Summary:
In recent years, many events like Covid-19 have shaken our ways of life, but it seems we have forgotten about a threat that hasn't gone away: global warming. Human activities continue to increase pollution as we speak, and we're not doing much to change that, so natural temperatures are rising, causing various effects on our environment as we know it.
Recently, the report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was another warning, a "code red" indicating the urgency and necessity to act. The report described the impact humans have had on the earth so far and the nature of extreme weather events in the coming decades if significant changes are not made to mitigate our carbon footprint.
Believe it or not, technology and telecommunications could be a significant part of the many growing factors contributing to climate change. Cities have increased microwave radiation background levels by 1,000,000% in the last 30 years. With around 6 million 4G telecommunication towers already operating worldwide, some millions of 5G antennas gradually being deployed, and more satellites transmitting microwave signals to the earth, have we considered the impact electromagnetic radiation could have on our planet?
In my experience conducting environmental assessments around electromagnetic fields, I am impressed with how this "soft" radiation in terms of frequencies (at least enough to be classified as non-ionizing radiation) can cause so much harm to biological species, mainly due to its artificial polarization at a fundamental level.
And it is for that reason that I cannot, as a scientist, reject the idea of considering looking in some directions that others in the past have dismissed and automatically labeled as an unacceptable factor in global warming.
History has shown us how so-called experts often overlook variables in front of their eyes due to biases and beliefs that function as dogmas in their minds. So, if we want to solve the climate crisis or at least be prepared for the coming decades, we must consider all variables involved.
Our planet is a giant open biological system, and everything is interconnected in terms of ecological balance.
Earth's climate has been changing since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. Until recently, natural factors have been the cause of these changes, such as volcanic eruptions, changes in Earth's orbit, and changes in the Earth's crust (known as plate tectonics).
Over the last million years, Earth has experienced a series of ice ages, which include colder periods (glacials) and warmer periods (interglacials). Over the past few thousand years, Earth has been in an interglacial period with a stable temperature. However, since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, global temperature has increased at a much faster rate.
Scientists and environmentalists have been warning people about climate change and its impacts for several decades. This phenomenon has been growing unchecked and is slipping out of our hands, posing an imminent threat to the future of our planet.
There is more than one factor contributing to climate change. There are several reasons behind this phenomenon, all generated by human activities and all different types of pollutants mixing to create a chaotic outcome.
Incredibly, as various recent studies claim, electromagnetic fields could be one of the many man-made factors actively contributing to global climate change.
This article will delve into these studies in depth and determine whether electromagnetic pollution could be one of those environmental pollutants that accelerate global warming based on objective scientific evidence. The idea is to spark genuine interest among environmental scientists to look in this direction and consider EMFs as one of the variables we should study to find viable solutions.
Climate Change and its Known Causes
According to NASA, climate change is described as a change in average conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, in a region over an extended period. NASA scientists have observed that Earth's surface is warming, and many of the warmest years on record have occurred in the last 20 years.
Climate is defined as the usual weather of a place. Different places on Earth can have different climates. They can also be different depending on the seasons. A place can be mostly warm and dry in the summer, and that same place can be cool and moist in the winter.
And then there's Earth's climate, which is what you get when you combine all the climates of the world. Earth's climate is constantly changing; and there have been times when Earth's climate has been warmer or cooler than now, and these times can last for thousands or millions of years.
People who study Earth see that the climate is getting warmer. Earth's temperature has risen about one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years and, while this may not seem like much, these small changes in Earth's temperature can have significant effects, and some of them are already happening.
There is a global scientific consensus on the main cause of accelerated climate change: human activity. According to experts, humans cause climate change by releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air.
Today, there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than ever before, at least in the last 2 million years. During the 20th and 21st centuries, the level of carbon dioxide increased by 40%.
We produce greenhouse gases in many different ways:
Power plants: Forty percent of US carbon dioxide emissions come from electricity production. Ninety-three percent of emissions from the electric industry result from burning coal. According to the EPA, coal-fired power plants and the incineration of medical and municipal waste account for two-thirds of US mercury emissions. Transportation: EPA reports indicate that thirty-three percent of US emissions come from transporting people and goods. Agriculture: Industrial agriculture and livestock release high levels of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Agriculture contributes forty percent of methane and twenty percent of carbon dioxide to global emissions. Deforestation: Deforestation for wood used for construction materials, paper, and fuel increases global warming in two ways: releasing carbon dioxide during deforestation and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide forests can capture. Fertilizers: The use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers increases the amount of heat agricultural lands can store. Nitrogen oxides can trap up to 300 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Sixty-two percent of nitrous oxide released comes from agricultural byproducts. Oil drilling: Combustion from the oil drilling industry impacts the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. The recovery, processing, and distribution of fossil fuels are responsible for approximately eight percent of carbon dioxide and thirty percent of methane pollution. Natural gas drilling: Considered a cleaner fuel source, natural gas drilling causes massive air pollution. The hydraulic fracturing technique used to extract natural gas from shale deposits also contaminates groundwater sources. Waste: As garbage decomposes in landfills, it releases methane and nitrous oxide gases. Approximately eighteen percent of methane in the atmosphere comes from waste disposal and treatment. What Does Electrosmog Have to Do with Climate Change?
Like carbon emissions and other types of pollutants, electromagnetic fields are a human-generated environmental toxin. Electromagnetic radiation is increasing every day, and several studies have shown its numerous biological effects on human health, animals, plants, and ecosystems.
But, besides that, is there any reason to believe that Electromagnetic Pollution could be accelerating global warming? Well, some recent scientific studies on the Earth's magnetic field, cosmic rays, and KELEA (kinetic energy that limits electrostatic attraction) suggest there is a possibility.
Earth's Magnetic Field and Climate Connection
A research paper published in 2018, titled "New perspectives in the study of Earth's magnetic field and climatic connection: the use of transfer entropy," suggested there is a relationship between Earth's magnetic field and climate change.
But the possible relationship between Earth's climate and the geomagnetic field has been hotly debated for the past fifty years. The first serious proposals quantifying this possible link were given by Wollin, who pointed out that low geomagnetic intensities are generally associated with warm periods (similar to the current situation), and by Bucha, who suggested that geomagnetic pole derivations might have been caused by displacements of a large low-pressure region of the Earth's atmosphere associated with increased cyclonic activity and sudden climate changes.
Over the past decades, other mechanisms have been proposed that could explain the geomagnetic field-climate relationship. For example, some have suggested that the flux of galactic cosmic rays, modulated by the intensity of both the Sun and the Earth's magnetic fields acting as a protective shield, plays a significant role in cloud formation, and thus, the geomagnetic field would be involved in climatic processes.
Others compared the advance and retreat of Alpine glaciers over the last three millennia with increases and decreases in geomagnetic field intensity in Paris estimated from archeomagnetic data (paleomagnetic data from heated archeological artifacts). Subsequent work with a complete database of paleomagnetic intensity corroborated a similar connection at a continental European scale. The results of these studies suggest a possible link between centennial-scale cooling episodes and increased geomagnetic intensity.
In this study, the authors applied for the first time a recent statistical tool, transfer entropy, to shed light on the question of a possible link between Earth's magnetic field and climate to provide new perspectives in its future analysis.
"In this work, we have analyzed two real-time series with an analogous evolution over the last 300 years, the extent of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) area on Earth's surface and the rise of the Global Sea Level (GSL). We analyzed the anomalies of both time series, after removing the long-term trend. The results seem to support the existence of an information flow between SAA and GSL anomalies, with greater information transferred from SAA to GSL and a confidence level of around 90%. The connection found does not mean that the geomagnetic field is entirely responsible for climate changes, but it is an important driving component of climate variations. This result is especially relevant because it could help find a physical mechanism capable of explaining this connection by discarding those in which the climate controls the geomagnetic field and supporting mechanisms associated with the geomagnetic field".
Electrocontamination and KELEA
In 2016, W. John Martin published "KELEA, cosmic rays, cloud formation, and electromagnetic radiation: electrocontamination as a possible explanation for climate change," a scientific article published in Atmospheric and Climate Sciences by SCIRP.
In this article, Martin suggested that electromagnetic radiation generated by humans contributes to global warming by diverting an energy force called KELEA (kinetic energy that limits electrostatic attraction) from its presumed association with cosmic rays.
"It is considered that KELEA delivered by cosmic rays normally participates in the formation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). It can do so by transforming electrostatically inert particles into electrostatic aerosols capable of acting as CCN. The resulting clouds act as a reflective barrier to some of the sun's infrared radiation and thus reduce Earth's heat. This article proposes that the increased levels of electromagnetic radiation in the atmosphere are reducing the ability of cosmic rays to deliver adequate KELEA to maintain climatic stability through optimal cloud formation".
Martin also highlighted how KELEA-activated fluids could reduce carbon emissions by assisting agriculture in meeting overall water demand, increasing crop life and health, reducing fertilizer use, and cleaning contaminated water. Martin also suggests equalizing the relative benefits in reducing global warming by providing greater cloud coverage instead of reducing carbon emissions.
Regarding the relationship between KELEA and EMFs, Martin finally concludes that "it is reasonable to propose that KELEA can be competitively transferred among different available electromagnetic radiation sources. Worldwide transmission of electromagnetic energies continues to increase with technological advances in communications and with more extensive transmissions of electrical energy. This has been especially marked in the northern hemisphere, which has warmed more than the southern hemisphere. Some of the KELEA that would normally participate in cloud formation may instead be diverted to the growing atmospheric levels of electromagnetic radiation generated by humanity. Global warming may, therefore, include an additional feature of what is commonly called electrocontamination".
A Problem with Potentially Substantial Ecological Implications
A report published in February 2021 by the US government, titled "The security threat that unites us: the collapse of ecological and natural security and what the United States can do about it," describes our ecological situation and analyzes the security implications arising from decades of environmental disruption. It delves into several pillars of natural security, spanning water, food, wildlife, forests, and fisheries systems. Finally, it offers recommendations on how the United States and other nations and multilateral institutions can mitigate and proactively address ecological disruption and its impacts on national and human security.
"Global ecological disruption is possibly the most underestimated security threat of the 21st century. Human societies are producing rapid, novel, and fundamental changes in multiple Earth systems with concomitant (and sometimes severe) consequences for people, societies, and security worldwide. These changes are significant and with global consequences and include the transformation of atmospheric composition, overloaded and depleted soils, poisoned and acidified oceans, and reconfigured freshwater systems. Because of human activities, the biosphere, the Earth system encompassing all living entities, is rapidly destabilizing and unraveling the ecological fabric on which human society depends. Many scientists warn that Earth is entering a sixth mass extinction, a period of rapid loss of biodiversity so consequential that it affects the fate of most multicellular organisms on the planet".
According to the report, since 2009, the University of Cambridge's Conservation Biology Department has convened an annual meeting of researchers, professionals, journalists, and other experts to engage in a horizon scanning analysis of issues that could have substantial ecological consequences. The chart includes the past five years, and the potential effects on wildlife of increasing electromagnetic radiation were mentioned as an emerging global biological conservation issue for 2018.
My Analysis: All Possible Causes and Solutions Must Be Considered
By better understanding Earth's magnetic field behavior, cosmic rays, KELEA, and other factors, we will be able to establish stronger connections between electromagnetic fields and the many disruptions we see in Earth's climate.
Humanity has often assumed that electromagnetic radiation is so small that its impacts are insignificant. But scientific evidence collected over a few decades has shown that EMFs have real effects, and as it grows, the artificial polarization in its fundamental particles visibly affects our planet's delicate natural balance.
I am genuinely convinced that there is still much to unravel and understand about the many relationships electromagnetic pollution has with all sorts of phenomena we are experiencing today. One of the many clues we have that something is happening with electromagnetic fields is the alteration of bird migration patterns. And there is also a strong connection between electromagnetic fields and the collapse disorder of bee colonies, a phenomenon that is increasingly worrying experts worldwide.
So we already know we have a problem with electromagnetic fields, it's evident, and more people are becoming aware of this gradually. But it is crucial to reach a global scientific, academic, and industrial consensus to delve into this matter, understand the size of its real implications on climate change, and what we can do to control it; just as we are urging people to act to stop the other well-known causes.
We will soon face an exponential growth in EMF pollution related to the evolution of many technologies and industries. For example, there will be an unstoppable increase in electric and hybrid vehicles, IoT will become commonplace sooner rather than later, and hyperconnectivity will be the new normal. Not to mention that this decade will be decisive for the expansion of the space industry, which will definitely increase radiofrequency emission levels from the atmosphere and even from the moon.
Electromagnetic fields are a topic we cannot lose sight of, and I believe we should not see it as an isolated problem but rather see the whole picture in an interdisciplinary and interconnected way. There are many questions surrounding this, and together, we can find answers to preserve our planet's health.
There is much to study and demonstrate, that's for sure. But we, as one of the many species threatened by climate change, are not in a position to underestimate a potential threat we can control. I have always said this, and I will continue to advocate for it: electromagnetic pollution can be reduced or even eliminated if we work together on better regulations, better urban planning, and better manufacturing practices.
Working on these and using filtering technologies like SPIRO®, we can completely control this issue without halting technological advancements and technology use. But we should start studying electromagnetic fields on a larger scale: in terms of cities, oceans, and, of course, across the planet as a huge system.
