utility-scale wind and solar is destroying Michigan

Solar fields are environmentally problematic for a host of reasons, from their supply chains to increased erosion. Key environmental issues with solar include:

• A wildly toxic supply chain. Lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, nickel, sulfide; these are all extremely environmentally destructive to mine, and in many cases they consume vast amounts of water. Lithium and cobalt mining industries have been havens for slave and child labor, and local residents are crying out against the environmental injustice caused by these operations from the Congo to Oregon’s Thacker Pass.
• The destruction of native habitat. From the dozing of thousand year old Joshua trees in the desert to pristine woodlands in Wisconsin, this destruction of native habitat has a profound impact on local ecosystems. At a time when the planet is undergoing its sixth mass extinction, the last thing we need to be doing is destroying 100,000s of acres of habitat.
• The destruction of farmland, which we need to grow food. Energy lobbyists may be on a campaign to villanize farmers, but that doesn’t change the fact that our communities need food more than they need batteries.
• The destruction of soil, which not only releases greenhouse gases and destroy’s the soil’s ability to store carbon, but it also makes land highly vulnerable to stormwater erosion. Erosion further destroys precious carbon-storing soil, and surface runoff increases water pollution.
• The fragility of solar panels, which can be easily damaged by hail. Their lifespans are shockingly short, considering how resource-intensive they are to manufacture. While some components of solar panels can be recycled, its most valuable components–lithium, cobalt, REE and other precious minerals–cannot be recovered, but are instead processed into a highly toxic black sludge for which there is no known use.

Americans have been unconscious of the toxic supply chain associated with solar panels, and with the high tech industry at large, for decades. But as the inaccurately named “renewable” energy industry is pumping up demand for solar panels, the mining and manufacturing–and disposal–of these materials is coming to our shores. We’re quickly learning how toxic these supply chains are. To compete with BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) in “high technology” manufacturing is to compete with these countries in environmental destruction, pollution, and desertification.

Despite energy lobbyists’ attempts to downplay their negative impacts, the popular model for wind turbines is extremely destructive to the ecosystems around it. Some scientists have noted that wind turbines act as an “apex predator” in the area by taking out aerial predators.

A few of the key environmental issues turbines cause include:

• Hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of birds die each year in blade collisions, which is exaccerbated by the extreme pressure created by the spinning blades–a phenomena called barotrauma. This causes bats’ and birds’ lungs to explode. Scientists have found energy companies’ statistics on bird and bat fatalities to be grossly underestimated.
• Cyclical light disruption caused by the shadows cast by turning blades has unstudied effects on ecological and human health. Although policymakers roundly repute any negative effects of light disruption, they have no proof to back up their claims, and farmers who work near turbines have been complaining of a host of negative impacts on crops and animals since their construction in Michigan began. 
• Turbine construction requires an immense amount of concrete, and disturbs a wide radius of soil, hindering the soil’s ability to store carbon and destroying wildlife habitat. 
• Turbine maintenance is dangerous, costly, and frequently required. They have a lifespan of only a few decades. Very little of their materials are recycled, leaving graveyards of fiberglass megalithic turbines.
• The material supply chain that’s required to make wind turbines has a massive carbon footprint and is extremely destructive to the environment. Policymakers are not tallying this impact into their assertions of “clean” energy.

The model of wind turbine which is in popular current use was initially designed, under federal subsidies, by Boeing. Many other, far less environmentally destructive wind energy-capturing technologies exist, such as microturbines and wind vibrators. Despite the urgings of environmentalists to move away from turbines and towards more sustainable models, federally subsidized energy corporations plow ahead with their plans for large-scale turbine field development.