

Birds Bursting Into Flames over State of the Art Solar Plant - cyriacthomas
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/birds-bursting-into-flames-over-state-of-the-art-solar-plant

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dammitcoetzee
Just to put the number of 1,000 to 28,000 birds per year in perspective. If
you do the math for birds killed by house-cats (1.3-4 billion birds a year in
US) into the square miles of the united states. You end up with house-cats
killing 350 to 1078 birds per square mile per year. Of course this is a silly
approximation, but large numbers are harder to grasp than small ones without
mental tools like this.

Anyway, while killing birds with solar death beams is bad, I don't think it's
bad enough to halt the progress. I mean, at least build a solar death array
that can outdo mittens.

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davidy123
Better technology should avoid or not have collateral damage. Technologists
should strive for something that's better in every way. What if the issue is
not addressed, and it turns out these solar farms particularly attract one
type of bird, and that population is destroyed, and it has repercussions on
other populations?

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jscheel
Won't the birds just eventually go around the solar farm. Just like they
eventually learn not to eat the poisonous berries, and not to get caught by
house cats?

