To the editor,

The government will spend billions of dollars on the Zika virus. The government will also spend billions of dollars on windmills and solar panels.Windmills and solar panels have killed thousands of birds and bats. Birds and bats eat insects. The fewer birds and bats, the more insects there will be. The more insects there are, the more diseases they will transmit to humans.The following is taken from an article written by Paul Driesser and Mark Duchamp:Between Jan. 9 and Feb. 4 of this year, 29 sperm whales got stranded and died on English, German and Dutch beaches. Environmentalists and the news media offered multiple explanations, except the most obvious and likely one: offshore wind farms.Indeed, that area has the world's biggest concentration of offshore wind turbines and there is ample evidence that their acoustic pollution can interfere with whale communication and navigation.Offshore turbines were also associated with many stillborn baby seals washing up on shore near the U.K.'s Scroby Sands wind farm in 2005. "It's hard not to conclude the wind farm is responsible." The author concluded.Many more similar deaths may well have been caused by wind farms at sea. The scientific and environmental literature that abounds is warning about risks to marine mammals from man-made noise.The offshore wind industry makes no sense from an economic, environmental defense or shipping perspective. To exempt these enormous installations from endangered species and other laws that are applied with a heavy hand to all other industries - and even to the U.S. and British navy - is irresponsible and ever criminal.I laughed when I heard President Barack Obama talking about water in the streets of Miami. Much of southern Florida was built on a drained swamp. The water is supposed to be there and has nothing to with global warming. This is real science!Michael S. RotherTamaqua