Beware the Killer Environmentalists!

“Greatest. Headline. Ever.,” John Hinderaker quips at Power Line:

“Rare bird last seen in Britain 22 years ago reappears – only to be killed by wind turbine in front of a horrified crowd of birdwatchers.”

The London Daily Mail reports:

A group of 40 enthusiasts dashed to the Hebrides to catch a glimpse of the brown, black and blue bird, which breeds in Asia and winters in Australasia.

But instead of being treated to a wildlife spectacle they were left with a horror show when it flew into a wind turbine and was killed.
John Marchant, 62, who had made the trip all the way from Norfolk, said: “We were absolutely over the moon to see the bird. We watched it for nearly two hours.

“But while we were watching it suddenly got a bit close to the turbine and then the blades hit it.

“We all rushed up to the turbine, which took about five minutes, hoping the bird had just been knocked out the sky but was okay.

“Unfortunately it had taken a blow to the head and was stone dead.

“It was really beautiful when it was flying around, graceful and with such speed. To suddenly see it fly into a turbine and fall out the sky was terrible.”

The last sighting of a white-throated needletail was 22 years ago.

Of course, it could be a case of two endangered species colliding simultaneously: “Europe exits climate money pit as Obama jumps in,” according to the Washington Examiner:

Obama just returned from Northern Ireland at the G8 meeting where he evidently didn’t ask why the United Kingdom removed climate change from the agenda.

European carbon markets had collapsed with the price of carbon hitting record lows, wrecking the European Union’s trading scheme for industrial CO2 emissions.

British Gas owner Centrica was buying up shale gas drilling rights in Lancashire for fracking operations. Green investors faced bankruptcy as Spain cut subsidies even further.

Large German companies such as Siemens and Bosch abandoned the solar industry, which had lost them billions, while investments in failed solar companies, including Q-Cells and SolarWorld, destroyed 21 billion euros of capital.

In response, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a June energy conference in Berlin to expect reduced government spending on energy like wind and solar power to keep Germany economically competitive. Europe’s clean energy economy had become a black hole eating euros.

Last week, Merkel’s government warned EU member states that German car makers would shut down production in their countries unless they support more affordable vehicle emissions rules.

In contrast, “During his final press conference as Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood said Thursday that high gas prices are here to stay:”

According to Paul Bedard at the Washington Examiner, LaHood, considered the most influential Transportation Secretary in the history of that office, said, “Gas prices aren’t going down, they are not going to go down.”

Gasoline averaged $1.78 a gallon when Mr. Obama took office in January of 2009.