Our Changing Earth
by Arthur Firstenberg, Cellular Phone Task Force
December 26, 2023
On December 19, 2023, in the journal New Phytologist, French researchers published a study on yet another aspect of the decline of life on Earth. The populations of bees and other pollinators have declined so much that flowering plants that required insects in order to reproduce efficiently have evolved in less than 25 years to become better self-pollinators and to not need insects to reproduce.
Field pansies from seeds collected in the late 1990s and early 2000s were grown next to pansies from seeds collected in 2021. Self-pollination rates were 27% higher in the plants grown from the newer seeds. The flowers were smaller. The petals were shorter. The labella — the landing platforms that attract insects — were smaller. The flowering time was shorter. Fewer flowers opened per day. The nectar spurs were shorter, there were fewer nectar guides, and the flowers produced less nectar. More bumblebees visited the flowers that grew from the old seeds than from the new seeds.
The authors warned of cascading effects on insect populations: “These decreases in nectar production may then reinforce pollinator declines if nectar levels fall below those necessary to sustain wild bee populations. Environmental changes may thus present a double jeopardy to pollinator populations, as they become victims of both the changes themselves and of plant trait evolution.”
The authors listed only pollution, habitat destruction, and alien species as causes of pollinator collapse. I have sent the authors a letter, with links to literature reviews, informing them that RF radiation is the biggest cause of insect decline. I have invited them to join the coalition of scientists, organizations and individuals that we are forming to address the global radiation emergency.
More reports from around the world
of bird and insect declines, etc.
Jean writes from Queensland, Australia: “I live in a retirement village and I have noticed fewer insects this year than before. I rarely see a bee.”
Leroi writes from France: “Here too the number of insects and birds has dropped significantly (by 2/3), while 5G has not yet been installed…! The number of births of disabled animals and human beings has been increasing since the 1990s, the beginning of widespread computer use.”
Chrisleine writes from Andalusia in Spain: “Many of the symptoms you describe are felt here too: almost no more birds; no doves. This year not a single bee in my garden.”
Emma writes from South Africa: “The first 5G tower was put up in 2019, 50 meters from me. Within a few days I had fungal pneumonia. A couple of weeks after that I had palpitations that wouldn’t stop. Roll on to now… sick pets, loss of insects, I am more sick. There is also a “bird flu” and rabbit flu outbreak (yeah right!). Lots of dead birds but the entire rabbit population is dead in the Kyalami area. I pray for the release of this planet from the radiation.”
Tammy writes from New Brunswick, Canada: “Cell towers killed all the birds and insects at Kings Place where I use to work. We used to have a bird problem there, nested in the rooftops, but not anymore. All the birds are gone. I no longer stay inside of urban areas because they are microwave toxic now. And as such, I am going on 4 years without any asthma puffers, allergy meds, no vaccines, and I have had zero colds, flus, COVID, nothing. It’s great. A low EMF life is a healthier life. Period. The Amish were right all along.”
Doug writes from North Hollywood, California: “I have noticed fewer birds in my neighborhood. We used to hear a lot of them here in the morning. Now I hardly hear any.”
Charles writes from the Himalayas: “I live at a remote ashram and things were fine with the wildlife, even 2G was doable but when 2G jumped to 4G, decimation of the bird and insect populations was noticed by the villagers and the ashramites alike, but as you say, everyone is too busy listening to the music to actually do anything about it.”
Karl writes from Germany: “I am 74 and an IT professional. I have observed for 20 years how the cranes cross over our house every autumn on their flight south. Now there is a large transmission tower about 20 kilometers away with a radio link that goes directly past our house. If the migratory birds come into this area, their navigation is at an end. They don’t know what to do and end up here on the meadow. Many times, they somehow managed to find their way further later or the next day.
“This year, as the radio network here, like everywhere else, has now been significantly expanded with 5G, among other things, a number of birds ended up here again. But all day long I was able to observe flocks that turned around and flew their way back, because they couldn’t find their way any further! The landed birds have still been here for a few weeks and will probably overwinter here if they survive, as it is actually too cold here and there is hardly enough food available.”
Linda writes from Tucson, Arizona: “A cell tower was installed 1,000 feet from my home. I didn’t even know it was there because it was hidden by trees. ALL insects except beetles and box elder bugs dropped by 1/3. They did not recover, year after year. 10 years later, smart electric meters were installed. Populations of ALL insects declined by half and have kept dropping year after year. Even the beetles are gone.”
Pieter writes from the Netherlands: “The beech hedge in front of our house gets the full radiation of a telecom tower at 300 meters distance on which two telecom companies send their radiation to us (thus apparently sending us the double portion). This cell tower was built in December 2020. Gradually the beech hedge deteriorated and this year it became clear that growth nearly completely stopped and nearly all leaves are much smaller and malformed. The dense foliage in the past changed to many gaps in the hedge.”
Richard writes from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: “I was born in 1952 in Czechoslovakia and when I was about ten I decided to make a collection of butterflies which were plentiful in our garden — all kinds of varieties to stimulate my interest. Nothing came out of it and I forgot about it. When I was about 18, I remembered my ‘plan’ from when I was younger and realized that something had changed drastically, as the only butterfly I could see was the common white one and almost no other species. I had no clue what happened. I guessed that possibly increased use of pesticides / herbicides had something to do with it.
“But it was still a time when you had to clean the windshield from various bugs several times a day. This year after a week of travelling on Vancouver Island I had no need to clean the windshield at all — it managed to “catch” only a bug or two.
“Here in Vancouver the very popular California lilac blooms twice a year. You always heard it buzzing with honey bees and bumblebees. Butterflies are now down to a few of the common “whitish / yellowish” one, the same as in Europe. Maybe a year ago I noticed that I could not ‘hear’ the lilacs any more, as honey bees have virtually disappeared and only a few bumblebees are visible.
“Last year and this year I went to Queen Elizabeth Park here in Vancouver in the spring when everything was blooming. Except for a fly or two there was NO insect — no honey bee, no bumblebee, no butterfly. Nobody noticed anything, but to me it was almost unreal. Apocalyptic feeling.
“A year ago I went to the park in Surrey by the Fraser River where civilization was some distance away — you could almost feel you were in nature. I noticed that no insects were visible, not even under rocks. I mentioned this to somebody in the party I was with, and he did not believe me and went to do his own search, with the same result: nothing. He did not say much but I could see it was bothering him, I guess he was in shock.
“The level of denial is truly unbelievable.”
Gloria writes from North Carolina: “Someone in the U.S. thought it would be a good idea to put radio-tracking devices on monarch butterflies. I am horrified. As if this endangered species doesn’t suffer enough from RF exposure already. How many have perished just flying into a phased-array beam from a 5G antenna? I have raised monarch butterflies from the egg stage (from mother monarch butterflies passing through and visiting my milkweed buffet) and these creatures are more complex and incredible than many people realize. It sickens me to have come across this news. I’m not going to remain silent about it.”
Gloria sent this link to the article she had just read: The Sky’s the Limit for Monarchs Wearing Solar-Powered Radio Tags. It describes the radio tagging of butterflies at Cape May Point Science Center in New Jersey for “data collection of monarch migratory movement”. They were launching “Project Monarch”. For a demonstration, they placed a radio tag on a monarch they names Xerces and tracked its movements. The article continues: “Xerces actually ended up coming back to the CMPSC after a few days and that was the last spot where it was detected.”
Writes Gloria: “Examining the map of Cape May Island and the sightings depicted, the butterfly that had received the radio tag attached to its thorax had trouble finding its way. This is absolutely cruel. That butterfly in all probability had died. It lasted a few days. A migrating monarch could have lived for over six months. No creature should have to be tagged like this, let alone an insect. Are not the radiofrequency transmissions interfering with the magnetoreception of the monarchs? The butterflies won’t know where they’re going with this radio tag emitting RF continuously but worse yet, the monarchs are being microwaved to death.
“From the article: ‘When a tag remains in the sun, it will continue to transmit about once a second, indefinitely!’ Butterflies rely on solar energy to power their wings. While the butterflies will be mobile, being in the sun means the transmissions are unrelenting and I fear, contributing to the premature death of any butterfly equipped with one of these horrific devices.”
Laurie from California forwarded this story from her neighbor: “We adopted our dog, Rowdy, from the shelter 5 years ago. He is the sweetest soul and my BFF. For the past week he hasn’t been acting like himself. He licked a raw spot on his foot. He was panting constantly. He was pacing. Sunday morning, the pacing and panting got so bad, and I was REALLY nervous that there was something wrong with him. For 45 minutes, he panted like crazy and constantly paced back and forth. He was keeping his tail tucked down all the time. His ears were pinned back. He would not settle down and he wouldn’t eat. I tried giving him a trazadone that he takes sometimes when he goes to the groomer. It seemed to take a little bit of the edge off, but not much. He still wouldn’t eat and he still wouldn’t settle.
“I took off work on Monday and took him to the vet. We did blood work and x-rays. His blood work was great except for some elevated liver enzymes. The x-rays showed no major issues. He got an anti-nausea injection and some Gabapentin to hopefully keep him calm. When we got home, he was okay for a little bit, but eventually started pacing and panting again. We walked around the neighborhood for a long time and he used the bathroom a lot. He seemed pretty happy about that and was in good spirits until we got home and he refused to come back in the house. Every time I took him out that evening, he would hunker down like he didn’t want to come back in the house.
“When my vet called and I gave her the update, she suggested there may be some new electronic device in the house that was emitting a high frequency noise that is hurting his ears. We had just put new smart plugs in the house about a week ago. Smart plugs allow you to turn on your electronics with an app or with Alexa. We use ours to turn all our lamps on and off at the same time. His pacing and panting were worse when the lamps were on, so I unplugged all the smart outlets. He stopped panting, stopped pacing, and ate his food. His tail was even up and wagging again. When I plugged the smart plugs all back in and asked Alexa to turn on the lamps, he immediately starting panting and pacing again. We’ve left the outlets unplugged for two days and have confirmed that it is definitely the smart outlets that are causing his stress and discomfort. He’s back to being a totally normal dog again.”
Andrea writes from Panama: “I live in Panama, originally from rural Canada where the closest neighbour was 700 feet away but I still got radiation from the bluetooth in her printer! When I was temporarily living in West Palm Beach, Florida surrounded by wifi and 5G I was getting pain across the roof of my mouth between my 2 mercury amalgams, and my dog got deathly sick, anorexic, began having multiple focal seizures a day, and a severe respiratory infection. We were hiking in the state park for 4 hours when he had one of his weird episodes that he had 4 times during the previous year, different from the focal seizures that just began: drooling, almost falling over, won’t eat or drink, personality does a 180 — he is jumpy and scared of us. At the same time my right ovary became painful and both thighs ached, I felt dizzy, nauseous and just horrible. We saw a cell tower behind the trees that we had been walking towards. After walking away for 10 minutes we both recovered.”
Eileen writes from Liverpool, England: “My hometown of Liverpool is the city with the largest 5G mesh network in the UK, and the second largest in the world. https://liverpool5g.org.uk/about5g/. The people of Liverpool are part of a huge 5G experiment without any consultation or consent. This is shameful! Makes you wonder about the following headline: “Liverpool hospitals ‘overwhelmed’ as patients treated in chairs”. ‘Doctors working in NHS hospitals in Merseyside are treating patients in chairs and on corridors in ‘terrible’ scenes described as ‘like doing medicine in a developing country’.”
Another correspondent writes: “I had to put my 2 cats down because of EMF from our router. They got the same symptoms I got. They were indoor only and couldn’t escape. One lost her mind (pure bread Maine Coon) and didn’t recognize her food and started falling off counters. The other one got cancer in his eye. He lasted 8 months then I had to put him down. It was too sad. It took 4 years to affect me and I got cancer 4 times plus 21 other symptoms. I figured all this out after 18 years of radiation poisoning myself.”
Join the Network of People Without Cell Phones
You can set your own rules, but it is important to have meetings in person. Please contact me if you need help and let me know that you are doing it.
Our goal is to establish an expanding global presence of communities that do not use cell phones.
Arthur Firstenberg
President, Cellular Phone Task Force
Author, The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life
P.O. Box 6216
Santa Fe, NM 87502
USA
phone: +1 505-471-0129
arthur@cellphonetaskforce.org
Cover image credit: sascha_kircher
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