For Climate Extremists, Bird-Chopping Wind Blades Are A-Okay
Earlier this month I participated in a climate interview in which I mentioned peer-reviewed research finding wind turbines kill more than one million birds and bats each year in the United States.
The host of the program did not seem to care much, dismissively asserting that buildings kill more birds than that.
This is a common claim made by climate extremists when defending the massive animal death toll of wind turbines.
It also reveals an utter lack of concern about animal deaths and other real environmental devastation caused by wind turbines.
This begs the question, are climate extremists truly concerned about the environment or is their primary motivation simply to shut down conventional energy?
Wind turbines are explicitly permitted to kill without penalty bald eagles and other iconic, protected American birds in staggering numbers.
While environmental activists cry outrage every time a few birds accidentally die as a result of conventional energy production, they don’t care in the least about the million-plus birds and bats killed every year by wind and solar power.
Meanwhile, bird and bat numbers are in precipitous decline, due in no small part to increasing numbers of wind turbines.
With climate extremists demanding more and more turbines every year, it seems highly unlikely that bird and bat populations will ever recover to anything approaching their prior, normal levels.
Healthy bird and bat populations are crucial to the entire ecosystem. We have a moral obligation to not callously and deliberately kill them by the millions.
Even if birds flying into buildings is a significant cause of bird deaths, that doesn’t mean we should unnecessarily kill millions more by other means.
And it shouldn’t give the wind power industry a free pass to kill as many birds and bats as they please.
Read more at CFACT
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Please DONATE TODAY To Help Our Non-Profit Mission To Defend The Scientific Method.
Trackback from your site.
T. C. Clark
| #
It is birds and bats …..and bees and whales. Wind turbines in the ocean create noise that can confuse whales….cause them to beach and die. And, how about our owl friends? This is the biggest bird sacrifice since Mao ordered the killing of a poor little sparrow in China for allegedly hurting food production.
Reply
Robert Beatty
| #
Hi James,
I share your concerns about bird strike, and several other aspects of wind turbine (WT) design. The problems can be listed and compared to an alternate design, described as a Fuselage Turbine (FT):
+ The WT mill is a large highly stressed structure with generating capacity limited by the size of blades that can be used. FT replaces these with smaller diameter blades.
+ WT cannot operate in high winds and are shut down. Gusty wind conditions may also cause a shut down. This occurs because of asymmetric loadings on blades, and a requirement to keep blade tips operating below sonic velocities. FT avoids these limitations with shorter blades, no gear box, and asynchronous electrical connection.
+ Cold weather leads to icing on the blades which can be hazardous in a number of ways. FT may reduce this hazard with defreeze additive injected into the nozzle air supply, and an enclosed fan.
+ At low wind speeds WT is 100% ineffective requiring an alternate (or stored) power supply to be always on standby for power critical applications. This problem is mitigated if wind turbines are used to pump hydro water for base load generating purposes when the wind fails.
+ Keeping the blades below sonic velocity often leads to a requirement for one or more gearbox drives, although some installations exist where customised multi pole generators are direct coupled to a WT and operate in phase-synchronisation with the reticulated grid supply. FT can use multiple fans in the same housing ensuring that no fan blades operate above sonic velocity.
+ Large Wind Turbines have mechanical controls to ensure they always ‘point’ correctly. These can be problematic. FT self points due to the large diffuser attachment.
+ Foundation costs (particularly at offshore installations) are high and about the same price regardless of WT size. This aspect favours a more productive FT unit.
+ A moving blade light shadow associated with WT operation is a significant consideration at some locations and has precluded the siting of other units. FT has an enclosed fan eliminating moving shadows.
+ Noise levels are generally very low, but at the rural and coastal siting of many WT installations, noise is cited as having signification impact due to the incessant, throbbing, low-pitched tone. This is particularly noticeable at low wind speeds when natural noise levels are not present. FT avoids blades passing a support column. This eliminates a potential source of infra sound.
+ Birds and bats frequently die due to blade impacts at WT sites. FT has enclosed blades in a visible structure which is not susceptible to casual bird or bat contact. The large nozzle and diffuser structures may be decorated to warn off avian intruders.
Further details at https://bosmin.com//turbine/bturbine.pdf
Reply
jerry krause
| #
Hi James and Robert,
Robert wrote to you: “I share your concerns about bird strike”.
I believe that neither one of you has been a 4-H or a FFA member who has had projects to feed a young animal, to groom this young animal, and to show this young animal, and then to sell this young animal, which you grew to love, to be slaughtered and eaten. But such is life. Some wild animals and wild birds and wild fish kill other life forms so they will not starve.
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply
Colin Wright
| #
Any human animals reading this -unlike nonhuman animals- have absolutely no necessity to use nonhuman animals for food. There are no more scientists who are claiming that we do, and in fact, there is mounting evidence that using animals for food is not only the cause of many horrible diseases but that it’s also an unmitigated ecological disaster. Humans using nonhumans for food causes nonhumans to suffer and die. Causing unnecessary suffering and death to animals is morally wrong. Nonhumans are not capable of understanding nor adhering to a human moral code. We are.
There are over 100 million humans on this planet -including myself- who consume a 100% plants-only diet and almost all of those identify as Vegan. You should join that movement.
Learn more:
https://legacyofpythagoras.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/are-humans-superior
Reply
jerry krause
| #
Hi Colin,
My remark was about people can have different opinions and life styles. And you and others should not lecture them on how they should live and what they should eat. DDT had almost eliminated malaria until its use became forbidden; now many humans get the opportunity to suffer from this disease again or to take ‘malaria shots’. You can explain to other PSI readers why its use needed to be forbidden.
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply
Andy Rowlands
| #
Very good points James Taylor.
Reply