填空题 2. Birds vs. Environmentalists?
In Wyoming, it's the sage grouse (松鸡). In Colorado, it's the lesser prairie chicken. In the Northwest, it's the Washington ground squirrel. Across the country, a growing number of species are finding themselves at the center of a new battle being waged by environmentalists and developers. The issue—species being threatened by encroaching (侵占) human development—is nothing new, of course. (46)
Wind energy has been touted as cost-effective to produce clean energy as well as jobs. (47) But not every environmentalist is happy about that development. Critics charge that wind-energy development can cause habitat fragmentation-a displacement of a species that can eventually reduce its numbers-as well as the deaths of birds and hats that collide with the wind turbines'(涡轮) massive rotor blades (动叶片). (48) That s a low estimate, says Michael Fry of the American Bird Conservancy(美国鸟类保护协会). According to his group, turbines kill three to 11 birds per megawatt (兆瓦特) of wind energy they produce. Right now, there are about 20,000 megawatts produced in the United States, which can mean-at worst-up to 220,000 bird fatalities a yean (49) Whatever the number, the wind industry is hoping to avoid damaging its green reputation and is struggling with finding the fight solution.
Portland has been experimenting with curtailment at its 34.5-megawaa Casselman, P

• a., wind farm with some success, reducing bat mortality by 70 percent in a 2008 study. The company, which created the industry's first Avian and Bat Protection Plan in 2008, has also pioneered a radar technology that detects approaching migratory birds and shuts down the turbines accordingly. (50) "The best option is to avoid putting it in those locations in the first place, "says Doug Inkley, a senior scientist at the National Wildlife. Federation.
  Members of the wind industry think that the issue may be, well, overblown. It's not wind energy versus nothing; it's wind energy versus some other form of energy which will also invariably have an impact—potentially more of an impact than a wind project.A. Now, the natural habitat that nurtured wildlife, 300 species of birds, thousands of species of fish, flora, and other ecological systems is rapidly disappearing.B. What is new? The encroachers aren't the usual suspects but the environmentally friendly wind-energy industry.C. But environmentalists argue that these measures aren't enough, especially in areas like the Texas coast.D. That promise, thing with new government subsidies, has helped wind turbines pop up on hills and fields throughout America.E. A 2007 study by the National Academy of Sciences puts the number of birds killed each year at about 20,000 to 30,000.F. With wind energy expected to produce 20 percent of this country's energy by 2030, output would grow tenfold and, environmentalists worry, deaths could increase at a similar rat