How a false claim about wind turbines killing whales is spinning out of control in coastal Australia

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 460 points –
How a false claim about wind turbines killing whales is spinning out of control in coastal Australia
uk.news.yahoo.com

How a false claim about wind turbines killing whales is spinning out of control in coastal Australia::Windfarm critics claim projects will harm marine life. Scientists say that’s not backed by credible evidence

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Heard this argument in NJ from the NIMBYs as well. It killed our offshore wind project, unfortunately.

Giant propellers in the sky kill whales got it, but propellers underwater are fine right? Behind a large cargo ship right?

Makes sense as to why airplanes no longer use propellers as well.

And those underwater propellers makes a lot of noises, reducing the ability of whales to hear mating call.

They argument was that the sonar scans of the ocean floor was hurting whales, which while plausible, ignores that the navy is doing that constantly and the floor scans are temporary.

I’ve heard this in NY. What do these people think? That the whales are so annoyed by the sounds that they commit suicide?

There are no noise-cancelling headphones to stop the U.S. Navy's 235-decibel pressure waves of unbearable pinging and metallic shrieking. At 200 Db, the vibrations can rupture your lungs, and above 210 Db, the lethal noise can bore straight through your brain until it hemorrhages that delicate tissue. If you're not deaf after this devastating sonar blast, you're dead.

not sure about whales, but sonar is dangerous if its loud

There have been necropsies of beached/stranded whales which found bleeding in the ears which would make them deaf and unable to echolocate for navigation or finding food. But generally it's blamed on Navy sonar, not temporary construction activity.

Thou shalt not suffer a NIMBY to live.

They really do ruin everything, don't they

They sure do. I find this movement pretty self defeating though. Sea level rise will destroy the communities that fought against this

Less likely during the selfish fucks lifetimes though

This is more than just NIMBYs in Australia unfortunately. There's a huge campaign pushing nuclear energy here over renewables. The current government is pushing renewables while the opposition party is pushing nuclear. There are a few mining companies and things who stand to make absolute bank if we went nuclear and the mining companies have a lot of political control here. The opposition party is largely in their pockets too.

This article is just one example of the relentless and unashamed attacks on renewable energy here in the complicit media. They have discovered that they can straight up lie to the public and us idiots will swallow it hook line and sinker without question. That's why you get such ludicrous articles like this here in Australia.