Nicole Shanahan has used her new public profile to misinform, adding that offshore wind energy studies cause whale deaths.
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. waves at the same level as Nicole Shanahan after declaring her his running mate in March in Oakland, California. Eric Risberg/AP
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s running mate endorses one of Donald Trump’s favorite claims against wind turbines: that offshore wind projects whales.
Nicole Shanahan promoted the false claim that the seismic tests used before the wind turbines were built deafened whales and were impacted by ships.
“Maine fishermen are concerned about wind farms and feel they are being blamed unfairly,” Shanahan wrote on social platform X. “Seismic surveys, which use strong sound waves to map the ocean floor, can cause transience or permanent hearing loss in the oceans. . marine mammals, adding whales.
The video posted via Shanahan shows her sitting with two Maine fishermen who claim wind projects use seismic air guns to map the ocean floor, leading to stranded and dead whales. This has been debunked by federal scientists, who point out that offshore wind monitoring is much quieter and less disruptive than the seismic energy used in oil and fuel extraction.
Fishermen are hinting that President Joe Biden is culling whales to reduce carbon emissions through 2030.
“Their considerations are valid and considered,” Shanahan said.
Shanahan’s message on wind energy echoes that of former President Trump, who baselessly linked wind farms to whale deaths and said wind turbines “drive whales crazy. “Running for president and vice president as independents: embracing far-right conspiracies and politics.
Kennedy’s record as an environmental lawyer (who has sued polluters and defended waterway coverage) has been supplanted by a contradictory weather platform that he said would make sense “to skeptics and activists alike. “
On an occasion held in Kittery, Maine, last month, Shanahan told the audience that the only explanation for why offshore wind farms exist is that developers don’t need them onshore.
“Massive pollutants are threatened from those waterways when those wind farms start to collapse or when they’re hit by 110-mile-per-hour winds,” he said. “They’re not meant to be there. “
In fact, offshore wind turbines are more effective than onshore ones. Offshore wind turbines are also built to withstand excessive storms and over the past few decades, with parts replaced and upgraded as needed.
Kennedy is also notorious for spreading incorrect information about offshore wind farms. He was the subject of strong complaints from some environmental groups about 15 years ago when he opposed the Cape Wind assignment, which can be seen from the Kennedy family estate on Cape Cod. , Massachusetts. Su best friend in this fight William Koch, the fossil fuel billionaire, owner of a neighboring property. The commission was abandoned in 2017 after 16 years of struggle.
For his presidential campaign, Kennedy hired a communications director who rejects meteorological science and calls global warming “a phenomenon used to create hysteria. “And Shanahan has used his new public profile to publicize a wide range of misinformation, adding about autism.
In his new podcast, which was presented as part of a strategy to reach a younger electorate, Shanahan hosted an 18-year-old “investigative journalist” who said nutrition causes cancer, a doctor who prescribed him ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug to treat Covid. . -19 and the author of the Dilbert cartoon, Scott Adams.
Adams, who gave a racist speech last year, told Shanahan that big business is “gravely anti-white male” (most Fortune 500 corporations are run by white men). He told Adams that he had “real magic” and praised him for his ability to “really zeitgeist American politics. “
Shanahan also said he’s “on the same page in every way” with former far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who champions the racist Great Replacement theory.
Kennedy rarely appears in public with Shanahan, a lawyer who is the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. This can lead to a conflicting split screen, especially on issues of strength. The same day Shanahan amplifies conspiracy theories about death. Kennedy called for a national force network capable of hosting more renewable power sources.
Kennedy’s crusade responded to a request for comment.
With his remarks, Shanahan aligned himself with the message of a crusade against the wind, funded in part through far-right national and anti-climate teams, with a history of spreading lies about climate change. Trump amplified this message, false claims about whales as a proxy to attack Biden’s climate policy.
Democratic National Committee spokesman Matt Corridoni said Shanahan’s rhetoric shows the crusade is moving away from Kennedy’s old paintings as a conservationist.
“RFK Jr. and Donald Trump have a lot in common, and one of them is that they think the fact is relative,” he said. “This is still an example. “
The conservative offshore wind force movement gained momentum last year, after humpback whales and dolphins were stranded off the northeast coast.
Whale experts and NOAA say climate change is partly to blame, as warming waters have brought whale prey habitat closer to shore. They also note that fishing gear entanglements and collisions with ships pose threats to the endangered North Atlantic right whale in the region.
But NOAA found that “there is no clinical evidence that noise resulting from characterization studies of offshore wind sites can cause whale deaths. “In fact, scientists claim that the high-resolution geophysical surveys used by wind developers are inaudible to baleen whales as humpback whales (and detected only through toothed whales and dolphins at close range).
However, pile driving for the installation of the turbine base on the ocean floor can potentially cause whale sightings. Offshore wind companies only install turbines when whales migrate to other regions or out of the area.
At the Maine event, Shanahan criticized the regulations, saying regenerative agriculture, which focuses on restoring soil fitness and balancing ecosystems, would be the way to solve societal challenges, such as climate change.
“If you look at the numbers and the real science, the way to solve our physical, climate, groundwater and food source disruptions is regenerative agriculture,” he said.
In fact, while regenerative agriculture is helping to store more carbon in the soil, time scientists have been demonstrating for decades that the most productive way to prevent global warming is to avoid burning fossil fuels by turning to cleaner energy sources.