Could what the Green Fascists say will save us actually be killing whales and other living things? We speak this morning of WIND FARMS. Those giant groups of giant wind turbines that are environmentally friendly, will lead to a cleaner environment and save us all from fossil fuels. Right? Look out the Tooth Fairy just ran through your front yard. Bah! The more we see and learn about these blights on the landscape, the less we like them. Whales are not my favorite creatures, but they are an important part of our ecosystem, I suppose. Whales are turning up dead in large numbers in the Northeast, also not my favorite place, but could those big turbines be the cause?

The New York Post published an article quoting a Greenpeace executive last night regarding the dead whales in New England, “Four whales die in 4 days: Wind farms creating ‘death zone’ at sea says ex-Greenpeace boss”:

Drilling foundations for offshore wind turbines and sound pulses used to prepare for the 900-foot towers may be creating a “death zone” for whales, a former Greenpeace chief claims.
Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace and its ex-president in Canada, believes the acoustic systems used by vessels surveying the ocean floor harm the marine mammals’ sense of hearing – risking their crucial ability to navigate, and leading to more dead whales washing up onshore.
His intervention comes after four minke whale corpses were discovered between Thursday and Sunday in New York and New England, one of them on Friday in Moriches Bay, close to Westhampton, Long Island.
The four-day run of death began in Eastham, on Cape Cod, Mass., on Thursday, with a second minke found at York, Maine, on Friday, and the final corpse at Gloucester, Mass. on Sunday.

“Four day run of death.” Gruesome. Sensational phrasing gets eyeballs. Thirty-two whales have washed up since December. Whales get hit or have malnutrition, but 32? The New Jersey Republicans are asking for a pause in wind farm construction so that they can learn more:

I guess the Canadian Greenpeace exec didn’t get the memo that wind farms are good. Climate change is killing more whales and not the construction or operation of giant wind turbines. Also, the government and green groups didn’t study what construction would do to the ocean floors? Here is more from the NY Post:

The toll of whale deaths includes 16 humpbacks thus far in 2023, seven of them found along the New Jersey shore.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared an “unusual mortality event” among humpbacks in January 2016.
This year’s mortalities are on pace to shatter 2017’s tally of 34, federal data shows.
The overall scale of whale deaths could be even worse: NOAA does not have a public tracker for toothed whales, such as narwhals and beluga whales.
Republican lawmakers in New Jersey said last week they wanted a 60-day moratorium on offshore wind farm development to investigate any possible link to the rash of carcasses.
Massive offshore wind turbines up to 900-feet tall have been given the go-ahead off both New York and New Jersey, as part of moves to increase renewable energy production.
In New York, cable-laying for the South Fork Wind Farm, about 35 miles east of Montauk Point began in March while in New Jersey, large areas off the Jersey Shore are zoned for turbines.

But not in any Kerry or Kennedy backyard ocean views. I agree with Nick T.

The greenies are getting what they want. Look at the damage their electric car batteries do to the environment or the wind farms. They don’t care about the environment they only care about their ideology.

— Nick T (@retrover16) May 8, 2023

I am not even going to get into the very long, very involved, very unGREEN discussion of the rare Earth minerals need for wind turbines. But here are a couple of short paragraphs that ought to perm your hair:

Mining often causes pollution of land, water, and air, spread of toxic wastes, water depletion, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and social disruption. Despite the fact that it is subject to federal and state environmental regulations, metal mining is the number one toxic polluter in the U.S.
It’s difficult to mine rare earth elements without causing environmental damage because of how they are extracted. One method involves removing topsoil, then creating a leaching pool where chemicals are used to separate out the rare earth elements from the ore. The toxic chemicals can seep into groundwater, cause erosion, and pollute the air. Another technique is to drill into the ground and use PVC pipes and hoses to pump chemicals into the earth. The resulting mix is then pumped into leaching ponds for separation, creating the same environmental problems.

Oops, but so what all of the favored people are making money on this scheme. Right again. Speaking of money, Beege Wellborn at Hot Air opines that the wind turbine people are finding that bigger isn’t better:

“Bigger = better” isn’t working out for wind
Make no mistake, the new designs are monstrous in size and being designed even bigger all the time.
…The blades of Vestas Wind Systems’ largest turbine, currently in testing, are nearly 380 feet long. Each turbine towers more than 900 feet and can generate up to 15 megawatts of electricity—enough for a town. Turbines that were state-of-the-art a decade ago had around a fourth of that capacity.
But insurance claims are pointing to the fact that they are also fragile, which presents its own set of problems when you’re dealing with something 1000ft tall and the blades spinning on it.
…But GCube, a renewable-energy insurer owned by Japan’s Tokio Marine HCC, sees a downside. It found that component failures in turbines with 8-megawatt capacity or greater occur on average after just over a year. That compares with over five years for turbines of 4-to-8 megawatts.
…GCube’s report was based on its claims data and information from other market participants. The company says it has insured more than 100 gigawatts of renewables assets since the 1980s.
Fraser McLachlan, GCube’s chief executive officer, said the firm reduced its offshore-wind exposure in the last few years. That was because claims were rising, while new players in offshore-wind insurance were driving down pricing to what he described as unsustainable levels. He predicted that if losses mount, insurers will pull out, making projects harder to finance and slowing the energy transition.
Some problems reflect the rapid introduction of new models. Losses from defective materials or workmanship, electrical failures and gearbox failures are rising, GCube said.
Other issues show how larger turbines are testing the industry’s supply chain. Some 55% of claims involved turbines of 8 megawatts or more and occurred during the construction phase, reflecting the difficulty of handling them, GCube said.
The average claim size has increased from 1 million pounds, worth approximately $1.25 million, in 2012, to over $7 million. GCube said that is down to the cost of parts and repairs on larger systems. Only a few of the vessels that install turbines can handle the largest ones, and diverting them for repair jobs is expensive.

East Tennessee is not a big place for wind farms so this has not been on my radar as much. Well, except when large parts of the United States froze because the wind farms, say it with me now, “FROZE” two years ago. Our Nina is a Western Lady and she has been all over this. She wrote about it when the Department of Defense realized a wind turbine isn’t battle friendly. Nina wrote about Biden wanting wind farms everywhere on the coasts.

Of course, wind farms have been slaughtering Bald Eagles, hawks and bats all over. But, what are a few Eagles or Whales, if the Green Fascists can get their way.

Featured Image: kinolamp/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons