Treehugger - Latest Comments in Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Bridge Dale — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 03:25:30 -0000

Wow, I didn't think about wind turbines in this manner before. You are right here, and care should be taken when a wind turbine is being built. It's not friendly for the birds, and I don't want any birds to die.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Chip Transue — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 11:27:42 -0000

This article is useful, except that the bicycle gearing analogy for the high gear is reversed. When the chain is set to the highest gear (smallest rear cog), slow PEDAL movement (which means slow CHAIN movement, of course - that's where the author got it wrong) causes fast WHEEL movement. Conversely, setting the chain to the largest rear cog means rapid PEDAL movement with slowest WHEEL movement. Obviously, then, large, long blades spinning at very low velocity, attached to an appropriate gearing system will cause the attached turbine to spin very fast. BTW, I live near some large wind farms in Texas, ALL of which use the large, long, slow-moving blades, but that works with the timeline presented, because none of them went online before 2000.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Brianna — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 11:30:53 -0000

Wind Turbine Companies are aware of the Migration Routes. They will hopefully be moving the Turbines. Actually, the turbines blades don't move as quickly as they used to. So Companies are aware. They are taking action to this. Understand their perspective though. If the goal is to save birds, consider the facts regarding what kills birds, not just what story makes the catchiest headline. Wind turbines kill 10,000 to 40,000 birds per year. When man made things such as buildings, windows, cars and trucks kill birds each year. 100 million to 1 billion birds die from colliding with windows especially. Cats are next in line, killing birds around 3,000,000,000 annually. Wind turbines siting plays a big role in how birds are harmed by wind turbines. While this should not be dismissed, wind turbines are a lesser worry when comes to bird deaths.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Mart Davis — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 12:29:13 -0000

LOL

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Mart Davis — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 12:26:18 -0000

Then why did the USGS put out this report?http://www.fort.usgs.gov/Ba... Please help me, I am confused as much as when my lava lamp quit working.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

SWalkerTTU — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 02:38:28 -0000

When it comes to fossil fuels, most geologists do have something to gain from keeping the status quo: a living.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Mick — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 08:18:14 -0000

From the Daily Tekegraph. 28/06/13

Twitchers mourn as rare bird dies in wind
turbine

By Simon Johnson

DOZENS of birdwatchers who flocked to a
Scottish island to catch a
glimpse of an extremely rare swift were left
distraught after watching
it fly into a wind turbine and die.

About
40 people were watching the white-throated needletail, the
world's fastest
bird, when the incident took place on the Isles of
Harris.

Sightings
of the bird have only been recorded eight times in Britain
in nearly 170
years, most recently in 1991.

More than 80 ornithologists made the
journey to the island hoping to
see the swift, which is known to fly at
speeds of up to 69mph.
John Marchant, a project coordinator for the British
Trust for
Ornithology, said he travelled from Norfolk when he heard about
the
arrival of the bird, which had brown, blue and black plumage.
"We
were absolutely over the moon and thrilled to see the bird," he

said.

"We watched it for nearly two hours. While we were watching it,

suddenly it was 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 it had just been knocked out of the sky and was OK.
Unfortunately
it had a blow to the head and was stone dead."
He added: "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."

Josh Jones, of Bird Guides, a website for ornithologists,
said: "It is
ironic that after waiting so long for this bird to turn up in
the UK
it was killed by a wind turbine and not a natural
predator.

"More than 80 people had already arrived on the island and
others were
coming from all over the country. But it just flew into the
turbine.
It was killed instantly. The corpse will be sent to a museum but

obviously this is just terrible."

Experts said they thought the bird
had got lost migrating from Siberia
and it should have been in Australia or
Japan instead of Tarbert on
the Isle of Harris.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

cbelt — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 23:11:48 -0000

RTFA. Clueless dependence on a 'meme' rather than actual facts is continued evidence that many of you are silly people. Millions of birds die from collisions with windows. Perhaps one or two birds appear to die from collisions with each wind turbine. You should outlaw windows first !!!

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

disqus_sPypJRVoi8 — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 05:28:55 -0000

In the United States, cars and trucks wipe out millions of birds each year.. Does that logic apply to gun control and Newtown? Cars kill more people than guns...

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

arnie m — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 21:00:37 -0000

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) estimates that almost a half million birds are killed each year in the U.S. by wind turbines.

Ironically the huggers never mention those 500,000 dead birds ..... but if 6 ducks end up dead in the Alberta oil sands it is on the news every night for a
year.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

far2right — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 11:13:25 -0000

"Oil has killed many more birds by oil spills and carbon dioxide released by burning oil ( these things have create global warming"

Global surface temps have been on the decline for the past 16 years.

Your entire response is a bunch of tripe from an obvious watermelon environmentalist.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Stagnant. — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:35:24 -0000

Have we?

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Brian Bailey — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:52:28 -0000

Laumer is a liar, his theoretical sophistry contradicted by what is happening in the real world.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a division of the Interior Department, is considering loosening regulations on the killing of bald eagles, the national bird of the United States, to accommodate the development of wind energy sources.
A draft regulation first filed in April would allow businesses to apply for 30-year permits allowing them to kill bald eagles in the course of other legal activities. The length of those permits would be a six-fold increase over the five-year window allowed under current law.
" About 67 golden eagles are estimated to be killed annually just at Northern California’s Altamont Pass wind farm."
The carnage expands from there.
“In California, it is very reasonable to assume that over 100 golden eagles are killed each year,” wildlife biologist Jim Wiegand, vice president of Save the Eagles International, tells me. “Based upon the death rate at Altamont Pass of 60 to 90 each year, or 0.10 to 0.15 per megawatt produced, the death rate easily could be over 500 a year from wind farms located in golden-eagle habitat in the western United States. . . . Since 2005, there has been a 50 percent decline in golden-eagle nest sites recorded near Altamont Pass. It has been hidden from the public, and I had to uncover this fact. In addition, no golden eagles have nested in the 86-square-mile region of Altamont Pass for over 20 years, even though they once did, and this is prime golden-eagle habitat.”

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Michael Barnard — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:53:59 -0000

Still true, six years after initial publication.
http://www.quora.com/Wind-P...

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Idengbo — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:49:45 -0000

The numbers of birds killed is NOTHING compared to the number of birds saved by wind turbines. Oil has killed many more birds by oil spills and carbon dioxide released by burning oil ( these things have create global warming thus demolished many ecosystems, killing many birds with them). Dams kill thousands of fish, and flood large areas. Nuclear power plants contaminate soil and we bury the waste. Solar Power takes up a lot of ground space and the used panels are toxic. However wind turbines do not pollute, kill fish, flood large areas, or contaminate soil. It makes almost no waste, and has vary little ground space. Do not compare something to perfection but to your other options.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Tom — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 23:21:08 -0000

still clinging? At this point if you don't believe man is causing irreparable damage than you are such an idiot no amount of debate and education can help. Most of the scientists who were saying there was no link have even realized they were wrong. Christ read a book hillbilly.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

toriac — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:42:47 -0000

It is
an absurd conclusion that it’s okay to build an industry which contributes
to bird mortality just because many other things in our
industrial society already prove lethal. Everything should be done in order not to add to an already grave problem.

Studies show that birds avoid wind turbines
painted in colors, as well as types of window glass that birds can see.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Trojan Horace — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:52:43 -0000

I'd be suing the morons at the planning department for that $180k for granting approval so close to a residential property. I personally love the aesthetics and meditative sweep of a wind turbine... but I'd want to be looking at it, at least a half mile from my back porch - not in my bloody garden - it's an outrageous infringement on your rights that it was built where it was.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Trojan Horace — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:45:03 -0000

Plainly since the oil corporations have taken a keen interest in bird conservation they will be demolishing those large glass bird hazards and conducting all future business in eco-friendly wigwams

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

nataliah11 — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 21:02:27 -0000

Anything has its faults, it depends on how much we dwell on it. Which apparently humans do quite well for some time. Humans are consumers, that's what we do, we want. We don't take what we need we take what we want. But we also have the ability of self control. Which we should use on much larger scales. We can do as much as we can to stop consuming and start reusing but we can't do one or the other. As long as population increases we need more energy, we want cheap energy (there it is again the word want) and we don't want to be inconvenienced. You can bitch and moan about what we can do and what we shouldn't do but guess what regardless of what we actually do, nature's going to run it's course whether we are here or we are not. Devastation and death occur alllllll the time face it. It's evolution you either adapt or you don't. Prolonging life to fit what we WANT and how we do it is ridiculous and it's most likely the reason for all the problems we incur on our race. Stop trying to deter fate... it's not going to do you any good, and you're going to waste the only life you have worrying about, and bitching about it. The saying ignorance is bliss becomes more and more appealing wouldn't you say LOL

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

WaterEverywhere — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:49:10 -0000

I am an avid cyclist and see road kill up close. Rarely do I ever see predatory birds dead on the roadway, perhaps once in the thousands of miles I ride each year I see a raptor, or gull, but more importantly; what is the connection? How can a wind farm reduce road kill?
Let me pose this question. If a logging company was responsible for the death of 52 golden eagles a year, do you think it would be brushed off as the price of progress? Yet California wind farms get a pass. Is it indeed as 'reality sucks" suggests, you have to break eggs to make an omelette? Was that argument applied to the spotted owl's demise?
You also mention the bird mortality of skyscrapers and the power lines needed to deliver wind generated power. What is your point here? Where is the logic? You are arguing against wind farms as you argue for them.
In truth, the turbine is a relic of the steam age, and holding wires off the ground with sticks a remnant of the first telegraph lines. We are driving into the future, as Marshall McCluhan suggests, looking in our rear view mirror.
I suggest you and "really sucks" examine MIT's Daniel Nocera and his vision of smashing the 90% inefficient grid altogether. His future sees ample electricity created on site in each household, each high rise, each school and factory and not a single wind farm or nuclear power plant, not one hydroelectric dam, not one wire held off the ground with a stick, and not a single broken egg.

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

WaterEverywhere — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:47:25 -0000

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

John — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:37:15 -0000

And so, if you are an opponent of progress, why aren't you living on an organic farm, raising goats and composting the waste, as opposed to composting on the internet?

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Jason — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:36:23 -0000

Would it be a good thing if we got so many gases in the atmosphere that earth ended up like Venus. On the plant Venus there are gas clouds cover the whole planet, and it is a toasty 800+ degrees all the time.
Extreme amounts of CO2=NO food=NO trees=NO life on Earth!

Re: Common Eco-Myth: Wind Turbines Kill Birds

Jason — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:20:03 -0000

wind power does not kill that many birds, and I do not see how solar panels could kill anything.