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Wind turbines kill maybe 500,000 birds a year. [1]. Birds flying into windows kills up to 1,000,000,000 birds per year. [2] [1] https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-

Wind turbines kill maybe 500,000 birds a year. [1]. Birds flying into windows kills up to 1,000,000,000 birds per year. [2] [1] https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds/collisions/wind-turbines.php#:~:text=The%20most%20comprehensive%20and%20statistically,and%20500%2C000%20birds%20per%20year https://www.fws.gov/birds/bird-enthusiasts/threats-to-birds/.... [2] https://audubonportland.org/our-work/rehabilitate-wildlife/being-a-good-wildlife-neighbor/birds-and-windows/#:~:text=Up%20to%20one%20billion%20birds,of%20window%20collisions%20are%20fatal https://audubonportland.org/our-work/rehabilitate-wildlife/b....

gruez 5y ago
>Birds flying into windows kills up to 1,000,000,000 birds per year >[2] https://audubonportland.org/our-work/rehabilitate-wildlife/b https://audubonportland.org/our-work/rehabilitate-wildlife/b.... That seems like a very high bound. Another source says there are 7.2B birds in US and canada[1], so 1B birds would be 14% of all birds, which is really high. I also feel like 7.2B dead birds would be very noticeable in the form of dead birds on sidewalks, which I'm not seeing. [1] https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/20/bird-population-decrease-third-fewer/ https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/20/bird-population-decrea...
- MagnumOpus 5y ago
  It might surprise you, but buildings in places other than the US and Canada now have windows too. By some estimates 95% of the world's windows are outside of US/CA! (Not that it matters, birds are a pretext, nobody really cares about birds, otherwise outdoor cats as pets would not be a thing.)
  - gruez 5y ago
    The source linked in the parent post says the 1 billion figure is for US only. Maybe the number is more plausible if it's applied worldwide, but the source should be considered as unreliable.
baryphonic 5y ago
Shouldn't this be scaled to the drastic difference in proportion? I'm willing to accept the hypothesis that turbines are no more dangerous (or even less dangerous) than windows, but with raw numbers it feels like we're comparing apples and oranges. I don't have accurate counts for the number of windows globally, but I'm fairly confident it's much higher than the number of wind turbines.

gruez 5y ago

>Birds flying into windows kills up to 1,000,000,000 birds per year >[2] https://audubonportland.org/our-work/rehabilitate-wildlife/b https://audubonportland.org/our-work/rehabilitate-wildlife/b.... That seems like a very high bound. Another source says there are 7.2B birds in US and canada[1], so 1B birds would be 14% of all birds, which is really high. I also feel like 7.2B dead birds would be very noticeable in the form of dead birds on sidewalks, which I'm not seeing. [1] https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/20/bird-population-decrease-third-fewer/ https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/20/bird-population-decrea...

MagnumOpus 5y ago
It might surprise you, but buildings in places other than the US and Canada now have windows too. By some estimates 95% of the world's windows are outside of US/CA! (Not that it matters, birds are a pretext, nobody really cares about birds, otherwise outdoor cats as pets would not be a thing.)
- gruez 5y ago
  The source linked in the parent post says the 1 billion figure is for US only. Maybe the number is more plausible if it's applied worldwide, but the source should be considered as unreliable.

baryphonic 5y ago

Shouldn't this be scaled to the drastic difference in proportion? I'm willing to accept the hypothesis that turbines are no more dangerous (or even less dangerous) than windows, but with raw numbers it feels like we're comparing apples and oranges. I don't have accurate counts for the number of windows globally, but I'm fairly confident it's much higher than the number of wind turbines.