• Storksforlegs@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    58
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Reminds me of how Trump has been going after wind farms for a long time. He claims they’re noisy and they’re killing all the birds. (He began saying this when Scotland wanted to place Wind farms near his Scottish golf resort)

    • Onihikage@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s almost silly to look into bird deaths and realize just how low wind power is on the list, even with its rapid growth in recent years. It was recently estimated that with the expected growth of wind power, it will be killing about 2.2 million birds a year in the US… in 2050. Meanwhile, power lines kill anywhere from 12 to 48 million a year right now, fossil-fueled power plants kill as many as 14 million a year right now, communication towers kill over 5 million, cars 60-80 million, pesticides as much as 90 million, and cats well over a billion. Every year. The numbers aren’t that hard to find. Replacing all fossil-fueled power plants with wind turbines would be a net positive for bird populations, and the facts make that very clear.

      https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/08/22/pecking-order-energys-toll-on-birds
      https://www.energymonitor.ai/tech/renewables/weekly-data-how-many-birds-are-really-killed-by-wind-turbines/

      • perdido@lemmy.eco.br
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        20
        ·
        1 year ago

        If they actually cared about birds they’d shut up about wind power and try to get rid of cats instead

          • blindsight@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            And keep your cats indoors!! Outdoor cat pets should be illegal.

            (Maybe there’s a case for farm cats keeping vermin population in check? I don’t know enough to have an opinion on that.)

      • ginerel@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Problem was that they are government agents/drones/whatever and this is costly for the government

    • ampersandrew@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      They did have an effect on birds though. I think it was almost entirely mitigated by painting one blade black, if memory serves, but it was based on some truth.

      • middlemuddle@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        1 year ago

        Please don’t give their statement any credibility without adding the important context. Based in some truth may be technically accurate, but when compared to all the other possible causes of bird death it’s basically inconsequential.

        https://www.fws.gov/library/collections/threats-birds

        If there’s a solution, such as painting one blade a different color, then great. We can leave it up to the turbine engineers and wildlife agencies to address it, it doesn’t need to be part of any news cycle. Giving their outlandish claim any air at all lends it far too much weight.