From KlimaNachrichten

The losers of the energy transition in Germany: bats. The FAZ has an interesting article on this. The problem is also known to nature conservation associations. It’s just that some things are in the dark, because it is very difficult to estimate how many animals it affects. The animals do not necessarily die directly at the wind turbines, but may fly even further. Scavengers also ensure that the animal carcasses can no longer be found.

In Germany, for example, wind turbines are to be erected with less bureaucracy and much faster than before. However, this could further accelerate the loss of biodiversity, because possible effects on nature would be taken into account less than before in the approval procedures – so experts from the German Bat Observatory fear. In addition to birds, bats are likely to be affected in particular. “According to scientific estimates, around a quarter of a million bats die at wind turbines every year in Germany alone,” says Marcus Fritze. He heads the Competence Centre for Bat Conservation in Saxony-Anhalt and, together with twelve other experts from the German Bat Observatory, has published a scientific study in the journal “Nyctalus” on the effects of accelerating approval procedures for the expansion of wind turbines in Germany. “The situation could get worse further, species such as the common noctule, the rough-skinned bat and the two-coloured bat may disappear completely from some areas,” the scientist fears.

The author explicitly warns against the construction of wind turbines in forests. These are also an important habitat for bats. However, the construction of plants in forests is firmly planned in Germany. Not good news for the rare animals. Nature conservation associations such as Nabu are well aware of the problem.

“Unfortunately, bats keep dying at wind turbines. A new study by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) shows that this can be associated with ecological effects on populations in distant regions. To this end, the scientists analysed and evaluated the bat victims at various wind energy sites in Germany. Species hunting and migrating in the open airspace are particularly at risk of collision. Five of the 24 bat species found in Germany alone account for 90 percent of the fatalities.

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While the killed pygmy bats mostly come from the respective region, injured pipisterelle bats come almost exclusively from the Baltic States and Belarus. Noctules also come from far away: their journey from Scandinavia and the Baltic States often ends fatally. Since bats have a very low reproduction rate, losses have a direct impact on home populations. These are recovering very slowly – if at all – from the population losses. This also has an impact on the respective ecosystems in which bats have a regulatory function.”

Simplified building permits will not help to ease the situation.

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A short visit to the “Helmholtz Drought Monitor”. We have already reported on this tool several times. We don’t want to tire the reader either, so just a short current drought check. For the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt you can download a high-resolution map for the entire soil here. You get this:

Here, some regions with “extreme” (red) and “exceptional” drought (dark red) stand out. In order to compare how the DWD evaluates the soil situation (“soil moisture viewer“), the map above was digitized to look at exact locations. In the far north at 52.5*N; Stendal is located at 11.6°E. The DWD has data for this location:

On 22 June, the usable field capacity did not fall below 50-80% in the “total soil” up to a depth of 1.8 m, which was also referred to in the map of the “Drought Monitor”. No “drought”. Helmholtz has obviously still not solved the problem of “dry bias”.

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It seems as if Michael Mann is plagued by a guilty conscience. Mann invented the so-called hockey stick curve. He has been warning about global warming for years. Deutschlandfunk reviews his current book, and in it Mann worries about pessimism about the climate. Mann considers them more dangerous than the deniers of global warming. From the publisher’s announcement text:

“For about 4.5 billion years, the Earth has proven that it can do well without humans. It was not until about 2 million years ago that the first prehistoric humans appeared. What suddenly made our existence possible back then? Ironically, exactly what threatens us now: climate change.

In the past, climate fluctuations favored the further development and expansion of our ancestors. For example, the drying out of the tropics during the Pleistocene created a niche for early hominids, which could hunt prey in the newly acquired savannahs. And the sudden cooling in the North Atlantic 13,000 years ago promoted the development of agriculture. However, the temperature range within which humans can exist is surprisingly small. “Too cold” and “too warm” are quickly reached. Our survival therefore depends on not crossing these thresholds.

In this spectacular hike through the history of the earth, the renowned climate researcher Michael E. Mann makes it unmistakably clear how fragile the moment in which humanity finds itself right now is – and that it is worth fighting for the future.”

The foreword was written by Özden Terli, meteorologist at ZDF.