DocAndersen
I have some reviews yet to post. I am sorry for taking so long on some of these. I also owe the community an updated twitter and facebook sharing post.
Today I wanted to have a conversation in regards to solar power and wind power. In part because of a comment that was left on my last clean energy post. It is one that has to be publically addressed. Frankly, it is a little misleading for information such as that to be out without an answer. Based on the need for both sides I will be presenting both sides, and from there we will introduce the remaining information that was not shared in the comments.
- Wind turbines kill in the US between 120,000 and 300,000 birds per year (in 2016) that number is between 20 and 30 % lower in 2018 than in 2016. It is however not a reason to reduce wind power use.
- Wind turbines tend to be in areas with good wind flow
- Birds tend to follow the wind during migration
- However, this argument is one of the most blatant attempts to mislead people. Globally all the wind turbines in the world combined kill less than 4 million birds. Yes, 4 million is a horrible number and if you think 4 million dead birds is a number that should prohibit the building of wind turbines we need to talk. Domestic Cats kills as many as 8 million birds globally as a year. Oh yeah, and WINDOWS kill more than 500 million birds.
- Ban Wind Turbines, Cats and Windows!
- Solar power does create waste products. The life of a solar array is 25 years. The amount of waste produced after recycling is between 20 and 40% once you remove the iron in the frames, which by the by and the copper in the wires the remain 4 pounds per panel results in roughly 16 to 24 pounds of waste, now if you can that throughout a 25-year roof array, the result is significantly less.
- As we move along and build better solar arrays, the waste continues to go down.
- Your car produces more waste every 1000 miles than that solar array.
- The coal-fired 10KWh power plant produces more waste than that ins a single hour.
- Time to stop solar arrays based on the waste? Well, Cars, Buses, Airplanes, and coal power plants are always needing to be removed.
There are no names with this post on purpose. I wanted to point out the reality of numbers. There is a reason that the national Audobon society isn’t screaming about wind turbines killing birds. Windows and house cats have a far greater impact on bird populations. Large Oil companies are paying for Solar Waste Studies. Why? They didn’t invest in solar power companies.
Our world is in ecological parallel. Cats and windows are reducing our bird populations every year.
Cars, Buses, Airplanes, and coal-fired power plants are pumping poison into the air.
Just so both sides are presented. If you LOOK UP the statistics, the average solar array reduces the impact of a home or business by more than 1 ton of Carbon waste per year. That is 2200 pounds. To be clear to end up with 24 pounds of physical waste that ISN’T TOXIC or DANGEROUS in anyway versus the 50,000 pounds of waste not produced by the family or business using solar makes for an interesting argument. As in, how do you argue the other side?
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Question of
Did you know cats kill more birds than Wind Turbines every year?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
More birds die colliding with Windows (by a lot) than hit by wind turbines and killed by house cats combined!
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Do you drive more than 1000 miles a year?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Have you ever seen smog so thick it looks like fog?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
When you read a study, do you check to see who paid for the study?
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Yes
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No
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Question of
Should we ban bird killers like house cats and windows?
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Yes
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No
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This may be your best post yet
It is important to present both sides of the conversation!!!! Thanks for the high praise, Alex!
it’s so good, it reminds me of Swift. and your data is solid as always…
Sadly I found out i misread the numbers of cat kills. By a lot, as in cat’s kill between 400 million and 1 billion birds a year.
I read the monthly number and thought it was the yearly number.
I think it is hilarious when some in your face vegan has cats
That is pretty funny overall. In your face vegans are hard to deal with sometimes.
very easy, just return the favor
The problem for me is who the vegan is, in my life.
I have limited options with the person.
you gotta be tactful with them, but it is okay for them to be obnoxious to you?
Right now, yes. Someday it will be too much but for now, I have to keep my mouth shut.
as long as you’re okay with it
Very interesting data. Even in our country, there are great difficulties in installing wind turbines, and this precisely because of birds. I think that each side has good and bad features.
Honestly, at this point, I don’t understand the bird’s argument. The bird killing numbers I got came from the ASPCA. I’ve now been sent a newspaper article that points out that cats may kill more than a billion birds a year.
Powerlines may kill another 500 million birds.
The 4 million (which is not the most recent numbers) killed by wind turbines is honestly a joke.
I agree, but for opponents is good every so unreasonable argument
My father always told me to check the source. Determine if the source is motivated and figure the motivation out.
Nobody lives in a cave anymore.
If they do, we don’t hear from them often.
Wind power plants can be created to kill less than they do.
I believe domestic cats are part of the problem of our New Zealand bird species. The domestic cat is responsible for many of our New Zealand birds that have become extinct.
The worst offender in the cat population is the feral cats…Cats that have been abandoned by their owners and left to fend for themselves.
In my opinion, people should have to get a license to say that they are responsible as a pet owner before they are allowed to own any animal.
Yes, they should find other ways more natural for power. We have hydro electric power in New Zealand and natural thermal power in Wairaki power plant and yes, we have wind power as well, I have seen some hills with wind turbines.
There are some people who have solar power on their roof tops.
Also, there is talk of getting some type of turbines placed in our harbours because the tides are so fast going in and out.
All excellent points, thanks Pam! Wind turbines are actually improving constantly, the numbers for 2016 was around 320,000 birds killed in the US. The numbers now have gone down from there!
I shall put in a post about natural power plants in NZ. I share the same opinion as you
Hopefully, it pops up in my latest tab. I always forget to go check and see if people have new posts!
It is sad how birds have to suffer this way. Thank you for bringing this topic to our attention.
My primary point was that wind turbines are not killing birds at a horrific rate. I have even been chided that my numbers (taken from ASPCA) are too low for the number of birds killed by cats. USA today put the number closer to a billion birds killed yearly by cats.
My votes got messed up, we shouldn’t ban cats, lol. Joke aside, there’s a huge problem with all the paid studies nowadays. There’s probaly no perfect system, sometimes we should choose the lesser evil, but for that we need to be informed.
You are right Ellie! Just wanted to get the facts out about what is really killing birds globally.
I would never harm a cat. While I don’t love cats, my family does.
Very nice and informative post
what information did you find useful?