Little known fact: The total from the "land based wind turbines" (234,000) is actually just the total from 1 single Turbine. And it's also not taking into account the radiation and noise pollution that those suckers emit, nor the air pollution each one dumps into the atmosphere! Every single turbine dumps the equivalent of 8 years worth of CO2 from 900 cruise ships, every 3 seconds.
You know these little fans on a stick that kids play with and propeller nerd hats? Kill all the bees. True story.
Here's what the BBC says about it: "A study published in 2009 looking at the US and Europe estimated that wind farms were responsible for about 0.3 bird deaths for every 1GWh of electricity generated, compared with 5.2 deaths per 1GWh caused by fossil-fuelled power stations. It said this would equate to the deaths, every year, in the US, of about 7,000 birds caused by wind turbines, 300,000 by nuclear plants and 14.5 million by power plants using fossil fuels. It's a fairly old study so this may have increased with the growth of wind power in the US or decreased with better understanding of how to mitigate the risks. Another study in 2012 came to a similar conclusion, finding that fossil-fuel powered plants killed birds during mining, through onsite collision, electrocution with plant equipment and poisoning. Whatever the exact number, and how it compares with fatalities at fossil fuel plants, it's generally considered that any harm to birds could be mitigated by locating wind farms away from major migration routes and feeding, breeding and roosting spots. The UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says that if this is done, wind farms will have "minimal impacts". It says that there is a far greater long-term threat to birds and other wildlife - climate change. And it recognises the role of renewable energy in tackling this. According to the LSE's Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, "the benefits for wildlife of mitigating climate change are considered by conservation charities... to outweigh the risks, provided that the right planning safeguards are put in place, including careful site selection". It also points out that the number of birds killed by wind turbines pales in comparison to those killed by cats or traffic - although wind turbines are more likely than cats or traffic to affect rarer, more endangered birds." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48936941
Here is a Fact Check report on the issue; "In observing that “every type of energy has consequences,” Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke claimed the “carbon footprint on wind [energy] is significant.” In fact, wind power’s carbon footprint is among the smallest of any energy source. Coal’s carbon footprint is almost 90 times larger than that of wind energy, and the footprint of natural gas is more than 40 times larger, according to the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory." https://www.factcheck.org/2018/03/wind-energys-carbon-footprint/
It's kind of interesting. I'm a commercial real estate broker and I'm currently working with an entity that wants to be very much involved in the "energy" space. They really don't care what it is - oil fields, pipelines, refineries, electric, gas, nuclear, windmills, etc. Oh, and they're VERY interested in windmill energy. Meanwhile, I'm working to sell them a pipeline system in Chile. I just find it a bit curious that they're interested in ALL forms of energy. In fact, I've had more than a few 1984 thoughts. Nahh!!
This site might help you. Very cool interactive site that gives you a glimpse of the future. https://renewablenw.org/renewable-project-map/
I built wind turbines for years. I can promise you that pretty much all these findings are true. I saw way more dead birds driving I-84 out to the job than i ever did on a job or around a working wind turbine.
Cool! Now, if you could get me inside anyone's front door, I could probably get you referral compensation.
My wife worked for ODFW (oregon fish & wildlife) for years. She said that the biologists she talked to thought that bird mortality from wind turbines was an issue, especially compared to open sky, but they had a sense the mortality wasn't as bad as often portrayed. The biggest problem was that sometimes, wind farms are built directly in migratory paths. I'm not sure if that issue could be successfully mitigated though. Have to build where the wind is I guess I saw a special on wind farms and I was really amazed how big some of those turbines are. That's especially true for those 2-story nacelles on top. There was some video of guys cleaning the blades off ropes suspended from the top of nacelles. That's insane how high those guys were suspended and floating in the air. I guess there were regulations about the max wind speed allowed when they went down, but I'm sure there was gray area in those regs. I'm not afraid of heights, but the heights I'm not afraid of are measured in a few dozen feet; not a few hundred
And they produce a supersonic sound high above the frequency of the human ear that causes cancer. This is well known.
If windmills are such a dire threat to birds, I'd say oil spills are more dangerous to wildlife as well as forest fires....airplanes, trains and automobiles kill enough that maybe we should all be back on unicycles again or harnessing up the mules to the wagon