These whales are on the brink. Now comes climate change — and wind power.
With only about 300 left <https://www.andersoncabotcenterforoceanlife.org/blog/right-whale-population-declines-for-10th-straight-year/>, the North Atlantic right whale ranks as one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals <https://www.worldwildlife.org/species-categories/marine-animals/species/directory>. Nearly annihilated centuries ago by whalers, the slow-swimming species is said to have earned its name because it was the “right” whale to hunt. Old-fashioned harpoons have yielded to other threats. Humans are still killing right whales at startlingly high numbers <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/two-percent-of-the-worlds-north-atlantic-right-whales-have-died-in-the-last-two-months/2019/07/31/d3de7d1e-ae31-11e9-9411-a608f9d0c2d3_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> — but by accident. Waters free from whalers now brim with ships that strike them, and ropes that entangle them. But Amy DiSibio, a retired stock trader who has vacationed in Nantucket for three decades, said many are turning a blind eye to noise and other ecological impacts of the energy project simply because it is branded green. “Wind farm sounds really nice,” she said. “It’s a power plant. It really is.” Her group, Nantucket Residents Against Turbines, accuses <https://dockets.justia.com/docket/massachusetts/madce/1:2021cv11390/237553> the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which approved <https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/11/interior-department-approves-first-large-scale-offshore-wind-farm-us/?itid=lk_inline_manual_88> the turbines, of failing to protect the right whale in its lawsuit. The effort has attracted support from many conservatives. David Stevenson, a former member of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team, has helped Nantucket Residents Against Turbines with publicity. And the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing think tank based in Austin, is representing <https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/61618082/seafreeze-shoreside-inc-v-united-states-department-of-the-interior/> fishing groups that oppose turbines being built where they work. “If we were talking about an oil and gas platform,” said Robert Henneke, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s executive director and general counsel, “there’s absolutely no way that the federal government would be allowing that kind of a construction project in this area.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/04/21/right-whales-b...
Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 3:27 PM ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gunnar Larson <g@xny.io> Date: Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 3:27 PM Subject: These whales are on the brink. Now comes climate change — and wind power. To: cypherpunks <cypherpunks@lists.cpunks.org> With only about 300 left <https://www.andersoncabotcenterforoceanlife.org/blog/right-whale-population-declines-for-10th-straight-year/>, the North Atlantic right whale ranks as one of the world’s most endangered marine mammals <https://www.worldwildlife.org/species-categories/marine-animals/species/directory>. Nearly annihilated centuries ago by whalers, the slow-swimming species is said to have earned its name because it was the “right” whale to hunt. Old-fashioned harpoons have yielded to other threats. Humans are still killing right whales at startlingly high numbers <https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/two-percent-of-the-worlds-north-atlantic-right-whales-have-died-in-the-last-two-months/2019/07/31/d3de7d1e-ae31-11e9-9411-a608f9d0c2d3_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_6> — but by accident. Waters free from whalers now brim with ships that strike them, and ropes that entangle them. But Amy DiSibio, a retired stock trader who has vacationed in Nantucket for three decades, said many are turning a blind eye to noise and other ecological impacts of the energy project simply because it is branded green. “Wind farm sounds really nice,” she said. “It’s a power plant. It really is.” Her group, Nantucket Residents Against Turbines, accuses <https://dockets.justia.com/docket/massachusetts/madce/1:2021cv11390/237553> the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which approved <https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/11/interior-department-approves-first-large-scale-offshore-wind-farm-us/?itid=lk_inline_manual_88> the turbines, of failing to protect the right whale in its lawsuit. The effort has attracted support from many conservatives. David Stevenson, a former member of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team, has helped Nantucket Residents Against Turbines with publicity. And the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing think tank based in Austin, is representing <https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/61618082/seafreeze-shoreside-inc-v-united-states-department-of-the-interior/> fishing groups that oppose turbines being built where they work. “If we were talking about an oil and gas platform,” said Robert Henneke, the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s executive director and general counsel, “there’s absolutely no way that the federal government would be allowing that kind of a construction project in this area.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/04/21/right-whales-b...
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Gunnar Larson