A wind energy company has pleaded guilty after killing at least 150 eagles

[Timjoebillybob]

I suppose technically they don’t pump the water, but they are used to pump water.

Technically that would be a windpump. Windmill comes from wind powered grist mills.

 

[d.kaufman]

Windmills don't pump water, windpumps do. Windmills mill grain.

Never seen a windmill mill grain. That has always been done by a watermill. At least all the ones I've seen

 

[Ingomike]

This seems to me to be the use of the word, that once was a specific, to express a wind driven power source.

 

[Thor]

It's not just eagles. I worked with these tax sucking bastards (not for them...generally against) till I retired 6 months ago. The last number I heard was 2.6 Trillion birds slaughtered. Putting in a wind farm is like introducing a new apex predator into the environment; but somehow that is never part of the environmental analysis.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

This seems to me to be the use of the word, that once was a specific, to express a wind driven power source.

Is this your first day here?

 

[Timjoebillybob]

Never seen a windmill mill grain. That has always been done by a watermill. At least all the ones I've seen

Milling grain was one of if not the earliest uses. Hence the term "mill".

This seems to me to be the use of the word, that once was a specific, to express a wind driven power source.

Pretty much. Similar to kleenex being used for any facial tissue or wet wipe for any moist towelette. Or CCW for any states license/permit whether concealing is required or not. Or clip used for magazine. Except windmill has been used for pretty much any wind powered machinery for so long that it's common usage and dictionaries will list the definition as including pumps/turbines/etc.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

I see we are now environmentalists. So it's no longer Ok to kill endangered owls and such?

I think what is getting most people is the hypocrisy, use "green energy" that kills millions to trillions of birds a year in this country alone and claim that it's environmentally friendly. Where if a farmer or other landowner wants to cut down a patch of woods or drain a swamp on their property... Not to mention if someone took out a protected predator that is killing your food supply. It wasn't that long ago I remember black vultures being discussed on this site.

 

[OZZY.40]

I have no doubt they do. Just seems to me that if these things are the gift from God the greenies would have us believe, they’d have a dash board on their websites to show us at any given time just how much they’re saving the planet at any given moment.

That seems like a good idea but most people wouldn’t understand why output levels would vary day to day. Say you have a 5 Megawatt solar farm and on a cloudy day it’s only producing less than 1 megawatt, most people would not understand that clouds impact solar panels. Same with a wind farms.

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” George Carlin

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

That seems like a good idea but most people wouldn’t understand why output levels would vary day to day. Say you have a 5 Megawatt solar farm and on a cloudy day it’s only producing less than 1 megawatt, most people would not understand that clouds impact solar panels. Same with a wind farms.

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” George Carlin

Of that I have no doubt. Some people can’t master turn signals yet we have them anyway.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Of that I have no doubt. Some people can’t master turn signals yet we have them anyway.

That's why I just leave my turn signal on all the time. So I don't forget.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

That's why I just leave my turn signal on all the time. So I don't forget.

Smart.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Smart.

The emergency flashers are even better! Is he going left? Is he going right? There is no wrong answer!

 

[Thor]

Never seen a windmill mill grain. That has always been done by a watermill. At least all the ones I've seen

Ever been to Holland? Seen pictures? Holland, Michigan even...

De Zwaan Windmill | Holland, MI

Flour that is stone ground in our windmill "DeZwaan" is available for sale in the Molenwinkel Shop in the windmill.

www.cityofholland.com

 

[Ironhippie]

What about The BrightSource plant out in California. They were killing a bird every two minutes, even had a nickname for em, called them smokers because they would get incinerated in flight.

 

[KLB]

It's not just eagles. I worked with these tax sucking bastards (not for them...generally against) till I retired 6 months ago. The last number I heard was 2.6 Trillion birds slaughtered. Putting in a wind farm is like introducing a new apex predator into the environment; but somehow that is never part of the environmental analysis.

That's nonsense. There probably haven't been that many birds on Earth in your lifetime.

 

[Thor]

That's nonsense. There probably haven't been that many birds on Earth in your lifetime.

Eh, the bird census isn't in for this year...maybe it was only billions. It was a lot more birds than any other non-'green' industry would get away with slaughtering.

The apex predator thing isn't just about birds, it's about every step in the food chain including lizards and bugs...even plants as every other step in the food chain is impacted by the change.

 

[actaeon277]

How many birds are killed by wind turbines?

Bird-smart wind energy can lessen the impact

beyondnuclearinternational.org

Wind Turbine Bird Mortality: How Many Birds Do Turbines Kill?

The rapid spread of wind turbines will see millions of birds killed each year. But this pales when compared to deaths from other hazards.

www.energymonitor.ai

 

[Timjoebillybob]

That's nonsense. There probably haven't been that many birds on Earth in your lifetime.

Well considering there is an estimated 7.2 billion in the US alone... But yeah that number is probably off.

 

[BE Mike]

To put this in perspective, looks like domestic cats kill tremendous amounts of birds and mammals each year. No politician will touch this with a ten foot pole, if he or she wants to stay in office. https://petkeen.com/how-many-birds-do-cats-kill-statistics/

 

[JettaKnight]

If it flies, it spies.