Wind energy is an important tool for reducing carbon emissions. Hundreds of thousands of wind turbines now operate globally, and despite recent challenges in some countries, analysts predict that wind power capacity could grow tenfold by 2050.
Wind energy is an important tool for reducing carbon emissions. Hundreds of thousands of wind turbines now operate globally, and despite recent challenges in some countries, analysts predict that wind power capacity could grow tenfold by 2050. But wind turbines can have significant environmental impacts, particularly on birds.
In 2021, the American Bird Conservancy estimated that collisions with wind turbines in the United States killed about 1.17 million birds that year, a fact often cited by wind power opponents. In response, climate activists often frame turbine deaths as a red herring, pointing out that many more birds are killed by free-ranging domestic cats or by flying into windows, and that climate change fueled by carbon emissions is a significant threat to birds.
Ornithologists who study the problem agree that cats, windows, and climate change are serious threats to birds but say wind farm impacts must also be taken seriously. Turbines can kill different types of birds than windows and cats do — for example, ecologically important seabirds and birds of prey that breed slowly and whose populations can’t quickly recover from losses (large raptors usually fly too high to hit windows). Research shows that some birds are strongly repelled by wind turbines; they won’t fly or feed within miles of them, and so lose large areas of habitat. As wind farms proliferate, experts say, they could increasingly disrupt bird breeding and movements, including long-distance migrations.
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
A red kite at a wind farm in Sieversdorf-Hohenofen, Germany. Red kites are particularly at risk of colliding with turbines. (Photo Credit: Patrick Pleul/DPA)
