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I don't understand why this is so difficult for people to understand. Nothing is perfect. Nothing. Everything in life comes with tradeoffs. It doesn't matter how hard you try, you will never, EVER find a perfect solution.

But clearly these people don't understand this very basic concept.

Thousands of aging turbines stud the brown rolling hills of the Altamont Pass on I-580 east of San Francisco Bay, a testament to one of the nation's oldest and best-known experiments in green energy. Next month, hundreds of those blades will spin to a stop, in what appears to be a wind-energy first: Facing legal threats from environmentalists, the operators of the Altamont wind farm have agreed to shut down half of their windmills for two months starting Nov. 1; in January, they will be restarted and the other half will be shut down for two months. Though the Altamont Pass is known for its strong winds, it also lies on an important bird-migration route, and its grass-covered hills provide food for several types of raptors. "It's the worst possible place to put a wind farm," said Jeff Miller, a wildlife advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. "It's responsible for an astronomical level of bird kills."

Look, its not that I don't think wildlife protection is important. Of course it is. But at some point we have to prioritize. If everything is equally important, that means we've decided nothing is important. So I ask you... what matter more - global warming or bird migration?

Yes, of course, I know the issue isn't that black and white. But that doesn't undercut my basic point. No energy technology is ever going to be perfect. It's impossible. To create energy, something somewhere has to be transformed. It's a basic law of physics. And with that transformation comes byproducts. Often ones we don't want. Burning hydrocarbons releases trapped CO2 into the atmosphere. Splitting the atom generates hazardous waste. Harnessing hydro means diverting rivers. And harnessing wind means some birds might die. There simply is no perfect solution.

But please, do we really want the perfect to become the enemy of the good? In the grand scheme of things, aren't there more important issues than bird migration. Bird migration? We're talking about bird migration.

Read the entire article. Somewhere in there, Mr. Bird Migration starts complaining about how when the wind farm was built in the 1970's no environmental impact studies were completed. Think about that. It was the 1970's and they were building wind farms. Wind farms! But instead of praising them for being so forward-looking, this guy bashes them for not considering the birds. The birds?

Look - if they can figure out ways to modify the turbines to protect the birds, fine. I've got no problem with that. And it sounds like that's at least part of the solution. But not all of it. Because part of the solution involves turning some of the turbines off, thus generating less power. Consumption, of course, will stay the same, meaning the power will most likely be generated by burning hydrocarbons. Now really, given the state of things right now, does that really make sense? Does it really? I mean, on the one hand you have scientists and enviros running around with their hair on fire about global warming. But on the other you've got people fighting to shut down wind farms to save 1,000 birds.

And the greens wonder why no one ever takes them seriously.

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