3 ms·

The numbers are trivial - in one study posted here, no more dead birds were found under wind turbines than anywhere else. And that would be in the single digit

The numbers are trivial - in one study posted here, no more dead birds were found under wind turbines than anywhere else. And that would be in the single digits per area studied. The truth is, birds are born to die. A bird has a nest of eggs - but the bird population is normally quite stable. So on average, nearly all new birds die by the end of the year. Cold, hunger, natural predation, disease. This is a solution looking for a problem.

japanuspus 4y ago
At some point I saw a report on the actual numbers (was working in a big wind power company and a colleague was heading our research on this topic). One big take-away for me was that the number of bird fatalities due to windows in high-rise buildings was orders of magnitude larger than the number caused by wind turbines.
- alias_neo 4y ago
  My school, 20+ years ago had a huge glass side (possibly still does) that at just the right time of day was utterly indistinguishable from the sky to the human eye. I sat in many an assembly to the huge "thud" of birds flying into it at full speed. The school never did anything about it in the time I was there. This was one school with some 20-30m wide windows, imagine just a single building with an order of magnitude more glass. The glass balcony of the flat I used to live in caused issues for birds, I imagine glass is a much, much larger issue than wind turbines given its prevalence.
atoav 4y ago
Most bird protectionists on Germany are of the opinion that instead of barring wind turbines while citing birds as the reason, birds would be better served if for every wind turbine some amount of space would be dedicated to the protection of those birds. Wind turbines are a (somewhat small) danger to a very specific subset of (bigger) birds, so this is essentially a plea to priorize the good of the bird population over the good of the individual bird.
pjc50 4y ago
Indeed. It's pretty much guaranteed that anyone bringing up wind turbines and birds is doing so to oppose wind turbines, not because they care about birds. > A bird has a nest of eggs However, this is the critical bit to bird populations - loss of habitat and nesting sites, as well as food during that time, and chemicals which can interfere with the success of this process (this is why DDT was banned).
purecode 4y ago
The problem is not small birds, it is big birds like eagles that can get 20 years old. For example in northern Germany wind turbines are the most common factor of death for them. Thus if just one blade needs to have a different color ot prevent collision and death then it is a pretty decent solution for a major problem.
- rob74 4y ago
  That solves (or reduces) one (debatable) problem, but increases another (also debatable) one: anyone who considers wind turbines an eyesore and doesn't want to have them anywhere near will be even more likely to do that if their visibility is increased like proposed here...
  - reggedtorespond 4y ago
    I thought about this too, but I'm not sure there is anything you can do to make this group happy, short of removing the turbines. So is it worth even considering their perspective? I know that's a harsh question.
- tobylane 4y ago
  Do you have a source for that? Eagles may not be prey for cats, but they still encounter buildings and masts, from the list in another comment.
- yread 4y ago
  But how many rabbits and squirrels are saved by the lack of eagles?
  - bl0rg 4y ago
    Is that supposed to be an actual argument?

japanuspus 4y ago

At some point I saw a report on the actual numbers (was working in a big wind power company and a colleague was heading our research on this topic). One big take-away for me was that the number of bird fatalities due to windows in high-rise buildings was orders of magnitude larger than the number caused by wind turbines.

alias_neo 4y ago
My school, 20+ years ago had a huge glass side (possibly still does) that at just the right time of day was utterly indistinguishable from the sky to the human eye. I sat in many an assembly to the huge "thud" of birds flying into it at full speed. The school never did anything about it in the time I was there. This was one school with some 20-30m wide windows, imagine just a single building with an order of magnitude more glass. The glass balcony of the flat I used to live in caused issues for birds, I imagine glass is a much, much larger issue than wind turbines given its prevalence.

atoav 4y ago

Most bird protectionists on Germany are of the opinion that instead of barring wind turbines while citing birds as the reason, birds would be better served if for every wind turbine some amount of space would be dedicated to the protection of those birds. Wind turbines are a (somewhat small) danger to a very specific subset of (bigger) birds, so this is essentially a plea to priorize the good of the bird population over the good of the individual bird.

pjc50 4y ago

Indeed. It's pretty much guaranteed that anyone bringing up wind turbines and birds is doing so to oppose wind turbines, not because they care about birds. > A bird has a nest of eggs However, this is the critical bit to bird populations - loss of habitat and nesting sites, as well as food during that time, and chemicals which can interfere with the success of this process (this is why DDT was banned).

purecode 4y ago

The problem is not small birds, it is big birds like eagles that can get 20 years old. For example in northern Germany wind turbines are the most common factor of death for them. Thus if just one blade needs to have a different color ot prevent collision and death then it is a pretty decent solution for a major problem.

rob74 4y ago
That solves (or reduces) one (debatable) problem, but increases another (also debatable) one: anyone who considers wind turbines an eyesore and doesn't want to have them anywhere near will be even more likely to do that if their visibility is increased like proposed here...
- reggedtorespond 4y ago
  I thought about this too, but I'm not sure there is anything you can do to make this group happy, short of removing the turbines. So is it worth even considering their perspective? I know that's a harsh question.
tobylane 4y ago
Do you have a source for that? Eagles may not be prey for cats, but they still encounter buildings and masts, from the list in another comment.
yread 4y ago
But how many rabbits and squirrels are saved by the lack of eagles?
- bl0rg 4y ago
  Is that supposed to be an actual argument?