save the whales!

Last week, a certain Orange Man sat down with former comedian Joe Rogan for 3 hours of calm discussion of many subjects.   Among things the guest mentioned were the skyrocketing numbers of whale deaths along the East Coast, which is dirty with those modern 3-blade windmills, with plans for many more.  As Orange Man put it, the windmills are driving the whales crazy.  Each windmill makes loud low-frequency repetitive vibrations.  And how do whales communicate?  Through low frequency sound. The creatures are so musical they have many records, including some big hits, with the 1970 album “Songs of the Humpback Whale” credited with spurring the “save the whales”movement (1).  And scientists have only recently figured out how they sing (2). So the poor cetaceans are being shouted at continually by the damned windmills!.   Worse than hip-hop blaring from the big scoreboard in the Big House before a game (3).  And you thought they were just chopping up birds! Estimates are that each windmill kills 4-18 birds a year, with a rough annual total of about 5 million bird deaths per year worldwide (4). And the majestic birds – eagles, raptors, cranes – constitute a large portion of the victims.

One of the most effective tools used by the environmental movement has been identifying an endangered species adversely affected by whatever project they’re trying to stop.  Before Global Warming captured all the attention, was there a more compelling environmental slogan than “Save the whales”?  Seeing these two benighted causes at cross purposes, ya gotta wonder how bloody the conflict will get.  Downright poetic.  Pass the popcorn.

Here is a documentary from X with all the facts.  Serious people know this is a bad thing (5).  

References

1. May M.  Recordings That Made Waves: The Songs That Saved The Whales.  NPR 12/26/14. https://www.npr.org/2014/12/26/373303726/recordings-that-made-waves-the-songs-that-saved-the-whales

2. Briggs H and Gill V.  Whale song mystery solved by scientists.  BBC 2/21/24.  https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68358414

3. Ike B. the tyranny of game day. WordPress 9/14/24. https://theviewfromharbal.com/2024/09/14/the-tyranny-of-game-day/

4. Ritchie H.  How many birds do wind farms kill?  Sustainability by numbers. 1/31/24.  https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/wind-power-bird-deaths

5. Thrown to the wind.  X  10/26/24 https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1850039477638660244