I have read a number of articles and comments that verge on the disingenuous (if not downright hysterical) about wind turbines being "standing Cuisinarts" as far as birds are concerned. I have seen wind farms in action, and I have seen how slowly the blades turn, even in fairly brisk winds. And I have to ask, even if placed in known migratory bird paths, how many birds are actually likely to get whacked by a slow-moving rotor blade, anyway?

A simple mind experiment says not very darned many. I don't know of any actually surveys that have been conducted (there must be some), but anecdotal evidence, at least, says that a bird smacked by one of a wind turbine's rotor blades is a rare bird indeed. The ground around these wind turbines is not littered with dead and injured birds, as many would have you believe.

There is a great amount of NIMBY-ism about wind farms. But I, personally, think that a relatively open, windswept area populated by wind turbines with rotors moving at their usual stately pace is rather pleasing aesthetically. Considerably more pleasing to the eye—and the mind—and the lungs—and the outlook for the future regarding climate change—than a coal-fire power plant belching particulate matter and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Don Firth