renewable energy. In an Opinion publishing December 17 in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, researchers identify situations where green technology such as wind turbines, wave energy converters, and other marine renewable energy devices (MREDs) have had negative consequences on marine life.
While the researchers don't want to slow down active responses to climate change, they do encourage those making the decision to implement MREDs into marine habitats to consider the impact of this technology, such as head trauma and hearing loss, on marine animals before beginning construction.
"When people put a wind farm in their back yard, neighbors might complain that it's ugly and want it moved," says first author Andrew Wright, an ocean and ecosystem scientist at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. "So, they think, why not put it off shore where we can't see it and then there's no problems? The assumption there is that it's just an aesthetic problem. But there's a lot more to it."
Journal Reference:Andrew J. Wright, Claryana Araijo-Wang, John Y. Wang, Peter S. Ross, Jakob Tougaard, Robin Winkler, Melissa C. Mirquez, Frances C. Robertson, Kayleigh Fawcett Williams, Randall R. Reeves. How 'Blue' Is 'Green' Energy? Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.11.002
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