by Vijay Jayaraj
Last year, the New York Times ran “50 States, 50 Fixes,” a sprawling series of articles purporting to offer solutions to environmental, especially climate, challenges across America. Writing for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, I’m challenging that series, one by one, demonstrating that many of the supposed environmental fixes cause their own environmental problems.
The article focusing on Illinois lamented the tragic deaths of birds colliding with McCormick Place and other high-rise buildings in Chicago.
The emotive article painted a grim picture of avian mortality in the concrete jungle. The concern for these creatures seems noble. Who among us does not grieve the loss of God’s creation? Yet this empathy exposes a rot at the heart of the modern environmental movement.
While the Times wrings its hands over glass facades in Chicago, it has spent two decades cheering for an industry that slices eagles and other birds, and bats, out of the sky with industrial efficiency. The newspaper of record is not merely inconsistent; it is complicit in a global slaughter. It demonizes skyscrapers while canonizing wind turbines—machines that have turned our skies into killing fields for the very species the author claims to cherish.
The Wind Industry’s License to Kill
The American Bird Conservancy estimates that wind turbines kill between 700,000 and one million birds annually in the United States alone. Yet the industry is often granted quotas, i.e. literal licenses to kill. The matter is more concerning when these turbines are given a free hand in slaughtering species that are under concern or endangered, as acknowledged by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s largest, most diverse environmental network.
How does this happen? The enormous size of industrial wind turbines can be deceptive. At optimal speeds to generate electricity, about 10 to 20 revolutions per minute, their blades look as if they’re turning slowly. But their tips are moving at 180 to 200 miles per hour—too fast for birds to avoid.
Consider the iconic American golden eagle, a species of high conservation concern. From 2013 to 2024, golden eagle mortalities from wind turbines more than doubled, rising from 110 to 270 annually.
In 2022, ESI Energy, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges after its turbines killed at least 150 eagles. Most of these majestic birds were hacked apart by turbine blades. The company agreed to spend up to $27 million on measures to prevent further deaths, but only after being forced by the courts.
They are not alone. Duke Energy pleaded guilty to killing 14 golden eagles and was forced to pay fines. PacifiCorp was fined $2.5 million for 38 golden eagle deaths. These are not isolated accidents. They are the cost of doing business in the green economy.
Researchers warn that if the current growth rate of the wind industry continues, it will have devastating implications for raptor populations. The hazardous volume for these birds in lower- and higher-risk zones increased by 198 percent and 119 percent, respectively, over the same period.
A systematic review of 84 peer-reviewed onshore wind studies, covering 160 specific cases, reveals a catastrophic disruption of wildlife. Published in Biological Conservation, the study reports displacement in most cases: 63 percent of bird populations, 72 percent of bats, and 67 percent of mammals were driven from their habitats. Some species were displaced up to several kilometres from the turbines.
A 2025 study reveals that “Wind and solar farms overlap with the distribution ranges of 2,310 threatened amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles, accounting for 36.3% of the world’s 6,362 threatened vertebrate species.”
Why weep for a sparrow hitting a window in Chicago but ignore the eagle severed by a blade in Wyoming or the 6,362 species endangered by renewable energy sources?
The answer, surprisingly, lies in theology. Modern environmentalism has become a secular religion. In this worldview, “Climate Change” is the original sin, and carbon dioxide (CO2) is the demon. To exorcise this demon, the alarmists demand sacrifices. They are willing to offer up the very wildlife they claim to love at the altar of renewable energy. This is idolatry.
But here’s the truth: Since the 1800s, our planet has gotten a lot greener! Mild warming combined with higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has boosted plant growth and leaf cover across huge areas of the Earth. Crop yields have broken records. Deserts are shrinking. The very CO2 they blame has helped the birds thrive.
Yet the Times and their ilk reject this truth. They prefer a narrative of doom. They push for unreliable wind energy that destabilizes grids, raises electricity prices for the poor, and slaughters millions of birds and bats. They call this “saving the planet.” I call it a lie.
They will never question the wind industry, because that industry is the sacrament of their false climate religion.
We must reject this hypocrisy. True stewardship means looking at the data without ideological blinders. It means acknowledging that wind turbines are apex predators of the sky. It means admitting that the push for “Net Zero” is causing real, tangible harm to biodiversity.
Don’t get me wrong, the Chicago birds deserve attention. So do the birds being murdered around the world. Moral consistency demands faithfulness in both cases. Until the Times confronts that inconsistency, its environmental concern remains performative.
Vijay Jayaraj is Research Associate for Developing Countries with the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation and a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition. He holds a M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, postgraduate degree in Energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a B.S. in engineering from Anna University, India. He served as a research assistant at University of British Columbia’s Changing Oceans Research Unit in Canada.
