Offshore wind: The leading birdwatching group doesn’t object to wind farms that will kill birds

I don’t know if great minds think alike. But when it comes to certain issues, people on both ends of the political spectrum certainly do.

One such issue is those giant wind farms proposed for off our coast.

We right-wingers oppose them because they require subsidies that raise our electric bills while providing power that is intermittent and expensive.

We think nuclear power is a better alternative.

As for the left-wingers, there’s a shadowy group in England called Extinction Rebellion that causes all kinds of chaos with such tactics as blocking roads at rush hour.

One offshoot called “Avian Extinction Rebellion” was formed because windmills kill a lot of birds. The group began after a member played a recording of one of the species of birds being decimated by the turbines, a kittiwake.

After the members had a good cry, one uttered a sentence that became their slogan:

“One bird killed is one too many.”

But the group also opposes fossil fuels. So how will we generate electricity?

“Civilian nuclear is perfectly safe, and the amount of energy obtainable from a tiny amount of matter is just incredible,” said one member. “It’s a limitless carbon-free source of power!”

I looked that up last week after I read that 150 eagles had been killed in Wyoming by “the Cuisinarts of the Sky,” as they are called by bird-lovers.

I love to look at birds, too. Here at the Shore we have everything from ospreys to great blue herons. I’d hate to see these birds bisected by a blade just to power my electric toothbrush.

Not everyone agrees with me. Check this headline from a column by Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post:

“Losing some bald eagles may be among the trade-offs for clean energy.”

Clean? Not with all those feathery corpses lying  around.

Offshore windmills might also be bad for another animal that can be seen off our shores, said Lisa Linowes of the Save Right Whales Coalition. The electric cables might disrupt the whales’ navigation systems, she said. The explosions needed to prepare the ocean floor for those massive towers might be even worse.

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But Linowes told me that the anti-windmill cause isn’t getting support from many of the mainstream environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society.

“New Jersey Audubon should be jumping up and down about the number of birds that would be killed by those turbines,” Linowes said. “But it’s very hard to say anything negative about a sponsor.”

A sponsor? Linowes directed me to the society’s website, where I came across a promo for an event sponsored by the society called the “World Series of Birding.”

This annual fund-raiser, to be held on May 14, “draws attention to the habitat needs of migrating birds, especially throughout the great State of New Jersey, which is at the crossroads of migration for many species at this specific time of year.”

That sounds nice. But at the bottom of the page we learn that one of the sponsors of the event is Ocean Wind. That’s the consortium that seeks to build those coastal Cuisinarts.

Why is a bird-lover group talking money from a company whose product kills birds?

I put that question to Eileen Murphy of the New Jersey Audubon Society.

Murphy told me that when the original proposal to site windmills just three miles offshore was proposed, the society sued to stop it. But under the current proposal the turbines would be 15 miles offshore.

I was about to ask, “Is that 15 miles as the crow flies?”

But then I thought of the fate awaiting that poor crow at the end of his flight. So I just asked, “How many birds will be killed at 15 miles?”

“That’s a good question,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to quantify.”

It certainly will be, for the simple reason that the birds will fall in the ocean. However one Harvard study showed that “collisions will occur no matter where a farm is located.” There are plenty of other studies showing similar impacts.

I asked Murphy why a society dedicated to saving birds supports an industry that kills birds.

She gave the same reason pushed by Robinson: Climate change. The Audubon crowd argues that the future threat to birds from global warming justifies any immediate threat from wind turbines.

That talking point may be good for keeping those corporate contributions flowing to pay the $100,000-plus salaries of the professional environmentalists.

But it’s not fooling Bill Gates.

In his recent book on climate change, the Microsoft founder did the math to prove that the only way to generate sufficient carbon-free emissions is through nuclear power.

I doubt you’ll find Gates blocking a street to make that point.

But he won’t be killing any kittiwakes either.