To: The Department for Environment, Climate and Communication

It is difficult to sit back or even to proceed in any way, in what has come to be known as a ‘normal’ way of living on our planet, without being aware of the now potential and more-or-less predicted demise of all living things and our planet.

This destruction extends from human activity with an obvious escalation since the 1980s as noted in many reports in this conversation. A few issues are constantly referred to in most reports on the subject of climate change i.e. carbon emissions and green house gases and the response promulgated is to stop using coal/kerosene/petrol and ‘move forward’ through progress into an electrical era i.e the use of man-made artificial electromagnetic/radiofrequency fields.

Issues that are unlikely to be discussed are the effects of an unregulated market economy based on consumerism, coupled with an endless drive for profit and accumulation of wealth. As a result of this ideology or at least combined with it is the undermining and downgrading of care for possible human/social and environmental impacts contained in policy decisions made. With regard to climate change these principles are manifested through the appropriation and exploitation of ecological habitats, the use of pesticides, fossil fuels, chemicals, nuclear power generation but most recently the unprecedented blanket use of artificial man-made electromagnetic radiation, mainly microwave radiofrequency (RF) radiation, wirelessly generated for communication and surveillance technologies (WiFi). It is the opening up of this issue that is the essence of this submission on climate change and hopefully will introduce some of the main points that appear to be currently avoided.

The safety guidelines used by most countries in respect of

Electromagnetic/Radiofrequency radiation are those produced by a non-governmental organisation The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Their guidelines were drawn up in 1998 and are based on the belief that only thermal (heating) effects of RF are hazardous. However, since then numerous research studies by independent scientists have proven that non- thermal effects of RF can result in serious adverse health effects. Despite Governments being asked to establish public inquiries into reasons for the continued use of these guidelines, which do not protect people, no action has been taken to date.

References to the multiple serious negative health effects can be found in:

The BioInitiative Report (2012) (www.bioinitiative.org), which presents clear evidence of a variety of adverse health effects. It is based on evaluation of research papers.

The most recent and largest study undertaken to date is The National Toxicology Program, by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/topics/cellphones/index.html). This report concludes with “clear evidence” of a link between mobile phone radiation and cancer as well as DNA damage, a conclusion mirrored in a report published by the Ramazzini Institute Italy (2018) on exposure to radiofrequency generated by mobile phone base stations. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0013935118300367#:~:text=The%20Ramazzini%20Institute%20)

What about the effects on wildlife?

This question has been answered succinctly by Bio Scientist Ulrich Warnke: “Today, [the] natural information and functional system of humans, animals and plants has been superimposed by an unprecedented dense and energetic mesh of artificial magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic fields, generated by numerous mobile radio and wireless communication technologies.” “Bees and other insects disappear, birds avoid certain areas and are disoriented in other locations. Humans suffer from functional disorders and diseases. And those that are hereditary are passed on to the next generation as existing defects.” (Bees, Birds and Mankind – Destroying Nature by ‘Electrosmog – Ulrich Warnke’ (bio-scientist with a team of highly respected professors and doctors, whose work document only reproducible facts). The English translated edition was published in 2009. https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/7521097894.pdf

Our country is littered with distressed and dying trees – dieback in trees seems to be linked to the RF microwaves being emitted into our environment. Supporting research has been carried out and published in the journal Science of the Total Environment (572 (2016) 554 – 569) demonstrating and verifying the connection between unusual tree damage and RF/Wi-Fi (updated in 2019): https://www.baubiologie.de/downloads/wug/rf-radiation-injures-trees-2016.pdf

Furthermore, the E.U. Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) published a statement on emerging health and environmental issues (2018). The section on Potential effects on wildlife of increases in electromagnetic radiation (page 14) ranks this as a Scale 3 i.e. urgent and severe, due to the interactions with other ecosystems and species and the possibility of unintended biological consequences. https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/scientific_committees/scheer/docs/scheer_s_002.pdf

E-Waste

This issue also needs to take central stage in any discussion regarding health, eco-systems, environment and climate change. With the establishment of millions of millimetre/small cell towers for fifth generation networks and a similar escalation in the number of wireless devices (a dependence fuelled in the current pandemic), massive amounts of energy will be required for their operation and the disposal of e-waste is now an urgent matter.

The UN-affiliated Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report informs us that 53.6 million metric tons of E- waste was generated globally in 2019, made up of discarded electronic devices.

Erik Ekudden, Senior VP, CTO and Head of Group Function Technology at Ericsson, has stated “Some communications service providers have even estimated a doubling of their energy consumption to meet increasing traffic demands while improving their network and rolling out 5G.” … “This is not sustainable from a cost or environmental perspective.” https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/ericsson-5g-could-dramatically-increase-network- energy-consumption/

Also, the Journal of Cleaner Production published a paper on the Information and Communication Industry (ICT) Assessing ICT global emissions footprint: Trends to 2040 & recommendations (2018) predicting ICT has a global carbon footprint that is expected to grow from about one per cent in 2007 to 3.5 per cent by 2020 and reach 14 per cent by 2040 thereby ‘accounting for more than half of the current relative contribution of the whole transportation sector’ and estimated that by 2020 ‘the contribution of smart phones would surpass the individual contribution of desktops, laptops and displays.’ Every text message, phone call, video uploaded or downloaded requires a data centre to make this happen. Telecommunications networks and data centres therefore consume an enormous amount of energy, powered by electricity – mainly generated by fossil fuels. The predicted ‘increase from 159 to 495 Mt-CO2’ in a ten-year span’ surely needs to be recognized as an issue and principle threat to the exquisite balance of nature and the planet? https://www.ourwebofinconvenienttruths.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/ICT-Global-Emissions- Footprint-Online-version.pdf

Rockets/Satellites

The establishment of 5G is not confined to terra firma as telecom operators are currently in the process of surrounding the Earth with a network of thousands of satellites that will provide internet access on a global scale.  An example of the numbers can be seen through applications e.g. SpaceX  42,000,  Amazon 3,236, One Web (which went bankrupt) have now reduced applications from 49,000 to 7,088. These satellites are fifth generation antennas launched by rockets 50 to 100 at a time and are being located in the Earth’s ionosphere, a part of our atmosphere that controls the global electric energy that we have evolved with and depend upon as part of our life process. Thousands of the rockets have already been launched and numerous ground stations have been set up. Ireland has agreed to participate in this venture with SpaceX.  The exponential rise of the subsequent ozone-destroying rocket exhaust, some of which use kerosene, will have a devastating effect on ozone and global temperatures.  The carbon dioxide, water and soot being emitted, absorbs the sun’s heat and remains in the stratosphere for at least five years – the cumulative effect will contribute significantly to global warming. The antennas also need to be disposed of every five years, which will see a continuum of replacement and disposal.

Authors of the geophysical research report Potential Climate Impact of Black Carbon Emitted by Rockets (2010) refer to the effects of only 1,000 launches per year stating that it would ‘create a persistent layer of black carbon particles’ that could cause ‘significant changes in global atmospheric circulation and distributions of ozone and temperature.’ https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2010GL044548

Great alarm is often expressed when the media inform us of melting ice caps and the impending disaster of such an occurrence. Science has revealed that if the ice caps are subjected to microwave RF radiation, it will melt quite rapidly – the suns electromagnetic waves, absorb into water and ice whereas man-made artificial electromagnetic fields such as RF microwaves pass through water and ice resulting in a subsequent rapid melting of the ice.

Where do we go from here?

Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly, Resolution 1815 (2011) – The potential dangers of electromagnetic fields and their effect on the environment expresses regret that, ‘despite calls for … precautionary principle and despite all the recommendations, declarations and a number of statutory and legislative advances, there is still a lack of reaction to known or emerging environmental and health risks and virtually systematic delays in adopting and implementing effective preventive measures.’

https://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-XML2HTML-en.asp?fileid=17994

In the December 2018 issue of the medical journal The Lancet, comment was made by the independent Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Association ‘Planetary Electromagnetic Pollution: It is Time to Assess its Impact’ based upon the evaluation of 2,266 peer-reviewed studies on the effects of EMF/RF on biological systems of humans, animals and plants and concluded that 68.2% have been proven to be true, without doubt.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(18)30221-3/fulltext

What we need is honesty, transparency re policy decisions, knowledge and awareness.

The Government needs to focus on environmentally sustainable infrastructure such as fibre optics/shielded wired systems and ensure that these are placed immediately in schools to reduce wireless exposure to children.

The densification of antenna for fourth generation LTE and fifth generation networks and the amount of energy needed to power these constitutes a long-term disaster for public safety, our climate and planet. Climate policy must take into account a full assessment of the potential impact of this densification along with the growing evidence regarding adverse health effects, effects on ecological habitats and wildlife as well as the extraction, production, transportation, and disposal of materials used for wireless technologies and the overall climate impact.

Guidelines on electromagnetic/RF wireless radiation should be biologically based and relate to current findings in independent scientific research.

An independent interdisciplinary committee should be set up to review the available science, identify gaps in information and knowledge, set priorities and hold a public inquiry into the current guidelines.

A public awareness campaign related e.g. to information within the Council of Europe Resolution 1815 (as mentioned above) should be set up along with information on protection/minimising health effects in all its forms (physical, social and emotional) from RF/WiFi and all technology on children.

The Precautionary Principle should be adopted.

Stop treating RF wireless radiation as if it is not there.

Start regulating the out-of-control telecommunication industry.

Thanking you for this opportunity, Ethna Monks, member of es-ireland.com