This is literally keeping me awake:
George Will (on This Week): Right. And -- and, by the way, wind farms kill a lot more birds daily than are probably going to be killed in this oil spill.
Long, deep breath...
Ok, George YOU get all the birds killed by wind turbines and I get all the birds killed in this oil spill.
Let's go get those numbers and we'll meet back here at this blog.
Ready, set...
Wait, wait. I also get the reptiles killed by the oil spill (because last I heard, a wind turbine has never killed a sea turtle or a water snake). OK, so birds on your side, birds AND reptiles on mine. Off we go again.
Sorry. Hang on. Fish. LOTS of fish. I know they're not as cute and cuddly as the birds, but, y'know, if we're going to have an HONEST discussion about the environmental damage caused by various energy forms...
So, again, birds on your side... birds and reptiles and fish on my side.
(What? No, George, flying fish are not affected by wind turbines.)
George... my apologies... I know you are working hard to get the numbers, but... you're going to need to add insects and plant life and echinoderms and crustaceans.
Again, not cute... but they're all important parts of the food chain, so... y'know... they get sick and then are eaten by creatures higher up on the food chain and... y'know... (makes the "dead" face.)
So, birds on your side... birds and reptiles and fish and insects and plant life and echinoderms and crustaceans on my side.
Um... sea mammals. Dolphins. Porpoise. REALLY cute, so that's gonna leave a mark on your ledger.
Oh, shit! Shit! This is really embarrassing. I blanked on one last thing.
They're two legged creatures... stand upright... use tools... create deities to help them sleep at night... some of them (from the gulf coast region actually) wear diapers as a sexual fetish (but now I digress)... PEOPLE. I believe people are also affected by oil spills. Not many will be KILLED but... oils spills kill jobs (malfunctioning wind turbines, not so much). Oil spills kill tourism (again... not a problem with wind technology).
So, birds on your side...
...birds and reptiles and fish and insects and plants and echinoderms and crustaceans and people on mine.
George Will (on This Week): Right. And -- and, by the way, wind farms kill a lot more birds daily than are probably going to be killed in this oil spill.
Dishonest fucktwit.
h/t to Scarce for the video. It's at the 50 second mark or so.
Oh, and thanks to itzik shpitzik here are the damning facts based on a 2002 study for every 10,000 birds killed by human activity, here's what's responsible:
Buildings 5500
Cats 1000
Other 1000
High tension lines 800
Vehicles 700
Pesticides 700
Communication towers 250
Wind 1
George? Your numbers?
Me on twitter: JeffLieber