From MasterResource
By Robert Bradley Jr. — May 31, 2024
“[Hannah] Ritchie ends with suggestions for better results for wind’s avian mortality problem, including ‘Turn off wind turbines at very low speeds when bats are around … Don’t put wind farms in high-risk areas for birds and bats … Paint the turbines Black … Play alert noises to bats and birds to deter them.’ But … these things limit wind siting, increase costs, and/or annoy local neighbors.”
A social media post by Hannah Ritchie (sustainability researcher, University of Oxford) on industrial wind power is worth revisiting. She works within the climate alarm/forced energy transformation narrative (“Bird species are under threat from climate change”) but considers the question:
It would be worrying, then, if a move to low-carbon energy increased pressures on bird populations. That’s a common concern as countries move to wind power.
After noting that “cats, buildings, and cars kill far more birds than wind power,” and windows kill more birds than wind turbines, she gets to the real question:
Wind power is a threat to particular types of birds, particularly birds of prey
It’s not just the total amount of birds that are killed that matters, but what types. If a particular species of bird is disproportionately affected it could have real impacts on population dynamics and risk of extinction.
A study by Chris Thaxter and colleagues (2017) looked at the collision rates of different bird species from a large literature review. The documented rates of collisions for different groups are shown in the chart below.
If you’re like me, you will have no idea what most of these groups actually mean. So I’ve translated a few of the most impacted orders:
- Accipitriformes: birds of prey including eagles, vultures, hawks, and kites.
- Bucerotiformes: birds such as hornbills and hoopoes.
- Ciconiiformes: storklike birds such as herons, shoebills, and hammerheads.
- Charadriiformes: shorebirds such as waders, gulls, and auks.
In short, birds of prey such as eagles, raptors, and hawks; shorebirds; and storklike orders are at much higher risk of collisions than other families, such as songbirds. This disproportionate risk has been found across many other studies.
These species can be at a higher risk for several reasons. First, they will often use ridgetops to get lift from the wind. Incidentally, this is also a good spot for wind turbines. Second, they are often migratory birds; if wind farms are in their migratory route this puts them at higher risk. More indirect impacts of wind farms – which might not be reflected in death statistics – is their effect on the disruption of migratory patterns.
While the total number of birds killed by turbines is low compared to other hazards, the threat to particular species is more concerning. We need better mapping of key hotspots for these species so that wind farms can be deployed in suitable locations. More on how we can reduce these deaths later.
Ritchie ends with suggestions for better results for wind’s avian mortality problem, including:
- Turn off wind turbines at very low speeds when bats are around
- Don’t put wind farms in high-risk areas for birds and bats
- Paint the turbines Black
- Play alert noises to bats and birds to deter them
But … these things limit wind siting, increase costs, and/or annoy local neighbors. And she failed to note something else: the avian mortality problem of industrial wind turbines is entirely incremental. The very structures are government-enabled and not necessary for a healthy grid—quite the opposite, in fact.
Still, it is good to see the climate crowd dealing with this issue.
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Dealing with the issue?
Their idea of dealing with the issue is to claim that cats kill more birds than windmills do. Now I’ve had outdoor cats in our family for several decades, and so far, not one bald eagle or red tailed hawk has been dragged home.
Quite the contrary, fast forward to 1:30.
Well, simply put Cats Do kill more birds than Windmills. BUT…
There are about 500,000 Wind Turbines installed globally.
While there are over 600,000,000 cats in the world.
Cats kill more birds only because there are more cats than turbines (>1000:1 ratio)
Put 600,000,000 Wind Turbines in the world and likely more than 2B birds will be killed annually
It’s all about potential exposure
It all comes down to Exposure Potential
There are 600 Million cats globally
There are hundreds of millions of buildings globally
There are 2.2 Billion vehicles globally
There are literally Trillions of windows globally
While
There are just 500,000 Wind Turbines globally
Potential Exposure!
I’ve lived in 22 different houses/apartments with more than 220 windows and not a single bird kill
I’ve driven 17 different cars totaling over 1.2 million miles and no bird kills…but definitely bug kills
I’ve had 7 cats and no known bird kills…mice and rats definitely
It is an assumption (unlikely to be fact) that cats kill more birds. I am aware of no reliable data in support.
In my experience I have noted that very few cats are efficient bird hunters and that most attempts end in failure. They are very good at catching mice, however.
Yep … Cats find it difficult to take wing and chase down birds
I have personally witnessed a cat catch a bird, an introduced species known as the “house sparrow”. I have NEVER seen a cat catch a hawk or an eagle, at any stage of development. As for you, however, I want to see data and references for this quote.
We had a Siamese that.could and would take Squirrels but then again, squirrels don’t have feathered wings
that being true you should see how many turkeys and chickens the raccoons will x-up
We had outdoor cats in rural Scotland and in urban Derby. Birds of any size were rarely brought home. Usually mice and small rodents. One of the Scottish cats brought a lot of twitching lizard tails as trophies.
In Derby I’ve seen raptors take garden birds on 2 or 3 occasions. It’s my view that Magpies and Grey Squirrels, populations of both have increased in urban areas, are a far bigger problem due to their nest raiding activities
Another relevant analogy for CO2 reduction is ““How Many People Do Nuclear Power Plants Kill? Compared to COVID 19 and Gain of Function research?” Consider all of the deaths associated with Renewable Energy sources from Mine to Grave of those facilities. No One Died at TMI
Then there is the constant retort of Article 3 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that “Establishes that “parties should take precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent, or minimize the causes of climate change and mitigate its adverse effects.” Causing Inflation and National debt in every country on the globe to skyrocket to the moon.
All of this has one and only one purpose. and it is not to reduce CO2. If at that same conference the UN had required that EVERY new power plant be a NPP we would not be worrying about the CO2 level today, but there would be a lot fewer Billionaires.
Given that Green Prayer Wheels are intermittent, bird and bat kills are just another reason to abandon them.
If they kill all the bats, there won’t be any more Covid viruses 😉
and Fauci will be out of a job…
Keep up, or at least keep quiet…
https://nihrecord.nih.gov/2023/01/20/fauci-bids-nih-farewell-after-half-century-service
…and he’s not gone yet, so essentially you have posted background noise.
“……and he’s not gone yet, so essentially you have posted background noise.”
He’s no longer employed with NIH, which is undeniably the “job” referenced by bnice. He still teaches and lectures, thankfully.
Having a bunch of mini-Fauci mal-educated grubs around…
… does not inspire confidence in the future of medicine.
All the oily blob ever posts is background nonsense.
And mosquitoes (and other insects) will have a field day. We could have a headline of “Rise in Malaria caused by climate change” all because of more windmills.
Less rabies maybe.
The solution to Wind Generation and Bird Kills…
Install the Wind Turbines Underground😃
They’ll still produce the same amount of useful energy and you don’t need to worry about decommissioning them later on😘
What about the Albatross !!!
It might be true that cats and windows kill more birds than windmills do. However, they are going to have to increase the number of windmills by more than a factor of 100 or more.
Also owls, have personal experience…
There are designs that markedly decrease the potential of bird, bat, and insect kills but there is little or no use of them. I recall an article on a Spanish design that was producing about 1/2 the output per machine but also cost 1/2 as much to build and required about 1/2 the space per machine. I’ve seen reference to various other designs that eliminated the particular problem of this article and much or all of the problems leading to health issues.
Does anyone know with any certainty if all these other designs have major real faults making them poor choices for their primary function or if there is just some kind of major bias against alternate designs?
The wind turbine apologists have always grossly understated the avian death toll from wind turbines. My experience of the wind lobby in Scotland is that I have never met a bigger bunch of lying scumbags in my life.
This link shows bird mortality per turbine in various countries.
Spain: 333-1000 birds/bats per year
Germany: 309 birds per year.
Sweden: 895 birds per year.
https://windmillskill.com/blog/spanish-wind-farms-kill-6-18-million-birds-bats-year
Assuming that the average wind turbine kills 500 birds per year, the annual death toll in the USA is 35 million since America has 70 thousand wind turbines. Moreover, the birds being killed are not the small birds being killed in gardens by cats, but tend to be much larger birds with lower reproductive rates.
My post, Explaining Wind Turbine Lethality, is displayed at the bottom of the post. It explains why wind turbines kill so many birds and bats. The answer is …
… bugs.
Go figure.
w.
That’s not why offshore wind turbines kill seabirds.
Yeah, offshore turbines kill whales.
As I recall, killing whales is never OK. But now I guess if the reason is to save the earth for humans, then it is.
Better question: How many of the dead birds at wind farms are dead because they consumed insects and small animals that were poisoned by the chemicals, greases, oils and herbicides used with no oversight around and in the equipment locations?
You may never have enough wind farms. With the variability of weather there will never be enough contingency. There is no turning up the wick or spare capacity, only constant fears of short-falls and jeopardy, uncertainty for adventurers to exploit in sentiments and profits. The next bill is the maintenance of these H G Wells monsters, their mechanical decay. At what point will maintenance expenditure outstrip/deflect installation costs?
Bat watchers at every wind farm? uh… bats fly around at night- you can hardly notice them- but the bat watcher will be out every night – as soon as he/she sees a bat – push a button and shut down the entire facility! Does that seem extreme? Well, bats have caused big problems for forestry in some areas like Wokeachusetts. A problem called white nose syndrome- that spread among some bats here- then the wackos said no timber harvesting can occur in areas of certain species of bats. Much of the logging industry was shut down for a few years over this- a completely insane solution. For one thing, nobody knows where the bats are with exceptions. Nobody has shown evidence that stopping logging would benefit the bats. In the 50 years I was a forester here, one stupid thing after another interfered with the industry. As of now, there’s not much left- and that’s the current wacko objective- stop it all, and they call it proforestation- which will help save the planet!
A forest was never a permanent installation. With no people around whatsoever, a forest will burn periodically (the rate depends entirely on the predominant tree species), and in fact the burns are essential to several species of trees (I know some pines, maybe other species?), without the fires, their seeds won’t germinate.
Not all forests burn periodically. The forests of the American northeast are often called “the asbestos forests”. They do burn sometimes during very dry weather- usually started by careless people, sometimes lightning. But just like in the dry forests, well managed forests are kept thinned with less brush, dead wood, etc. to burn. The solution to forestry problems isn’t less forestry, it’s more forestry and better forestry.
Level the playing field. Impose fines for bird kills equivalent to those imposed on an oil sands company a few years ago.
The revenue stream would feed the worlds poor.
I can’t remember the last time an eagle flew into my window, we did have a demented robin attacking his reflection in that window but that was his problem not mine.
Where is the National Audubon Society when you need them most for the sake of the bird population?
Very nice. Ritchie notes that cats, buildings and cars kill far more birds than wind power and windows kill more birds than wind turbines. I suppose that is true but what is also true is cats, buildings, cars and windows don’t produce electricity. It is a sophomoric comparison. Using that logic I could claim that we need more nuclear because automobiles kill more people than nuclear. At least she admits it’s a problem.
I don’t think, the categories (sorry, pun) of avian species that are threatened by industrial turbines, are in any danger from the domestic cat. Certainly not at a couple of hundred feet up in the air nor a mile out to sea. If a person deliberately killed or even interfered with a bird, even one of the commonly found birds in the garden, I don’t think the ”cat” excuse would absolve them of their wicked deed.