Imagine someone set up a radio or a noisy machine somewhere in your own vicinity and you had no choice but to listen to it (even at a low volume) all day and night, perhaps for the rest of your life. Tests might or might not show that you were stressed, but you most certainly would be.
Perhaps I am biased from regular snorkelling and enjoying being immersed n a different natural world, and for sure I do have tree-hugger tendencies. But I find it extremely arrogant that our species thinks it's acceptable to inject noise pollution into an environment inhabitated by thousands of other species.
All that to say, I certainly understand the concern. But I would personally have to see evidence of harm
Otoh, some people purposefully setup noise machines to improve sleep and reduce stress. Sometimes a small amount of noise is a good thing.
Uhh... I don't consider myself an eco-hippie, but that "mitigation" sounds like a euphemism or sinister "mitigation of negative PR", rather than actually literally doing less damage.
Like: "Gradually make things worse so that animals flee on their own, and if they die of starvation at least it's somewhere else so it won't make the local news with kids finding corpses on the beach."
Why would that be your expectation?