Windmills Are Stripping America Of Birds

The horrific reality is that, in the United States alone, “eco-friendly” wind turbines are killing an estimated 13,000,000 to 39,000,000 birds and bats every year!” – Paul Driessen

These figures may appear to be exaggerated, but in reality what was exaggerated was the minimizing of bird and bat mortality, as Big Wind had managed to own the mortality statistics, enabling their massaging into “acceptable” levels (the 440,000 birds a year often quoted for the US). Indeed, monitoring contracts routinely signed between windfarm operators and ornithologists typically stipulate that reports to be prepared by the latter will be the property of the former. And to make the cover-up airtight, “gag clauses” prohibit hired ornithologists to disclose their findings in any way or form.

Think of it that way: if average mortality were of one bird per turbine per day (not an unreasonable hypothesis), for 39,000 turbines in the US (IEA figure for the end of 2011) this would come to 365 birds x 39,000 turbines = 14,235,000 dead birds per year for the US.

And if wind turbines killed about twice as many bats as they did birds, which is likely because 1) scientists have found that bats are attracted to wind turbines, 2) most monitoring studies come up with much higher figures for bats than birds, and 3) just watch this video where bats are struck, or “barotraumized” to death in front of your eyes:

… then, average bat mortality would be: 365 x 2 x 39,000 = 28,470,000 dead bats per year.

For birds and bats taken together: 14,235,000 + 28,470,000 = 42,705,000 killed yearly in the US.

Read More at Canada Free Press . By Mark Duchamp.

Photo Credit: DeusXFlorida (Creative Commons)