BIRDS AND ENERGY, THE BIGGER STORY

CHART: How Many Birds Are Killed By Wind, Solar, Oil, And Coal?

Emily Atkin, August 25, 2014 (ClimateProgress)

“In response to growing accusations from both conservationists and conservatives that renewable energy sources like solar and wind kill too many birds, U.S. News and World Report has compiled data on which energy industries are responsible for the most bird deaths every year…[B]oth low-range and high-range estimates for how many birds are killed by those electricity sources…[E]ven with high-range estimates for renewables compared to low-range estimates for fossil fuels, fossil fuels are responsible for far more bird fatalities than solar or wind…The results should be taken with a grain of salt…[because there is] no standardized way of doing it…[and] some of the research used is outdated, and does not take into account that renewable power stands to increase in the United States…

"For oil and gas, both the low and high estimates came from a Bureau of Land Management memo from 2012…The high estimate [for solar power] comes from the Center for Biological Diversity, whose estimate is just from [one solar farm] in California. Bird deaths from solar farms have been estimated to be relatively low…[The coal] bird death numbers came from a peer-reviewed study in the journal Renewable Energy…[and it included] everything from coal mining to production — and bird deaths from climate change that coal emissions produce. Together, that amounted to about five birds per gigawatt-hour of energy produced by coal, almost 8 million per year…[N]one of these numbers hold a candle to cats, which are estimated to kill 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds every year.” click here for more

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