Hacker News Reader

Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

How can we deliver when there are laws where anyone can block wind energy only because they don't like how it disturbs the beauty of the landscape?!?

Back home in Portugal there is no discussion, wind parks are built and that is it.

View on HN

Yup -- people don't realize that if you want to get large-scale projects done, you have to step on a few people's toes.

And kill scores of birds of prey and wildfowl?

All the countries that have won wind parks over Germany still have their nature just fine.

Even better, their nature appreciates the amount of green energy being generated, that Germany still is catching up to.

Same thing happens even if you build a house. Every square foot of land human take, removes a square foot of land for animals, bugs, plants, fungi. It may be less impactful to the human psyche when it's indirect damage, but it's still damage.

Bald eagles, buzzards, griffon, sea eagles, red kites, ospreys, harriers, merlins, eagle owls, kestrels, Egyptian vultures and so on do not fly in to houses on a daily basis.

What a ludicrous comparison.

It's not about flying into them. It's about removing livable and forageable space. It indirectly leads to the death and reduction of living things.

The focus on the visceral thought of a bird flying into something is what I meant about being impactful on the human psyche.

Are you against windows as well? Those kill billions of birs.

Wind turbines kill such a small number of birds compared to cats, cars, windows, powerlines etc.

Start by banning cars, then we can have the wildlife discussion.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com