On the Death of Birds

Andrew's commenters point out that although the avian death toll in the Gulf is sure to be staggering...its not the worst thing we've done to birds:

The American Bird Conservancy estimated in 2003 that between 10,000 and 40,000 birds were killed each year at wind farms across the country, about 80 percent of which were songbirds and 10 percent birds of prey. "With the increased capacity over the last seven years, we now estimate that 100,000 – 300,000 birds are killed by wind turbines each year," said Conservancy spokesman Robert Johns. By our math, that comes to 274 to 822 birds a day killed by wind farms across the country.

And then this nugget from another reader:

40,000 or 300,000 birds is a lot - but a tiny number compared to some other causes of death. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates (PDF) that somewhere between 97-196 million birds are killed annually by collisions with building windows.

So you're saying we need to sue the glass manufacturers? The glass manufacturers would probably just say we should blame the window sales companies. The window companies would say we need to blame the contractors who installed the windows. The Republicans would say that the window installer's union is the root cause. And eventually the glass manufacturers would argue that only a single bird has actual been killed by collisions with building windows.


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