CFACT’s national campaign to raise awareness about the negative environmental impacts that wind turbines have on wildlife is going exceedingly well this semester.
For decades now, left-wing environmentalists and climate alarmists alike have endlessly advocated for taxpayer-funded wind energy projects. Its inability to compete with more reliable and time-tested sources of energy production like natural gas or nuclear fission aside, proponents remain firm in their claim that wind energy is a nature-friendly way to keep the lights on.
Except its not.
As CFACT policy experts have pointed out for years, wind turbines are a menace to bird populations that live or migrate near them. On average, these towering eyesores slaughter an astounding 150,000 birds annually, and that’s just in the U.S. alone. According to the American Bird Conservancy, if just 20 percent of our nation’s electricity was produced via wind turbines, that number would jump to an unprecedented 1,000,000 dead birds every year.
That’s exactly why our CFACT Collegians have taken to their college campuses throughout the country to bring this issue to the forefront of young Americans’ minds, via a fun and interactive stunt. Cleverly named “Angry Birds’ Revenge,” the carnival-style game encourages participants to help the birds claim revenge on the wind turbines (represented by stackable cups and pinwheels) for their fallen brethren by using a slingshot to launch a plush bird into the “turbines.”
At the University of Wyoming, CFACT student representative Maggie Immen used the game to prompt productive conversations with other students regarding the consequences of local wind farms in her home state. “The game sparked a lot of conversation. Much of the conversation was with people who had no idea what’s happening in the area, and they asked a lot of questions. Some people were very pro-wind energy and there was some healthy debate. One student that stopped by was from Nigeria and came to the table to talk about the pros of socialism and “green” energy. He was very respectful and left the table thinking about capitalism and other energy options.”
Meanwhile at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, CFACT Collegian Eaan Tang used the game as a means of distributing informational flyers covering the negative impact wind turbines have on our feathered friends. Speaking with dozens of students over the course of several hours, Eaan was able to effectively cast doubt on the “renewable” energy source in the minds of many of his fellow students.
“Everyone who played the game loved it, their faces lit up when the ‘turbines’ came crashing down. Most of the people we spoke to had no idea that wind farms were so harmful to bird populations. We even spoke with several students who considered themselves left-wing and environmentally conscious (pictured below), they were shocked and appalled by what we had to tell them. It felt good to know that they and other students walked away with a different perspective on wind energy than what the media and their professors had led them to believe.”
Thanks to the ongoing efforts of CFACT Collegians across America, the next generation of Americans won’t be so quick to embrace this ineffective and avian-adverse source of energy the next time a politician tries to sell them on it.
