Dr Mercola has hit the Green energy scam right where it is vulnerable, namely damage to the environment, and the environment of Third World people to boot. The main point to be made is that balsa wood is used in the actual windmill blades, a wood which is light and strong, presumably than better than synthetic substitutes. But, wind turbine blades can be up to100 meters long and each blade requires 150 cubic meters of balsa wood, which is several tons of balsa wood. Most of the wood comes from South American tropic forests, as in Ecuador; the balsa is native to south America. China is buying up enormous quantities of this wood, to build its own wind turbines as backup to its also expanding coal industry, leading no stone unturned on the road to world conquest. But, in the process, tropical forests are being destroyed; as noted below: It’s a decision that has caused pain, rejection and division among families and has had consequences for the ecosystem of the islands and for the river itself. The balseros bring alcohol, drugs and prostitution, and pollute the extraction sites with plastics, cans, machinery, gasoline and oil spills.
They abandon used chains from their chainsaws. They eat the turtles and chase away the parrots, toucans and other birds that feed on the flowers of the balsa trees. The breakdown of ecosystems by illegal deforestation has profound impacts on the balance of local flora and fauna, which will never recover."
