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Wind kills lots of birds. http://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe-birds http://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe-... Ad

by melling 10y ago

Wind kills lots of birds. http://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe-birds http://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe-... Add 100x the current number and we'll have a big problem. Downvoted to hell because "We don't like what you're saying". Wind has a negative. it's just a fact, not an opinion.

merraksh 10y ago
Adding 100x will still have wind turbines 100 times more innocuous than cats [0]. [0] http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/north-america-wind-turbines-kill-around-300000-birds-annually-house-cats-around-3000000000.html http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/north-america-win...
- melling 10y ago
  1. It's a made up fact. http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-really-know-that-cats-kill-by-the-billions-not-so-fast http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-... 2. Cat's killing birds doesn't make it acceptable for humans to kill birds by the tens of millions.
  - merraksh 10y ago
    Both fair points, but your link states that cats' killing statistics are perhaps exaggerated, not completely false, and we don't know by how much. My (seemingly incorrect) assumption would imply that even if we remove all wind turbines we would only make a dent of about 1/10k. It is still a reasonable observation unless we find out the cat kill stats are off by four orders of magnitude.
TillE 10y ago
This is akin to complaining that your cancer treatment causes your hair to fall out. Yes it's unfortunate, but it's also a crucial part of the only realistic solution we have to far more urgent problems.
jonathansizz 10y ago
According to the US Fish & Wildlife service, wind turbine deaths are tiny compared with many other human causes. https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds.php https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds....
- melling 10y ago
  Currently there aren't that many wind turbines. I imagine the proposal is to have at least 100x the number to replace all of the fossil fuels. Imagine the planet covered with wind turbines.
  - greglindahl 10y ago
    If you look at the chart in the link, 100x-ing wind turbines, if it was linear, would still be a tiny number of bird deaths compared to other sources.
    - melling 10y ago
      Well, we are trying to reduce the other numbers. 10 million in the US is still a big number. We are 4% of the world population. As per capita energy use increases throughout the world, we're going to generate a lot more clean energy. http://world.bymap.org/ElectricityProduction.html http://world.bymap.org/ElectricityProduction.html Is there a reason we need to kill tens of millions of additional birds every year so we can have "clean" energy?
      - greglindahl 10y ago
        10 million in the US is not a big number, relative to other sources of bird deaths. As long as it's insignificant, you'll have a hard time convincing people that it's significant, and should stand in the way of saving the planet.

by melling 10y ago

merraksh 10y ago

Adding 100x will still have wind turbines 100 times more innocuous than cats [0]. [0] http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/north-america-wind-turbines-kill-around-300000-birds-annually-house-cats-around-3000000000.html http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/north-america-win...

melling 10y ago
1. It's a made up fact. http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-really-know-that-cats-kill-by-the-billions-not-so-fast http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-... 2. Cat's killing birds doesn't make it acceptable for humans to kill birds by the tens of millions.
- merraksh 10y ago
  Both fair points, but your link states that cats' killing statistics are perhaps exaggerated, not completely false, and we don't know by how much. My (seemingly incorrect) assumption would imply that even if we remove all wind turbines we would only make a dent of about 1/10k. It is still a reasonable observation unless we find out the cat kill stats are off by four orders of magnitude.

TillE 10y ago

This is akin to complaining that your cancer treatment causes your hair to fall out. Yes it's unfortunate, but it's also a crucial part of the only realistic solution we have to far more urgent problems.

jonathansizz 10y ago

According to the US Fish & Wildlife service, wind turbine deaths are tiny compared with many other human causes. https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds.php https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds....

melling 10y ago
Currently there aren't that many wind turbines. I imagine the proposal is to have at least 100x the number to replace all of the fossil fuels. Imagine the planet covered with wind turbines.
- greglindahl 10y ago
  If you look at the chart in the link, 100x-ing wind turbines, if it was linear, would still be a tiny number of bird deaths compared to other sources.
  - melling 10y ago
    Well, we are trying to reduce the other numbers. 10 million in the US is still a big number. We are 4% of the world population. As per capita energy use increases throughout the world, we're going to generate a lot more clean energy. http://world.bymap.org/ElectricityProduction.html http://world.bymap.org/ElectricityProduction.html Is there a reason we need to kill tens of millions of additional birds every year so we can have "clean" energy?
    - greglindahl 10y ago
      10 million in the US is not a big number, relative to other sources of bird deaths. As long as it's insignificant, you'll have a hard time convincing people that it's significant, and should stand in the way of saving the planet.