Overheard a guy at the coffee shop blaming solar panels for killing birds and I lost it

I was grabbing a latte last Saturday and this dude says to his friend that wind turbines and solar farms are worse for birds than climate change. It just got under my skin because I read a study from Cornell last year that says building collisions kill around 600 million birds annually in the US alone, way more than renewables. Anyone else have to bite their tongue when people throw out numbers that sound logical but aren't backed up?

3 comments

3 Comments

knight.dylan1mo ago

Yeah, "wish more folks would check the data" is basically my life motto, but here I am still sharing unverified memes about cats wearing tiny sunglasses. I mean, I've definitely been that guy at a party who hears someone blame solar panels for bird deaths and just stands there nodding while my brain does the math from that Cornell study. Then later I'll go home and realize I forgot to look up whether my own building even has bird-safe glass. It's like I'm a walking contradiction - I'll get heated about misinformation but my browser history is literally "how to train a squirrel" from last week.

the_jana1mo ago

A buddy of mine works at a wildlife center and she told me about a red-tailed hawk they rehabbed that had flown straight into someone's picture window. Meanwhile she's never once treated a bird tangled in a solar panel or hit by a wind turbine blade. People just latch onto the first scary thing they hear without asking whose cat is actually roaming the neighborhood all night.

cole_baker1mo ago

Buildings and cats kill way more birds every day than renewables ever will. People just repeat what sounds right instead of looking at the actual numbers. Wish more folks would check the data before spreading myths.