Not in over a century has a US President authorized killing of whales. In Massachusetts waters, the Biden Administration has acknowledged that offshore wind farms will kill whales and has issued formal authorizations to kill, including 20 of the endangered Right Whale.
The order is effective for one year, but scientists expect the killing to continue as long as the 100 wind turbines operate. The number of Atlantic Right Whales already killed by wind farms in the last year, plus the new kill authorization represent about ten percent of the total world population of this cetacean. Thus this whale is likely already in what can be considered the extinction vortex, a population level that will soon lead to extinction.
This Biden virtue signal to promote “green” energy is particularly ironic, since the Brookings Institute and recent UK experience show that wind energy is less environmentally friendly than nuclear, hydroelectric, geothermal or combined cycle natural gas plants.
Team Tony
Encyclopedia of Life (2011, updated 2023). North Atlantic right whale. ed. C. Michael Hogan. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and Environment. Washington DC. Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/
