Why are wind turbines bad?

Answer 1

wind turbines are bad because peoples health have been negatively impacted. they have had headaches, depression, blood pressure has increased, and no sleep. some family's have had to suffer with the wind turbine on there property. also animals have had to find a new home because of the wind turbine, it would be to loud. and imagine the poor people having to were ear plugs because they were so loud. also with the dust flying around how would people want to even go outside there home. this is why i think wind turbines are BAD.

Answer 2

Yes, wind turbines kill small numbers of birds and bats every year. Except in very rare situations, the numbers killed do not put species in any risk.

Birds

Birds are killed by human causes in very large numbers every year. The largest human-related causes of deaths are:

• birds flying into lighted windows - 97 to 976 million birds/year
• cats - 500 million birds per year or more
• high-tension wire collisions - up to 174 million birds per year.
• pesticides - 72 million birds per year or possibly many more
• cars - 60 million birds per year

These pale before the threat of habitat destruction from, for example, acid rain caused by burning coal, or loss of mountain roosts caused by ripping down mountains to extract coal.

Way down at the bottom of the threats to birds are wind turbines. They potentially kill 33,000 -- that's thousands, not millions, tens of millions or hundreds of millions -- birds every year in the US. They do have a slightly higher tendency to kill larger birds than smaller birds, which needs to be managed. Siting of the wind turbines in the Altamont Pass is unfortunate as it is a raptor migration route. That said, elimination of older wind turbines that were used as roosts by raptors in favour of modern monopole towers has helped reduce the toll there, as have other mitigations.

In general, song birds migrate at 2000-4000 feet, well above the level of wind turbines. Sea birds have been shown to avoid wind turbines based on radar and thermal imaging studies; one study found that millions of sea birds migrated past an offshore wind farm annually, and only two were killed.

There is ongoing work being done to reduce bird deaths, including assessment of lighting and blade colour.

Bats

Bats are also killed by wind turbines, generally a few bats per turbine per year in areas where bats are common, but rarely if ever through direct collision. Studies by the University of Calgary show that bats are very able to avoid wind turbine blades through echo-location. Unfortunately, when they fly behind moving wind turbine blades the difference in pressure disrupts their hearts and lung, an impact known as barotrauma.

As with birds, bat populations are not put at risk by wind turbines. However, bats are put at risk by many of the same things that put birds at risk: pesticides and habitat destruction among them.

The biggest threat to bats at present is white-nose syndrome. This has caused 300,000 deaths in one cave in the US alone, much more than the total bat deaths related to wind turbines.

Where wind turbines impact sensitive populations, there have been interventions as significant as nightly shut downs of the entire wind turbine farm due to a single bat death.

There is ongoing work to reduce bat deaths through radar, ultrasonic and higher-blade startup speeds.

Answer 3

Yes, I have seen a red-tail Hawk fly into a wind turbine blade when I was hunting in eastern WA. I have heard that the birds are focused on the ground hunting for rabbits and pay no attention the things above them and fly right into the spinning blades of death.

Answer 4

Wind turbines are considered bad by some due to concerns about their impact on local wildlife, such as birds and bats. Additionally, wind turbines can be seen as unsightly by some individuals and may have negative effects on property values in certain areas. However, wind turbines are generally considered a cleaner and more sustainable source of energy compared to fossil fuels.