Monday, June 28, 2010

A Very Pertinent Post from a Reader:

Anonymous said...





I can't figure out how to comment onthe 350 badge. I would NEVER post this badge because it features bird killing windmills. I refuse to give any more money to the Sierra Club because they use the figure of this windmill. There are other windmills which do not kill birds. At what cost do we blindly continue our over populated path.
10:12 PM
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Blogger Leigh said...





Hi, thanks for sharing. I have huge problems with wind power for precisely that reason. I think many people aren't even aware of how much of an impact wind power projects have on birds. They do kill birds predominately because they're placed on the flight path of migration routes, where wind funnels through passes, etc - places birds travel through for the same reason. There needs to be more emphasis placed on putting wind power projects in place that are designed to protect against those casualties.
Glass has an incredible impact on birds as well though, millions of birds are killed every year for hitting windows during migration, both of houses, and of tall office buildings. At present, very little is being done to make people aware of this deadly effect, and while there are some people working to develop glass that birds can "see" while still being see-through for humans, not nearly enough is being done to market it at a large scale. There are many many problems out there facing birds, wind energy is just one of them, and frankly, I see wind energy as the lesser of two evils because at least it's working to wean us off the use of fossil fuels, which kill many birds as well - the Gulf spill is only one example.

Anyone else have valuable thoughts, comments, information to share? 
P.S. - I know this is a passionate issue for many people, myself included, but please try to restrain yourself from directed anger or ranting, and instead share insights and try to foster a valuable conversation on the issues.

3 comments:

heidi said...

Indeed, I actually have a big issue with Audubon right now because they're already on the wind bandwagon when the wind bandwagon hasn't been bird-proofed yet. Having spent 2 years under the turbines, I can't with a clean conscience support wind at all. Oddly, I understand the mechanics and logic of offshore (and onshore) drilling much better than wind farms - my father was in the industry and I grew up on the Gulf. So while my heart is breaking a million times over with this BP disaster, I simply cannot condone wind at this point.

I'll send you a fb message with a bit more detail, can't post here.

Unknown said...

I know, I just can't imagine that it would take all that much innovation and alteration to the turbine structures to vastly decrease the bird casualties, even something like fine chickenwire hoods over the turbines I would think wouldn't decrease the windflow by that much, but would keep birds from getting chopped up...

Unknown said...
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