Fossil Fuel Industry Arguments Against Renewable Energy

According to the Onion News Network:

Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit




Also featured in this video: Solar Power is environmentally unfriendly because it will DRAIN the Sun!!!



...
Ok, ok...I know this video is just satire (courtesy of the masters), but I think it belongs here instead of the Jokes forum (or at least maybe in Deconstructing Disinfo) because it does raise a good point about the absurdity of actual arguments the Fossil Fuel industry is desperately making against renewable energy.

Some of these talking points even make their way onto ATS (see this one for example).

One of the most common memes is this oft-repeated blurb that wind turbines are bad for the environment because they kill birds. Now obviously if you stick a large, moving, obstructive object high in the sky - it will have some consequences for sure. But the numbers presented are often highly misleading.

Usually when you see one of these "reports" - it's always framed in some political context attempting to paint environmental activists as BIG hypocrites for supporting a cause that kills thousands of birds every year.

Here's the problem with that:

Buildings, Power Lines, Cars, Airplanes, Communication Towers, Pesticides and CATS cause upwards of 1 BILLION annual bird fatalities - in the United States alone. The added effect of wind turbines accounts for less than 0.01% of this total. (Source - see Table 2, page 11)

In the U.S. it is also estimated that bird deaths directly related to oil spills and waste (i.e. the sort of thing wind energy is designed to replace) range around the 2 million mark. (Source)


So I don't expect the fact that fossil fuel companies are full of # to be Breaking News to most people around here (thank God). But it never ceases to amaze me everytime someone does come along and post one of these blatant sock puppet talking points, and then use them to try and make some hypocritical announcement about how brainwashed others are by the apparent politics of "the Green agenda".

The added irony is that usually these people are of the Libertarian persuasion. You would think supporting something as basic as sustainability and renewable energy would be pretty obvious for a true Libertarian, considering all the potential benefits that dovetail here with their own cause. See the following links for example:

Unplugging from the world's power lines
'Off-grid' community runs on solar, wind


But apparently these people get all their Libertarian ideologies spoonfed to them from the loads of FAKE, astroturfing Libertarian "think tanks" out there like the Heartland Institute and the CATO Institute - the ones that have been repeatedly proven to be nothing but lobbyist front groups for big Oil, Coal and Tobacco interests.

Its from the Onion.

Its satire.

Its not meant to be serious at all

reply to post by mc_squared


You have no idea what damages wind can do until you have eaten my wife's cooking.

I have got to go back and download this clip, I almost fell out of my chair.

I also like to comment about the "solar panels sucking all the light from the sun".

Ok seen as this is now in the jokes forum I cant resit posting this!

This is my favourite Onion video!

reply to post by RandalFlagg


Personally I feel the Onion News Network is just about as factual as any other MSM source

Anyway, yeah this thread was originally posted in Fragile Earth because the actual content of the post was highly relevant to that topic. I merely wanted to use the video as a little bit of an attention getting segue into the real story.

I made it perfectly clear in the second line of the OP that the video was just a joke, but apparently that's not enough to protect ATS from the tl;dr crowd who would actually think it's real or something...

reply to post by mc_squared


Sorry man didnt mean to send your thread of topic! I understand you realised the video is a joke and I would not have posted that second video if the the thread had not been moved forum!

Obviously the oil gangsters are going to put out disinfo about renewable energies, I always thought the best energy answer would be a solar panel on every single roof especially now they have the new panels that can absorb 90% of the sun rays energy, even if they are initially expensive they would soon start paying for themselves!

www.xsreviews.co.uk...

reply to post by RandalFlagg


No worries.

I think there's nothing wrong with using a little humor to convey a more complex message - laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

Anyway, I'm working on having this put back in the more appropriate forum - appreciate the link, thanks!

reply to post by mc_squared


The Onion still is kicking it. Amazing how true a lot of their old stories have become...too funny, thanks!

ColoradoJens

Heads Up

After some initial confusion and a title change to reflect the subject matter better this subject has been moved back to Fragile Earth. Yes, the video is from the Onion, but the points made AFTER the video are relevant to the forum subject matter.

Please address those points.

Thanks to mc_squared for working with the staff to resolve this issue

reply to post by neformore


Hey, what can I say - I like to open with a joke

I also want to thank neformore for being a damn cool mod about it



Anyway back on topic - here are a couple of other great videos that highlight the benefits of wind while dispelling some of those pesky fossil fuel funded myths:

What is this? Renewable is energy is highly needed for us. We are killing our earth with fossil fuels