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Yes, Wind Turbines Kill Birds, but Fracking Is Much Worse: A recent paper finds that hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas has a negative effect on bird populations that is greater than the harm done by wind farms, as Sammy Roth writes in the Los Angeles Times. The paper, by a University of Geneva environmental economist, is a clever bit of whataboutism, touching on a common objection to wind farms—that wind turbines kill birds—then turning the tables on the fossil-fuel-friendly people who often elevate concerns about bird deaths. “It’s definitely important that we limit the harm to wildlife from wind turbines, solar farms, transmission lines and other clean energy projects, by putting them in the best places and designing and operating them as safely as possible,” Roth writes. “But it’s more important to build as many clean energy projects as we can, as fast as we can. There’s no greater threat to animals, plants or humans than a rapidly heating planet.”