There are many offenses you could have committed, and this one in and of itself is minor, but I fear is indicative of a larger problem in science media today.
You see, this has got to be the stupidist "study" I have seen a while.
There's this whole backlash right now against Wind Energy (I think by upset people in the oil industry) and they will use anything to make sure we don't have wind turbines, solar power, or anything they might discover some difficulty in maintaining a monopoly over and making a profit with. Now it's bats with exploding lungs due to some the low pressure vortex around the blades?
My first thought, a visceral one, was airplanes. I'll let you chew on that one, because it's not as important as what's to come.
New Scientist has completely lost my respect for even printing this article. I'm not real knowledgeable on searching scientific journals (real scientific journals that publish peer reviewed materials), so I didn't get much of a look at the study. In fact, I somewhat rely on good science journalism to do some of that work for me, and to condense it down as accurately as they can for the layman. I did try to find the paper, but with no success.
So I looked up the organizations that sponsored the study.
From the bottom of the article, "The study was funded by a number of bat conservation groups together with energy companies with a financial interest in wind energy, such as Shell Canada and Alberta Wind Energy."
Well, I can see the vested interest of bat conservation groups right off, and to be fair, I think bats are valuable predators. I don't want to see bats getting unnecessarily killed any more than I'm sure those guys do. Nevertheless, there is clearly some potential for bias right off the...er..."bat."
Next: Shell Canada? I went through their site. Maybe they have a vested financial interest in wind power, but only peripherally. Like all the big oil & gas companies, they talk the talk on their website...but when the big shareholder headline on their site is the following:
Shell Canada Limited Completes Acquisition of Duvernay Oil Corp.
I do wonder how interested they are in heading for a sustainable future rather than sucking up all they can now. If they could tell me they were doing such things in order to fund future sustainable alternatives, it would at least be a start, but there's no hint of that in the summary. Basically it's 100% profit driven. Fine. They are a company. They want to make a profit. That should not absolve them of some level of "personal" responsibility.
So I wondered what Alberta Wind Energy's interest in all this was, given the other players. Only took me a couple minutes to come up with their board of directors since the site doesn't really reveal much in itself. They could be harmless and genuine, and perhaps looking to future solutions, but I would want to keep an eye on them given the following bio information.
L. Stewart Duncan - President,CEO, & Director
From 1997 to 2005 Mr. Duncan has operated Stewart Duncan Consulting providing corporate development services, managing acquisitions and sales in the multi million dollar ranges, due diligence assignments, arranging private financings, corporate restructuring, and completion of industry studies. From 1993 to 1997 he was President and a Director of Jubilee Resources Inc. a public company listed on The Alberta Stock Exchange. Prior thereto he had 17 years finance experience with a major Canadian Chartered Bank and also served as an officer and director of two other public companies, Twin Richfield Oils Ltd. and Lidco Industries Ltd. both listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Mr. Duncan attended the University of Manitoba and is a Graduate of the Banff School of Advanced Management.
Russ Edwards - Director
Mr. Edwards is a Chartered Accountant (1980 Saskatchewan) whose business career focuses on providing investment capital to emerging companies in oil & gas production, oil & gas services, mining, biotech and real estate industries. Projects that have emerged, partially from these investments include:
Aaron Oil Corporation. 1987-1994. An oil & gas production company also involved in diamond exploration in the NWT and Saskatchewan.
Birch Mountain Resources Ltd. 1995-Present. The initial financier of this now TSE listed company (market cap. of $.5 billion) that owns widespread strategic land holdings in the oilsands area of northern Alberta. Birch is gearing up to provide aggregate and quicklime to oilsand operators and the community of Ft. McMurray.
BioMS Medical Corp. 2001-Present. A part of the investor group that has helped finance this U of Alberta research project to develop a Multiple Sclerosis drug which is showing excellent results in slowing down the progression of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis. This drug is the only MS drug in the world in Phase III trials. BioMS is now a TSE listed company with a market cap of $200 million.
Canadian Royalties Inc. 1999-Present. A part of the financing of ongoing exploration activities of this TSE listed company ($100 million market cap) with extensive land holdings in the Raglan area of Northern Quebec, a prolific nickel/PGM production belt. The company is currently preparing a feasibility report to quantify the economics of its drill results.
Canitron Systems Inc. 2002-Present. The Edwards family is the controlling shareholder of an emerging private oil and gas services company with patented technology to melt metal downhole in an oil & gas well for certain applications where conventional cement technology is ineffective.
A lot of oil interest going on there. Maybe if you're looking for someone who understands the financial aspect of energy, the oil industry is the logical place to pool from?
Duncan McCowan - Director
A professional geologist, Mr. McCowan is currently President of McCowan Exploration Management Ltd., a management consulting firm specializing in oil & gas ventures. He is also Chairman and CEO of Winter Petroleum Ltd., a privately owned exploration company with approximately 2.5 MMcf/d gas production and 145 sections of undeveloped land in the Rainbow Alberta area.
He received his B Sc. (Specialization in Geology) from the University of Alberta in 1972. Mr. McCowan has a history of being associated with the growth of successful oil and gas companies, in both technical and managerial capacities. These companies include: Canadian Hunter Exploration, Flame Oil & Gas Ltd., Opinac Exploration, Tarragon Oil & Gas Ltd. (subsequently Marathon Canada) and as a founder of Atlas Energy Ltd.
As a senior manager and officer of most of these companies with budgets in excess of $50 million annually, he has been exposed to a broad spectrum of exploration, high tech optimization, production enhancement and strategic opportunities. He has also served as a director of several other private and public companies.
What are we doing with all these geologist / oil types in a wind company? Clearly there are some things I do not understand about the wind industry. Granted, I can see where a geology background would be useful to some degree, but...things are adding up here...
Even their treasurer seems to warrant further investigation into Alberta Wind's genuine motives.
Jack Montgomery - Treasurer
Since 1986, Mr. Montgomery has been self employed as a consultant usin his considerable business experience to assist junior and start up companies move to an increased level of maturity and profitability.
Prior thereto, Mr. Montgomery was Vice President of Finance and Administration of Royal Trust Energy Corporation Pension Fund. 1985-1986. Managing Director (resident in Hague, Netherlands) of Challenger International BV, the international holding company of Turbo Resources Ltd., of Calgary, a public company, 1981-1984. Treasurer of Cherokee Resources Ltd., a public oil and gas exploration and production company, 1980-1981. He was also Vice President of Finance, Corporate Secretary, Treasurer and Director Nabors Drilling Ltd., a public compaany and subsidiaries of Kodak Oilfield Haulers Inc., and Nabors Alaska Drilling Inc., from 1972-1980.
There's the oil tie-ins again with "Cherokee Resources Ltd." Also, he worked in the Hague, which I looked up is in indeed the location of Royal Dutch Shell's HQ, though he worked for the holding company of "Turbo Resources Ltd." which is, you guessed it, and oil & gas interest.
See, I know companies and organizations behave this way, and have for some time. I think it happens on the environmental side as well, when people get so entrenched in ideologies and money and such, and it's unfortunate and wrong. I also think these kinds of things are never going to get corrected so long as our dominant forms of media are pop-culture rags and ClearChannel / Ted Turner / Rupert Murdoch stations that purport to be neutral investigative authorities on subjects, when in fact they are merely trying to keep up with the 24 hour news cycle by pumping out so called "news" without doing any research at all on the subject. It took me longer to write this blog than it did to look up that information on Google. In fact, I probably spent all of ten minutes digging it up, and if I were journalist would probably go a further.
It's fast food again, isn't it. Serve it up quick. Doesn't need substance, they'll come back for another later if they're still hungry. Doesn't have to be good, just has to be there.
Blind trust of authority. Chasing the dollar / pound / euro / whatever... In the age of technology, mass media is continuing to dumb down when everything was supposed to get better, easier and faster. Granted, anyone else with an investigative bent could have found what I found, but in an age where we are inundated with information, shouldn't we be able to rely on supposedly authoritative sources to do some of that footwork? Perhaps they do. The problem is, since when has mass media ever been an authority on anything?
A lot of people in that mass media still want to put down blogging as "amateur hour", but if it's blogs that uncover these little details...not necessarily full on evidence of anything but at least material to make the reader think...if it's blogs that uncover and reveal this stuff and not the major news and information outlets, then I have to question who the amateurs really are. As it is, I'm having a hard time distinguishing between forums like Slashdot and Engadget over New Scientist and CNN.
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