Environmentalists have long waged war on our feathered friends, but now they have their sights on a new target: endangered apes.
It's been just months since the Tapanuli orangutan was discovered, as scientists marveled at the new species of the great ape, only the third of its kind. But a clean, renewable energy project that reduces carbon emissions won't let the orangutans stand a chance.
"The Tapanuli orangutan survives in northern Sumatra and it is already the most endangered great ape in the world; researchers estimate less than 800 individuals survive," the Guardian reported. "But the discovery hasn't stopped a Chinese state-run company, Sinohydro, from moving ahead with clearing forest for a large dam project smack in the middle of the orangutan population. According to several orangutan experts, Sinohydro's dam represents an immediate and existential threat to the Tapanuli orangutan."
The project is a hydrodam, supposedly sustainable technology that offers "clean, renewable, non-emitting source of energy that provides low-cost electricity and helps reduce carbon emissions." But at what cost?
Along with wind and solar, hydropower is one of the leading sources of clean energy. We've already seen the horror inflicted by the green menace that is wind turbines, chopping over 300,000 birds out of the sky each year, and the solar farms that cause our beloved national bird to spontaneously combust.
Hydropower had managed to slip under the radar, silently joining the left's relentless fight against wildlife. Until now.
"With only 800 individuals of this species remaining, the hydrodam will significantly increase the likelihood of extinction," said ape experts, noting the green energy project will directly impact 10 to 20 percent of the population.
"[B]ut perhaps even worse it will sever the eastern and western population, making it impossible for them to reconnect," the report warned.
"The impact will not just be the destruction of the habitat where they want to build the dam and roads, tunnel, electricity lines, but it will cause the extinction of two of the three sub-populations, and in addition create access and destroy the most important habitat of the only viable population left," another scientist said.
"With only 800 left, any loss of animals is gravely problematic," the report noted.
"Conservationists believe the last 800 Tapanuli orangutans are likely the last stand of a species that once spanned all of southern Sumatra—and may have even inhabited Java. This opens up the possibility that the species could be reintroduced to well-protected forests in the south," the Guardian added.
"But first it has to be safeguarded from obliteration."
Luckily, dozens of indigenous people are protesting the new clean energy project, which will also evict them from their ancestral land.
The Free Beacon stands with all inhabitants of the Batang Toru forest and against all forms of insidious green power.