(Washington, D.C., February 2, 2011) American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the nation’s leading bird conservation organization, said today that the build-out of wind energy proposed by the federal government to meet a Department of Energy target of generating 20% of the nation’s electricity through wind power is expected to kill at least one million birds per year by 2030, and probably significantly more.
ABC considers the one million estimate, which is based on a 2005 paper1 and widely cited by the wind industry, as likely a significant underestimate of bird mortality. For example, a more recent 2009 estimate by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) indicated that approximately 440,000 birds were already being killed per year2. At the time, 22,000 turbines were in operation representing 25GW of installed capacity, a fraction of the 300GW of production capacity needed to meet the 20% by 2030 target. Wind farms are also expected to impact almost 20,000 square miles of terrestrial habitat, and over 4,000 square miles of marine habitat by 2030, some of this critical to threatened species.
h/t to GregO
You wonder how long this strange alliance can last. Environmentalists, in the traditional sense, seek to preserve.
The Malthusian misanthropists seek to destroy.
Unbelievable what gets considered “green”. Mere possession of an eagle feather by a non-native American is a felony, a coal mine is fined for a dead sparrow, yet these gigantic industrial bird choppers are good to go.
As wind energy is the least green energy on the planet, we will be total fools to try to install much more than we already have. With 14,000 defunct wind turbines already out there, we should fix them or simply admit this is a stupid idea and go work on thorium or next generation nuclear reactors.
The Sun sets, the wind dies.
You cannot build a reliable energy supply from unreliable energy sources.
“ABC supports bird-smart wind power” – - uhhhhh, and that would be WHAT? Is this a Darwinian construct? i.e., only those birds smart enough to avoid the choppers will survive, thus making average bird-dom smarter?
“bird and other wildlife impacts” – - – this may be the first correct use of that verb by an ecologist
BTW, does anybody really believe a greater sage grouse can actually fly high enough to be “impacted”??
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/rainforest-fungus-eats-plastic-potentially-solving-landfill-problems?cmp=tw