Illegal Blackjack Games Not The Only Way To Get Burned In Vegas

 
In an ever more energy hungry world a generating plant that uses the power of the sun is having an unfortunate impact on some of the local wildlife.

Anyone who has sat down to a blackjack tournament in Vegas knows that it’s very easy to feel the heat of the desert as the dealer flips another card, but gamblers aren’t the only ones in Nevada who are experiencing a burning sensation… and before you ask, no, this isn’t an article on the rates of STDs within sin city’s entertainment and leisure industry, although that too might involve a few feathers of various hues getting heated, as birds in the area are bursting into flame.

The sudden incineration of our flying friends is as result of the BrightSource Energy Plant out in the Mojave Desert that is utilizing the ever-lasting supply of solar energy to generate enough electricity for over 140,000 homes. To do this is uses some 300,000 mirrors of garage door dimensions to focus the rays of the sun onto collection towers and is an amazing example of some of the environmentally smart strategies being employed around the world to harness renewable energy sources.

However, the massive oil lobby ranged against such projects is quick to point out that the $2.2bn plant has wreaked havoc on local wildlife with the deaths of up to 28,000 birds a year estimated by some experts as birds chase the bugs on which they feed into the burning beams of the generator. Of course this is most lamentable, but given cats kill over a billion birds a year in the United States and don’t generate electricity, one does wonder who is making this fuss and why.

The desert outside Las Vegas has seen mushroom clouds and mafia burials, it seems unlikely that a few fried birds is going to stop the ongoing recovery that the city is carving out of the post-recession world, much in contrast with it’s poorer cousin Atlantic City, and if these new wildlife fans are outraged the owners of the plant, that include Google, are more worried by the tendency of the massive array of mirrors to make it hard for pilots landing in Los Angeles, and indeed Las Vegas itself, to see properly.