Facebook has found itself in hot water after wading into the debate over whether off-shore wind farms are responsible for a surge in whale deaths across the east coast.
Environmentalist Michael Shellenberger has accused the internet giant of ‘censoring accurate information’ after it slapped a content warning on a post about the beaching of 300 whales since 2017.
Officials admit there has been an ‘unusual mortality event’ on the east coast in the last six years with strandings reported from New York to North Carolina, but have insisted the string of new wind farms are not responsible.
The controversy blew up days after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was threatened with contempt of Congress amid claims the social media firm removed posts at the direction of the Biden White House.
‘Facebook is censoring accurate information about the relationship between industrial wind energy development and the increase in whale deaths off the East Coast,’ Shellenberger said.
‘Why is Facebook censoring accurate information and spreading disinformation?’
Construction is underway on two new wind farms off Rhode Island and Massachusetts after the White House pledged to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes.
Two are already operating off Rhode Island and Virginia Beach despite fury from conservationists and commercial fishing operators, and the $10billion Virginia development is expected to feature more than 175 wind turbines by 2026.
In January, the Clean Ocean Action environmental group asked President Joe Biden to step in and halt the wind farm projects, saying there was evidence it was related to the whale deaths.
‘We’ve gone too far, too fast,’ Clean Ocean Action executive director Cindy Zipf said.
‘Over 2.2 million acres is being allocated to offshore wind and 10,000 miles of cables.
‘This alarming number of deaths is unprecedented in the last half century, the only unique factor from previous years, is the excessive scope, scale, and magnitude of offshore wind powerplant activity in the region.’
The latest dead whale washed ashore on Takanassee Beach in New Jersey on Saturday, and this year is on course to be the worst on record for fatal strandings on the east coast.
