Needs to be Said

In my reporting on clean energy misinformation I've seen one argument over and over.

Wind turbines kill birds.

While this is true, it misses an important piece of context:

Fossil fuel power plants kill 35x more birds per GWh than wind turbines do.

🧵

— Michael Thomas (@curious_founder) November 22, 2022

Rule 1 of Fossile Fuel Companies is that they lie

In 2012, researchers at Vermont Law School set out to answer this question.

They found that wind turbines kill 0.27 birds per gigawatt-hour (GWh). But fossil fuel power plants kill a staggering 9.4 fatalities per GWh.https://t.co/dDt1uCtUtq

— Michael Thomas (@curious_founder) November 22, 2022

Rule 2 is see rule 1

I am not surprised that fossil fuel companies and their paid lackeys will discuss the negative externalities of alternative energy sources, but assiduously cover up their own.

You have the impacts of habitat destruction through things like mountain top removal coal mining, acid rain, oil spills, toxic waste, etc.

Even if one does not believe that anthropogenic climate change is an existential threat for our society, (I do believe that it is an existential threat) it is clear that there is an extensive and heavily funded campaign to minimize the perception of the risks, and the costs, involved.

Every time someone talks about the unacceptable costs of sustainable energy production, you need to fact check every word that they say, including the, "And," and the, "The."

Equally important, particularly for journalists, when quoting people like this, you need to follow the money, and find out who is funding their efforts to oppose an energy transition, and then you need to put this information in your story every time you write something.

Calling out propaganda as such is not biased reporting, it is the essence of good reporting.