i love birds as much as the next guy, and i think it was a giant red herring, all that fuss about them.

penny farthings squashed worms and bugs too, after all...

thanks for your work in this exciting field.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

but I have to take issue with this:

"In fact, worldwide there is no evidence that windpower has a significant destructive effect on flying wildlife."

This is simply not the case. There is growing evidence certainly in Australia that for reasons that even the best science can't quite work out yet, there is a behaviour response from some birds that puts them at risk from wind turbines. Poor siting has also been a major issue, including in Australia the siting of one windfarm directly in a rare bird species' migration path. There has also not been sufficient work done here on the mortality risks to bats.

My point would be that windpower is overwhelmingly a beneficial development, but proponents of it risk losing credibility when they play down known impacts from them such as bird and bat kills. These impacts are  far and away best tackled by open recognition that this is a key impact that needs to be mitigated, through better science & design, and ensuring that there is sufficiently strong regulation to stop the inappropriate siting and design of wind turbines - such as in bird migration paths.

As it is, sadly in Tasmania, that particular windfarm if it can't work out a way to stop the far higher than estimated wedge-tailed eagle deaths, will be a significant contributor to the extinction of the species, the largest raptor in Australia. I commend the windfarm operators for taking the steps they have, but it incontrovertibly highlights that your statement is incorrect.

"This can't possibly get more disturbing!" - Willow

Those ancient turbines, most of which are still spinning, were the birth of the modern wind industry.  They should be revered as the musem pieces they are, and not be compared with the technological revolution which produced the modern 90 meter diameter turbines of today.

If these are museum pieces, then WHY aren't they in a museum?

I live in Minnesota.  Tonight we are in a state of shock because a major highway bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River.  I am furious at the sort of people who think it is OK to delay replacement of infrastructure.  It makes NO DIFFERENCE if the wind industry was born in Altamont Pass (an utterly absurd claim, BTW).  The fact is that these old turbines are AT LEAST 15 YEARS out of date.  Now they are simply a PR disaster.

"Remember the I35W bridge--who needs terrorists when there are Republicans"