Short term
Wind generators have been redesigned to reduce bird kill. It is important to develope other ways to generate power, it is also important to make sure this is done with the least impact on the environment. This should not be an either or problem and people really need to understand the impact of reducing a population of birds that are in the food chain.
An example of the impact on the environment by bees is instructive in showing how much we depend on the acts of the bees. Bees are an important pollinator and domestic bees are also used to pollinate crops and orchards. If bees die out then the food we eat is endangered. There is a problem with bee colony collapse, a large segment of the domestic bees have died for reasons not understood. The good news is that bees seem to do better in an urban invironment than agricultural uses.
In this windmill case, birds eat a lot of insects that would eat more crops and reduce yields of those crops. If too many birds were killed in the rush for cheap power and we have to spend more money on pest control and subsequently more for the food we eat, then the real cost of wind generated power is higher than just the power produced.
I am not for or against this wind farm, I just want people to understand that things are not as simple as they appear on the surface and we all should be alert for unintended consequences.
