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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The worst part is it's not just 'they'll kill whales, trust us', it's that they've cited a study in a journal to support their claim - but the journal says they have no record of the study being published or existing in the first place!

It does make you wonder whether someone has cooked the argument up with a language model along the way, and it's just fabricated a citation as they are wont to do.

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.

I heard that the invisible vibrations from the turbines spinning makes your dick slightly longer and girthier

It’s true, look at the Dutch

Hey pal, their eyes are up there (like, waaay up there).

I was at the coast in the summer, not far from an offshore wind farm, and I didn't see a single whale in the sky, checkmate libs.

That reminds me the pamphlet stating that cows milk would turn when a train passes too close to them.

This commercial had people thinking spaghetti grows on trees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ZtGoXkI58

Reminds me of the prank where Australians tricked foreigners to believe that kangaroos keep their offspring in a fucking pouch.

Australians make up bullshit all the time about their animals though. Look at the platypus (otter with a beak strapped on), quokka (it's a kids plush toy), and the "drop bear" (not actually a bear but a carnivorous marsupial).

Well you'd have to be fool enough to believe Australia is a real place to begin with.

The BBC did an April Fools day joke along these lines too. Perhaps one is based upon the other.

That so ridiculous it's funny as hell.

My understanding is any time you have a construction project in a marine environment you can potentially put the local fauna at risk.

The specifics matter, however, and there are ways to mitigate risks.

This reeks of astroturfing. I guarantee you the people behind it do not give a fuck about whales or marine life in general. They're the same ones spilling crude oil on the great barrier reef.

In Australia there's a push for nuclear even though we have access to some of the best renewables on Earth and it's way more cost effective to use renewables here too.

We even had some annoying ass shill kid doing the rounds in the media with a fake "movement campaign" proportioning to be the "voice of the youth". It turned out the little bastard was the kid of some wealthy family with direct support and ties to the paid off political party here who's pushing nuclear for their masters. He was sprung when some nerd compared the code in his website to that of the political party and large parts of it were identical.

I would love someone to make a fake campaing of how oil is killing us all... wait

Some people are just fodder for manipulation and to do the bidding of others who only care is their profit.