“Thrown To The Wind” documentary exposes government destruction of marine habitat
October 18, 2023
By Paul Homewood
More on Michael Shellenberger’s campaign against the offshore wind farm projects that are killing whales.
Gradually his efforts are gaining traction – this clip comes from San Diego apparently. And he believes that Congress may soon start to investigate what appears to be blat6ant disregard for the law by the Federal Government:
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Whales?
Those of us who actually do care about our Natural World will have been dismayed by the report – “Pod of whales washes up on Yorkshire beach in ‘mass stranding” 24th Dec.
What many readers, and viewers, may have missed is the gargantuan array of giant industrial wind turbines, bristling on the horizon. Westermost Rough has 35 Turbines and Humber Gateway has 73.
The incident was reported by the BBC, and on their website, clearly showing the turbines. However, within an hour or so, the turbines were mysteriously removed from subsequent pictures.
Another sinister attempt at cover-up by the wind industry!
The North Sea has the world’s biggest concentration of offshore wind turbines, and there is ample and growing evidence that their acoustic pollution can interfere with whale communication and navigation.
I used to attend the Scottish Parliamentary Renewable Energy Group, and I read a report on bird deaths from windmills. And being prowind, it did not concern me too much, as I knew even ordinary houses killed birds which flew into them, but obviously they might be a problem for rare birds.
At a meeting of the Group I overheard the person who owned the parliamentary committee (it was basically owned by someone with money), telling another that birds weren’t killed. I said I had read research showing they were and he basically lied and said it did not happen.
It was just blatant lies. Green “energy” is filled to the brim with such lies, and so it is no surprise that they are killing whales, knowing that they were going to kill whales and then lying about it. It’s just the way they work. (Which is why I got out)
Censorship is alive and well at the BBC. Where’s Marianna Spring when you need her?
Rewriting her CV?
It’s not just whales that are affected. Corruption exists in governments, the developers, the environmentalists and the extreme environmental organisations who turn a blind eye or cover up what is going on.
You left out the press.
“However, within an hour or so, the turbines were mysteriously removed from subsequent pictures.” BBC is corrupt. Noticeably, conspicuously corrupt.
Biased Brainwashing Cult: Never knowingly impartial.
There is a story in todays Mail about 2000 odd whales dying on Americas West coast .Which of course was blamed on global warming making their food supply not available .
So it is good that these facts are still allowed to come out .
For once Jilly bring us some important news:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/18/ofgem-boss-may-have-to-go-amid-energy-complaints-incoming-chair-says
Brearley may finally get the boot at OFGEM. It sounds as though he has been a complete disaster. Let’s hope his Climate Change Act goes the same way.
This is the problem with the Left, that we see time after time, and see now with Gaza. When the Keft support something, it is perfect and cannot be criticised. When they don’t support something, it is wholly evil and can do no good. Thus in the Brexit argument, there was no discussion of costs versus benefits, simply an assertion it was all benefits. With trans people, there can be nothing problematic, so we put male rapists in women’s prisons. The Palestinians are in the right so cannot be terrorists. Renewables are right so cannot kill whales. It is an intellectual problem, an inability to deal with a world that is not black and white and to understand that everything is a trade-off.
Phoenix44 : The problem with the Left is not simply that they believe they are always right but that they always believe that the ends justifies the means.
Leftists are stuck in adolescence.
Which explains their intellectual poverty. J. Corbyn being a classic example of the breed.
Having some skin in this game I have been following this effort (The “research”) quite closely.
I am not impressed. An assortment of claims have been made with little to no evidence prior to the “research” being cherry-picked and press released when the actual collected information that the documentary was based on has not been presented as far as I can see – if you know where it is – please link. My last forays into Google seemed to show plenty of claims from the group but a referenced collection of data with evidenced conclusions – MIA
Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. I wasn’t impressed with the highly emotional tone, the anecdotery and the presumption to be able to read Northern Grey Whales minds had me huffing and puffing.
The auteurs have very obviously set out with a conclusion and sought to generate support for that.
If the sonars and geophysical sound sources are impacting behaviour – let’s see the evidence. All surveys require marine mammal observers (MMOs) and many have passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) – if a cetacean is seen the work stops. There must be tens of thousands of hours of observations – several people doing a single trip in a small boat mugging it up for a film crew … pff…
There has been much talk about sound from operating turbines scaring the wildlife and being transmitted via the foundations to undersea environment – this can be measured but afaics nobody’s done it, but plenty of people claim away like it’s a fact.
To be clear – I am *not* a fan of wind turbines in most (near all) cases. The damage to flying animals on its own should negate many installations and the industry such as it is is wholly dependent on public subsidy either direct or consequential as a result of coping with the highly erratic output. The operational economics of offshore wind is absurd.
I have no expertise at all in this area. However, there is clear evidence of a recent marked increase in Right Whale deaths. So what is the cause/reason of their demise? Is it this notion promoted by the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/19/speeding-boats-push-critically-endangered-whales-closer-to-extinction
Seems a bit of a stretch to think everyone’s suddenly going for a speeding ticket
and crunching Whales out of the way doesn’t it?
Or is it “Climate Change”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/03/north-atlantic-right-whales-critically-endangered-climate-crisis-study
Also seems to be a bit of a stretch to think such a minor change could have such an instantaneous major effect.
However, a sudden change in their environment (such as sonar mapping, wind turbine construction) would surely seem much more likely to have an equally sudden impact. At very least, serious research and a cautionary halt may be more appropriate given the gravity of the situation rather than the sort of reaction that calls people “liars”
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/how-to-stop-whale-deaths-from-real-threats-not-lies-about-wind-energy/
After all whose “side” were the likes of Green Peace supposed to be on?
And finally what sort of “skin” can anyone have in “this game”?
@Ray Sanders
skin in the game is four decades + in diverse marine geophysical survey and scientific research ships including a considerable amount of wind farm work.
I’m not denying that whales have been and are being struck by ships. In this case I was expecting the activism effort to provide some documentation and presentation of evidence – a web site collecting the sorts of reports and papers referenced in the Guardian articles would imho be a prerequisite for a campaign. Expecting a collation of evidence to support the activist claims is not unreasonable.
That Greenpeace link where they complain about disinformation contains this:
– show me a sonar that killed a whale – I can wait.
Stuff moves around in the sea and animals follow those movements – the seas are not static places. Where there is obvious conflict between human activity and sea animals then mitigations should be emplaced and enforced. There are places and times which are deserving of protection.
Humans do behave badly towards wildlife but it really irks that gross bad behavior has and is being ignored and the outrage crews pick and choose according to human political prejudices.
The enforcement of mitigation is patchy – the MarPol rules are particularly strongly enforced in North America with very heavy fines, tracking a speeding ship is totally trivial as AIS is pervasive (Ships over 65 foot *must* have AIS transceivers) and the tracks are archived = the activists can access those archives – WHY have they not done this?
It’s rather easy to think of Northern Right Whales as the new Polar Bears.