House Cats - Killing Over 1,000 Times More Birds Annually Than Wind Turbines

I love birds just as much as the next guy with a soft spot for all things living, but I've gotta say: it is about damn time that someone puts the argument that 'wind power is bad because turbines can kill birds' into perspective. A recent article in the New York Times brings to light the truth that the number one killer of birds (and killing about 1,136 times more birds annually than wind turbines) is the ever-so-loved house cat.

As more attention shifts towards wind power for being one of the cleanest, most renewable sources of electricity to date--and a great option to hopefully someday replace coal fired power and natural gas as the leading producer of electricity in the US--the industry sadly has fallen to scrutiny from fellow environmentalists (of the animal rights variety). This scrutiny focuses around the seemingly one negative environmental aspect of wind power; turbines pose a threat to birds. But have any experts yet looked into the number of birds that have died from flying into cooling towers at coal fired power plants, or from oil spills (yes this has probably been studied haha) or from the ingestion of chemical waste and byproduct pollution of other electricity production technologies that have affected the food birds eat or the habitats in which they live?

As the New York Times reports:

The American Bird Conservancy estimates that up to 500 million birds are killed each year by cats — about half by pets and half by feral felines. “I hope we can now stop minimizing and trivializing the impacts that outdoor cats have on the environment and start addressing the serious problem of cat predation,” said Darin Schroeder, the group’s vice president for conservation advocacy.

By contrast, 440,000 birds are killed by wind turbines each year, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, although that number is expected to exceed one million by 2030 as the number of wind farms grows to meet increased demand.

500 million cat-related annual bird-deaths compared to the 440,000 associated with wind turbines? That means that wind turbines, comparatively, cause only approximately .08% of the total bird-deaths that are caused by the beloved house cat.

The article continues:

Yet wind turbines often provoke greater outrage than cats do, said Gavin Shire, vice president of the Bird Conservancy. “The idea of a man-made machine chopping a bird in half creates a visceral reaction,” he said, “while the idea of a predator with its prey in its mouth — well we’ve seen that on the Nature Channel. People’s reaction is that it is normal for cats to kill birds.”

Household cats were introduced in North America by European colonists; they are regarded as an invasive species and have few natural enemies to check their numbers. “They are like gypsy moths and kudzu — they cause major ecological disruption,” Dr. Marra said.

Now i'm not trying to go off on a rant about how bad house cats are (though personally I am a dog man), I think they are great! I just think it is important for folks to keep in perspective that the number of wind turbine related bird-deaths should really not be the killing point, preventing folks from supporting wind power. All electricity sources have negative aspects! Coal, natural gas and nuclear power all pose massive environmental threats--from threatening freshwater supply, to disrupting riparian habitat, to endangering animal life, and to atmospheric degradation. So for the most significant environmental concern regarding wind power to be the slight disruption of bird migratory patterns (especially in comparison to the surprisingly massive number of birds killed by the house cat!), I gotta say, wind power still looks like the best option for clean, renewable electricity to me.