Dude, if hard data mattered to the maga cult, Trump would never have gotten elected in the first place.
People saying this is some kind of hoax have not done their research. As someone who works for a renewable energy company they do hit birds (and bats, which are attracted to their low-frequency hum). I thought it was kind of nonsense before this job, but up close you realize those blades are spinning FAST. Theres nothing like them in the animal kingdom so birds arent afraid of them. There are steps you can take to mitigate the threat, but it is a valid concern. On the whole, though, they are still much better for the environment than pretty much any other type of energy generation.
If Trump is really concerned about birds, he should ban domesticated cats.
A while back, I found myself driving across South Dakota, where there are plenty of fields of wind turbines.
There was one about 20
yearsyards from the road, with a paved driveway leading to it. Curious about all of Trump’s allegations, I decided to check it out, and I pulled up next to the turbine.First of all, his claim that they make lots of noise is a LIE. They make almost no noise at all. There was a quiet, regular mechanical thump, every few seconds or so, but it wasn’t loud, and it couldn’t be heard from the road.
Secondly, there wasn’t one dead bird in the vicinity, despite there being MANY turbines operating in close proximity. If turbines were so deadly to birds, there should be a lot of them around this area, or at least a few, or at least ONE. But there were none.
Its almost like Trump either had no idea was he was saying, or he was just lying. Or both. Based on past experience, I’m going with BOTH.
I have heard some old ones make a good bit of noise, but those things are from like the Nixon era so I have no clue if they’ve always been loud. Regardless if Trump opens his insipid mouth then he is lying.
As article says (and IIRC from other sources) it’s the offshore turbines that pose the most risk to birds, and mostly to gliding fishing birds (bald eagle, osprey) because they barely see in front of them (they are looking down) and do not expect obstacles on open water.
Trump was talking, so of course he was lying.
20 years from the road
When your measuring distance in years, it’s too far to drive
Got it, edited.
It was a fun thought. Assuming a speed of 60 miles per hour, one car-year would be 525,600
minutesseasons of lovemiles
Wait, birds that are quick, nimble, agile and through evolution are designed to feel the tiny differences in air flow aren’t actually being cut in half by the huge and relatively very slow wind turbines?
IMPOSSIBLE. LIES!!My favorite part is that people who are against wind farms pretend to care about animals
just like they pretend to not molest children. there’s a pattern.
Before anyone starts shouting windturbines don’t kill birds because they saw this headline without reading the article, he is the key takeaway:
It turns out that while wind turbines do kill birds, they are statistically insignificant compared to the bigger killers we have in our cities and in our bedrooms.
Aside from the number being insignificant, there are efforts being made to minimize the amount of animals dying. The main solution is what is called bird curtailment - shutting the windmill off during migration activity.
Here is an article if you want to know more: https://appliedecologistsblog.com/2024/05/30/a-safe-passage-protecting-migratory-birds-in-the-north-sea/
Fuck them birds. Now study the effects of fossil fuel and compare the two.
How do you plan to fuck them? They are not real!!
I don’t have a link but I believe this has absolutely been studied and it’s the same as what OP says above but specifically about fossil fuels. The amount of birds that die to wind turbines is significantly less than the amount of birds that die to the fossil fuel industry.
It’s obvious parties who are against renewables will use this problem to their advantage acting like the dead birds are the thing care about. Obviously switching from wind energy to fossil energy is not desirable, and luckily fossil fuels aren’t the only alternative. Birds prefer to travel during the day, when there is also solar power for example. This is not a black and white discussion where you are either in favour of killing birds or in favour of saving the planet. Halting climate change and limiting the amount of animals dying for bad reasons are not mutually exclusive goals.
I also find that birds movements are not black and white as some birds such as the owl prefers moving under the cover of night.
However I feel like everyone who meets you is pro killing of the conversation.However I feel like everyone who meets you is pro killing of the conversation.
How so?
It was never a myth. It was a lie.
Reading the article. Wind turbines do kill birds, but it’s worse in certain areas, at certain times of year, and even certain times of day.
We can plan around these known quantities.
Also, guy wires and power lines can kill birds. Not quite as often, but sometimes a bird will hit the wire rather than land on it.
But the main killer of birds by far is furry and has cute little claws.
And windows. Kills loads of birds.
Anyone can drive out to a windfarm and look for dead birds, there never were any.
Also, wind turbines are geared to spin slowly, it’s not like a room fan, they only turn at 10-20 rpm.
Anyone can also visit a glass office building and ask caretakers how many birds a day they clean up.
I work for a renewable energy company. We regularly find dead birds at our wind sites, including occasionally protected species like eagles (killing bats is also a concern).
There are steps you can take to mitigate the threat. We have dumped a ton of money into a really cool technology that scans the skies constantly with super high res cameras and automatically stops turbines in the vicinity of protected species.
Overall, renewable energy is still much better for wildlife than burning fossil fuels.
I’m not saying wind turbines kill a lot if birds, but that 20 RPM can translate to blade tip speeds well over 100MPH because of how long they are.
And yet, no dead birds.
If every wants to save birds, remove the windows from your house.
Our house is older and is fairly light on windows, but the living room and kitchen both have a fairly sizeable one. I usually have to pick up 3-4 dead birds under them each year.
Put a sticker on them?
The stickers don’t actually work super well unless you cover your windows with them.
According to the Audubon society:
Window decals may help, but they must be placed no more than 2-4 inches apart in order to be effective. Birds will try to fly through larger gaps. This means that on large windows, many closely spaced decals may be necessary to deter bird collisions.
4 inches is about 10cm
There are more tips in the article but stickers don’t help nearly as much as people want them to.
There are companies that are experimenting with whole window films, but when I looked a bit ago they didn’t seem to be widely available to consumers.
Doesn’t work. Just makes people feel better.
You should read the article fr. It says that wind turbines can and do kill birds, but that they are now designed and placed judiciously to reduce death toll. And that there are much greater threats, namely climate change which wind turbines helps with.
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Your heart is in the right place, but maybe avoid that hard R in the future.
Maybe!
I swear this comes from people thinking they work like giant fans, sucking birds in.
They areliterally functinally opposite of fans. Wind pushes the blades, not blades pushing wind.
Good level headed article. Doesn’t pretend wind turbines don’t kill birds, but relativizes with the true killers: cats, windows and climate change (from which wind turbines are a remedy).
Yes, and well written too. It was easy to read, and not too long.
Came here to make some smart-ass comment, but the article already says it all. One additional thing I’ve read though is that rat poison (used by farmers) is also a major killer for birds-of-prey. But it may be a local problem.
Very few people that oppose wind turbines are actually any type of animal lover. If bird deaths really were the cause of their apprehension, ironically you’d see them push more for clean energy such as wind and solar, since pollution has killed and will continue to kill countless more beings than any wind turbine could dream of.
Ya because fossil fuel never directly killed any birds… Cut to images of millions of birds covered in oil from a spill… And indirectly fossil fuels has killed trillions of birds.
Almost like birds have eyes and a brain
Local ones with eyes and brains do hit my very dirty window sometimes. Natural selection I suppose.
Wind turbines are not transparent I guess
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It always sounded so ridiculously unlikely, and that I’ve only heard people who definitely is just grasping for arguments never helped either.
Good that there is some actual data on it now
Oh…but what about the HEADACHES.
Probably hysteria, but infrasonic emissions should be considered in the engineering. I have no clue what the infrasonic signatures are like for various wind turbines setups. I have lived near industrial infrasonic generators of other sources, and I have hated it before knowing anything about it.
Bottom line for me:
- wind powered electricity, good
- pollution of any kind, bad
- emissions are an engineering problem, not an intrinsic one (usually)
I suspect “infrasonic emissions” are mentioned to summon the image of some scary new unknown. Except cars produce it too, at least the ones with combustion engines. It is sound. It doesn’t matter if it is produced, it matters how loud it is.
Amazing how the headaches go away when there is a cash offer.
Thanks for this debunk!
