Environment movement ‘saving the environment’ by ‘destroying’ it: James Macpherson

Sky News host James Macpherson says a wind farm in Tasmania that risks killing the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot demonstrates the “conundrum” of trying to “save the environment” by “destroying” it. A planned 100-turbine wind farm on a remote Tasmanian island is facing a legal challenge from a community group. In November, the Robbins Island project was permitted to operate year-round after previous rules forcing it to shut down for five months each year during the migration of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot were overturned. “These 100 wind turbines were originally approved with the conditions that five months of the year they sit idle, which is what wind turbines do most of the year anyway,” Mr Macpherson said. “Well, the project organisers said that just makes it financially unviable, so what the government have said now is ‘ok, you can still operate 12 months of the year, but you will pay a $100,000 fine for every wedge-tailed eagle and orange-bellied parrot that you kill’. “Someone is going to have to walk around Robbins Island counting the number of birds, calculating the fine. “Doesn’t this demonstrate the conundrum you’ve got when you’re trying to save the environment by destroying the environment – and that’s the problem that the environmental movement trying to reach net zero has.”