Wind power is booming, largely due to a search for energy from sources other than fossil fuels, such as petroleum and coal. But some people have growing concerns about wind power. (Perkins) Turbine blades strike and kill flying animals each year, including bats and migrating birds. For instance, an estimated 214,000 to 368,000 small birds may be killed by turbine blades each year. (Perkins) Other critics think that the forests of turbines are just plain ugly. And many people who live near wind farms complain about the whooshing noise made by the rapidly whirling blades.
This article is important because it states the downside effects of wind energy. Like every project, wind energy does have its downsides. One of the major downsides is that the wind turbines tend to kill many birds that happen to be flying by. A good way to fix this would be to make more offshore wind turbines. That way, it will be harder to kill bird species.
Gosh, I hadn’t thought of bird killing as a problem with wind energy. I think wind energy can be really good, even though there are downsides. Which is worse: the possibility of harming flying creatures, or using fossil fuels for energy? Its a difficult question and we are going to have to prioritize what we value in the environment. I do not think having only wind and solar energy is necessarily a good thing because that can disrupt the environment too, and it is important that we do not rely too much on one resource. However, we can’t not use a good resource. The harm it may be causing animals is small compared to the damage other forms of energy might have on the environment. Do you think there is another way to extract wind energy without using sharp blades?
I think that this article does quite a good job of showing both the negative and positive aspects of wind energy. Though wind energy is quite beneficial additive of energy in terms of environmental factors revolving around green house gases, there are some grim repercussions revolving around animal life. Personally, I think that there should be incentives to improve the wind energy industry to prevent hurting wildlife.
I’ve only ever heard about the positives of wind energy so it was interesting to hear about the negatives. Do you think that wind energy is still worth it, given all these downsides?
I heard this a couple years ago while taking chemistry and I’ve always thought it was so sad how birds or any living thing flying in the air is harmed by these windmills. Although I do think windmills could be good, do you think that they are worth keeping around considering it harms our nature?