Bats Da Evidence

Alternative-Energy Spending Fizzles Out, 07, Kevin Bullis, http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?ch=specialsections&sc=biofuels&id=18003&a= Despite the hype and numerous promises that began 2006, including President Bush's declared plans to curb the United States' addiction to oil, the 109th Congress ended the year without allocating funding for proposed increases in research spending for alternative energy. Although Bush proposed a fiscal-year 2007 budget that would have increased funding for some renewable-energy resources the budget was not passed. Instead, Congress passed a stopgap continuing resolution that will keep the budget at 2006 levels, which, because of inflation, amounts to a cut in funding, and it specifically decreases funding in some cases. For now, the Department of Energy is suspending funding for new projects, a spokesperson says.

A problem with Wind Power, Eric Rosenbloom, Eric Rosenbloom is a science editor and writer living in Vermont, 06, http://www.aweo.org/ProblemWithWind.html The spinning blades kill and maim birds and bats. The industry claims that moving from lattice-work towers, which provided roosting and nesting platforms, to solid towers, as well as larger lower-rpm blades, solved the problem, and that studies find very few dead birds around wind turbines. They ignore the facts that the larger blades are in fact slicing the air faster (over 100 mph at their tips, that scavengers will have removed most injured and dead birds before researchers arrive for their periodic surveys, and that many areas where dead and injured birds and bats might fall are inaccessible. A 2002 study in Spain estimated that 11,200 birds of prey (many of them already endangered), 350,000 bats, and 3,000,000 small birds are killed each year by wind turbines and their power lines. The president of Bat Conservation International, Merlin Tuttle, has said, "We're finding kills even in the most remote turbines out in the middle of prairies, where bats don't feed." BAT HOUSES ADDED TO MOSQUITO ARSENAL, The Boston Globe, September 14, 2006, CHRISTINE WALLGREN, http://www.lexisnexis.com/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=t rue&risb=21_T4126823197&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&result sUrlKey=29_T4126830300&cisb=22_T4126823199&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi =8110&docNo=2 Spraying mosquito-killing pesticides may be the region's short-term way to fight Eastern equine encephalitis and West Nile virus, but some towns are quickly investing in a longer-term solution, too: putting up bat houses. Bats, which consume thousands of mosquitoes and other insects, are more efficient in insect control than birds or bug zappers, specialists say. Bat houses are used effectively for mosquito control in the southeastern United States, and in some southern communities bats have reduced the mosquito population by as much as 60 to 70 percent, according to Mike Andrews of East Bridgewater, who runs the local Atlantic Termite and Pest Control. A single bat can consume as many as 1,200 insects in an hour, according to Andrews. "I think this has got the potential to help address a serious problem," Clifford said. "Ground and aerial spraying are temporary. This is a natural alternative and it's a permanent approach to a serious problem." Ryan M. Carney, “Efficacy of Aerial Spraying of Mosquito Adulticide in Reducing Incidence of West Nile Virus, California, 2005”, www.cdc.gov, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Volume 14, Number 5-May 2008 Rapidly escalating risk for WNV transmission to humans in Sacramento County was indicated by high mosquito abundance and infection prevalence; published studies on aerial application of adulticides have documented reductions in mosquito abundance and infection prevalence along with concurrent or subsequent decreases in human cases