Birds vs. wind power
Sun Journal, www.sunjournal.com 25 April 2011Sun Journal, www.sunjournal.com 25 April 2011
Sun Journal, www.sunjournal.com 25 April 2011Sun Journal, www.sunjournal.com 25 April 2011
Commercial wind turbines kill an estimated 440,000 protected migratory birds each year in the United States, according to Dr. Albert Manville, a senior wildlife biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington, D.C. He says that will increase with the exponential growth of wind energy. I wonder how many additional unprotected birds are killed.
In Maine there is a plan to have 360 miles of wind towers. Here, we are destroying mountaintops and slaughtering birds to accommodate “climate change.”
Tourists come to Maine to enjoy the natural scenic beauty and wildlife. The tourism industry generates about $4 billion of annual income and hundreds of thousands of jobs. Is the heavily subsidized unsustainable endeavor for wind power worth sacrificing tourism and the loss of birds, from eagles to songbirds?
Town ordinances need to weigh the benefits of wind power and the negative impact on animals and humans, including the speed of the 151-foot blades on a 262-foot tower sounding like airplane engines, environmental vibration and constant light flicker from rotating blades, never mind the property devaluation.
I am not ready to sacrifice birds, tourism and scenic beauty for an unnecessary add-on for the power grid.
Diana Holcomb, Norway
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/04/26/birds-vs-wind-power/