[paganel]

Some of them kill a lot of birds and bats.

On top of that, they of course need access roads for maintenance crews to come do their thing once in a while, if located in a former pristine environment that isn't ideal. To say nothing of when the construction actually takes place, again, if it all happens in a pristine location then it's not ok.

[nine_k]

House cats kill an order of magnitude more birds and bats than windmills. Practically no one calls domestic cats ugly, or suggests to ban them.

Access roads required for wind generator maintenance are neither large nor busy: there's no fuel to bring, and no ash to take away.

[melagonster]

I hope people don't let their cat go to outside. problems are problems.

[wkat4242]

Cats belong outside where possible. And birds have predators, it's just nature.

[Johnny555]

Birds have predators, but most predators don't have humans to shelter them at night, feed them when food is scarce so they are always well fed when they hunt, and take them to the vet to protect them from disease, parasites, and heal their injuries. And human development has pushed out most of the predators that would keep cat populations in check (like coyotes)

[samplatt]

Indoor cats live longer and have fewer health issues. Sorry kitty, I like the idea of native wildlife existing and less vet bills more than your freedom.

[catiopatio]

Safety over freedom and happiness certainly is an increasingly common way of viewing the world.

[nine_k]

It's not safety. It's more like extermination: domestic cats kill to play, not to eat. They have plenty of energy, compared to wild animals, and vets keep their life longer and more healthy. So the balance goes even more off.

(I love cats, and keep two. They have their serving of fresh air in the fire escape.)

[smegger001]

yes but we killed off or drove off many of those predators.

[samplatt]

I've always been suspect of the 'kills birds' argument. I lived near some turbines on an extremely windy coast, and never EVER saw any dead birds anywhere near it.

Daily cleaning up the evidence with ruthless efficiency or just FUD by the NIMBYs?

[mrguyorama]

Some wind turbines in some places kill some birds sometimes. There is research going into reducing it with different blade coatings or paints. Fox news and AM radio turns this into "Wind turbines kill thousands of birds" as if they suddenly care about birds like some make love not war hippies.

It's an issue, but if they were that concerned about birds they would be screaming about glass windows and skyscrapers.

[wasmitnetzen]

The 'pristine location' you're talking about was most likely already formed by humans. There's barely any location on earth which hasn't been significantly altered by humans already. It's an arbitrary standard.