Unexpected Downside of Wind Power [wind turbines = bird cuisinarts]

Wired News | October 14, 2005

[John Jorsett]

Story can't be posted here due to copyright complaint, but it's interesting reading, so click this link to go directly to it. And by the way, 'unexpected' downside? Who couldn't predict that a rapidly-spinning blade in the sky would put the smackdown on birds?

[Zeroisanumber]

Can't we just get a few thousand of those "Scary eye" baloons?

[Fierce Allegiance]

Ping without comment or even reading it.

[Bahbah]

Bird cuisinarts. LOL. Following in the footsteps of the Bassomatic.

[UB355]

Not to worry, here is the kind of math these people use, and if you don't believe me go to.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1497245/posts

Records kept by searchers who collected dead and dying birds showed that 172 birds representing 23 species were found around the base of the tower. Ugoretz said scavengers, including crows and cats, had already taken another 200 or more. That's why he estimated the number of birds killed at around 400. Searchers didn't search the heavily timbered area north of the tower.

[Wiseghy]

This is also a study in how hard it is to please environmentalists.

All forms of energy generation have significant downsides, that can be mitigated but not eliminated through technology. The environmental movement and its NGO's seem to be wedded to being an obstacle to ALL forms power; hardly a pragmatic or helpful position for society.

[stm]

These freakin' environmentalists want their cake and eat it too. They want "green" energy that does not pollute the environment or require fossil fuels. But when these windmill kill a few birds, now they want them banned.

Sooooo typical. I wonder when the likes of Ted Danson is going to come out and say something else very stupid about the environment....

[Maximus_Ridiculousness]

Update on the windmills near 580 - looks like the envirowackos are winning...

[John Jorsett]

More than being against all forms of power generation, I get the sense that they're enemies of industrial civilization itself, or in some cases the entire human race. I think there's a subset of "environmentalists" who would be very pleased if mankind vanished from the face of the earth.

[Larry381]

This could actually lead to a more intelligent breed of bird since all the stupid ones get chewed up in windmills.

[Al Simmons]

Can somebody knowledgeable explain to me why we don't just build a sturdy wire mesh around the blade - like you see on fans - to prevent the birds from being whacked?

It seems like a cheap solution to the problem. Are these people who design these things just idiots, or is there an engineering problem with this?

Thanks

[SeriousSassy]

Not to worry! The guv'mint is already studying the problem in connection with the wanton murder of bats:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1423937/posts

[WarEagle]

hardly a pragmatic or helpful position for society

They don't care about society. All they care about is "biodiversity" and "the environment". Pragmatism does not enter into their thinking in any way, at least about creatures other than themselves. They don't give a damn about human survival, except their own.

Funny, if you compared these people to the so-called robber barons of the early 20th century you'd probably get punched in the face, but that comparison points out the prevailing attitude - the public be damned, so long as raptors and big-horn sheep don't get waxed.

Un-freaking-believable.

[TYVets]

If a wind turbine is a bird cuisinart at last we have found the answer of how to rid the country of starlings and sparrows.

Bring them on !

[Dasaji]

What about all the fish that get filleted in hydro gen plants/dams??? Aren't these people worried about the fish, too? And how do they count them? Are there cats around to scavenge, also?

[headstamp]

New from Rovco! The Bassomatic 76!

Hey, that's good Bass!

[Calvin Locke]

Well, aside from the added costs, it would seriously degrade the efficiency of the turbine by cutting down on the
actual wind turning the blades.

AND, by adding that much more area to the face of the turbine, you'd have to increase the structural integrity of the
turbine base for the really heavy winds.

And what's to stop birds from breaking their necks on your proposed screen, anyway? That's off the top of my head, with no particular organization.

[TYVets]

Update on the windmills near 580 -

Does this latest total include Lynx fur and the bird bodies brought in from PETA dumpsters ?

The count may go much higher !

[GladesGuru]

Wind power is something of a holy thing to the enviro-whacko's. And they are also, as Dr. Alston Chase so clearly defined, pantheists/animists/transcendentalists.

In a word pagans.

Pagans believe the Gods must be sacrificed to - in light of which, I hereby humbly suggest that blade tips be strengthened in wind mill in a very public location, and that enviro-whacko's be regularly sacrificed to the God of the Holy Wind Mill.

Since this is my idea, can I have TV rights? Pretty please!

[fizziwig]

The best place for wind power is just off the coast...say near cape cod...right in view of wealthy lefties like cronkite. Fewer birds dead....wealthy lefties annoyed...works for me!

The height of enviro wacko hypocrisy was when off shore oil platforms were to be removed and the environ wackos who wanted them removed complained that they were being removed.....because the rigs had formed a nice reef to support nearby sea life....