January 29, 2013

CHART: Which Kills More Birds, Cats or Turbines?

Malingering/Flickr; vaxomatic/Flickr


Last month Fox News reported on the “grizzly deaths” of 500 songbirds in West Virginia. Behind the fell deed: a wind farm, caught red-turbined. “To date, the Obama administration… has not prosecuted a single case against the wind industry,” the Fox reporter laments. Opponents of renewable energy love to trot out the risk wind turbines pose to birds, and some engineering work has gone into making them more avian-friendly. But a new study released today in Nature shows that if you really want to protect birds, forget about wind: You need to lock up Kitty.

Chart by Tim McDonnell

The study, conducted by scientists from US Fish & Wildlife and the Smithsonian, found that “free-ranging cats… are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for U.S. birds and mammals.” No word yet on whether the Obama administration plans to prosecute these renegade felines.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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