Karl Grossman / CounterPunch
(March 15, 2021) — Demonstrations will be held this coming Friday and Saturday protesting the deployment of 5G — a technology that, among other issues, presents huge health risks by blanketing the Earth with radiation resulting in cancer and other illnesses, encourages satellite collisions generating space debris, causes depletion of the ozone layer by the huge number of launches planned, and is a major factor in the weaponization of space.
A key aim of the US military is utilizing 5G for “re-targeting” the hypersonic missiles it has been developing — missiles that fly at five times the speed of sound so guiding their trajectories must occur with extreme rapidity.
A “5G SpaceX Satellite Protest” is to be held Friday, March 19 at the headquarters of SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX, of which Elon Musk is founder and CEO.
Information on the California protest is available here.
SpaceX is deeply involved in launching the small satellites being placed in low-earth orbit for 5G. Last week, it launched a rocket carrying another 60 and plans to send up tens of thousands in the next few years in a program SpaceX has named “Starlink.”
Also, as part of “Starlink,” SpaceX last year was given permission by the Federal Communications Commission to erect up to one million antennas on earth to serve as transceivers linked to the satellites.
On Saturday, March 20, a “5G Global Protest Day” will be held with protests planned around the world. Information on the “5G Global Protest Day” is available here.
Says Julie Levine, coordinator of the organization 5G Free California: “The planet is calling out to us. If ever there was an existential crisis on earth, we are in it now. Please join us in taking action.”
The term 5G represents what is described as a “fifth-generation” of wireless communication technology. The drive for it has been intense. There has been a barrage in recent times of advertising by telecommunications companies for 5G.
And, with the military component a large factor, there’s been a big Pentagon push.
Dafna Tachover, director of Stop 5G and Wireless Harms Project of the organization Children’s Health Defense, says: “Science on the health risks of wireless radiation has been accumulating for decades. Heedless of the dangers, government and the telecommunications — ‘telecom’ — industry continue to propagate wireless technologies and infrastructure, helped along by captive regulatory agencies and successful efforts — including legislative — to silence public debate about health effects. At the same time, media campaigns and apps designed to addict the public — and especially children — have been effective in generating consumer enthusiasm. As a result, the wireless transformation has been hugely profitable.”
5G and Human Health Impacts
Epidemiologist Dr. Devra Davis, founder and president of the Environmental Health Trust, says: “The transmissions to and from proposed 5G wireless installations are radiofrequency emissions that are an environmental pollutant found to cause cancer in both experimental animals and humans, DNA damage, neurological damage and other adverse health and environmental effects, e.g., on birds, bees, and trees, according to internationally recognized authoritative research.
The prestigious institutions that have conducted these studies include the US National Toxicology Program, the nation’s premier testing institute, and the Ramazzini Institute, a foremost testing center in Italy.”
Dr. Davis notes that “an immediate moratorium on 5G” has been “called for by more than 400 scientists and supported by thousands of medical doctors,” as cited in a court challenge last year by the Environmental Health Trust to the Federal Communications Commission’s actions — and inaction — on 5G.
Moreover, she says, “Wired technologies such as fiber or coaxial cable are far superior to wireless as they are faster, more reliable, resilient, energy-efficient, and more easily defended from cyber-attacks. Above all, wired connections are significantly less hazardous to our health and to other life forms with whom we share this planet.”
In a Scientific American article, Dr. Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, states: “The latest cellular technology, 5G, will employ millimeter waves for the first time, in addition to microwaves that have been used for older cellular technologies, 2G through 4G. Given limited reach, 5G will require cell antennas every 100 to 200 meters, exposing many people to millimeter-wave radiation.”
His article, titled “We Have No Reason to Believe 5G Is Safe,” further notes that “we have considerable evidence about the harmful effects of 2G and 3G” and “little is known about the effects of exposure to 4G, a 10-year-old technology, because governments have been remiss in funding this research.”
Dr. Moskowitz asks: “As a society, should we invest hundreds of billions of dollars deploying 5G, a cellular technology that requires the installation of 800,000 or more new cell antenna sites in the US close to where we live, work and play?”
Military Applications of 5G
“What 5G means to the military”—was the headline of an extensive article this past December on the Military & Aerospace Electronics website. It began: “Emerging fifth-generation wireless communications — better-known as 5G — will be far more than quick-connect phone calls and fast movie downloads, particularly for the US military.”
“5G holds the promise of ubiquitous high-speed data connectivity; vastly improved intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; fast and secure command and control; more efficient logistics; swarming unmanned vehicles; and wide use of virtual reality and augmented reality,” the piece states.
“The promise of 5G is for instant situational awareness anywhere on earth, smart hypersonic weapons with re-targeting on-the-fly, rich access to mission-critical data on the leading edge of the battlefield,” the article declares.
The “re-targeting on-the-fly” is critical for the newly-developed hypersonic missiles — the first test of which occurred last March 19th from the US military’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. Hypersonic missiles fly at some 3,600-miles-per-hour or one-mile-per-second. A “re-targeting on-the-fly” thus needs to happen with great quickness. The hypersonic missiles are “nuclear capable.”
The US is seeking to acquire “volumes of hundreds or even thousands” of “stealthy” hypersonic missiles, reported an article last year in Aviation Week & Space Technology.
How 5G Would Abet Nuclear War
“Military experts foresee that the 5G system will play an essential role for the use of hypersonic weapons — missiles, including those bearing nuclear warheads, which travel at a speed superior to Mach 5 … in order to guide them on variable trajectories, changing direction in a fraction of a second to avoid interceptor missiles,” says an article headed “The Hidden Military Use of 5G Technology.” Written by Manlio Dinucci, it first appeared in 2019 in the Italian web newspaper, Il Manifesto, with an English version published by Global Research.
The article cites a report, “Defense Applications of 5G Network Technology,” issued by “the Defense Science Board, a federal committee which provides scientific advice for the Pentagon.” It quoted the report as stating: “The emergence of 5G technology, now commercially available, offers the Department of Defense the opportunity to take advantage, at minimal cost, of the benefits of this system for its own operational requirements.”
“DOD Announces $600 Million for 5G Experimentation and Testing at Five Installations” was the heading of a Department of Defense press release. “Today, the Department of Defense announced $600 million in awards for 5G experimentation and testing at five US military test sites, representing the largest full-scale tests for dual-use applications in the world,” said the press release. The term “dual-use” is common in the US space program standing for a program that has both a civilian and military purpose.
“The Department of Defense is at the forefront of cutting-edge 5G testing and experimentation, which will strengthen the Nation’s warfighting capabilities as well as US economic competitiveness in this critical field,” the press release went on.
It identified the five 5G test sites as: Hill Air Force Base in Utah; Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington; Marine Corps Logistics Base in Georgia; Naval Base San Diego in California; and Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
“Pentagon Looks to Tap 5G in Space,” was the headline summing up the U.S, military’s 5G drive of an article in February 2021 on the website Defense One.
As for the military component of 5G, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space — www.space4peace.org — said in an interview: “It is no surprise that the corporate media is pushing 5G so widely and eagerly — without the slightest bit of critical thought.”
“The Pentagon knows that faster speeds from 5G will enable greater space surveillance, targeting, and offensive military operations as a result,” he noted.
“Launches of tens of thousands of 5G satellites will ensure that every person on Earth will have a satellite over their head 24/7,” Gagnon continued. “Imagine the surveillance and targeting capabilities that would become available. And the taxpayer is fronting much of the money.
“The DOD and NASA are awarding hundreds of billions of dollars to the likes of Elon Musk of Space X and other private launch corporations to hoist the 5G satellites into the heavens.”
5G in Space: Climate Change and Wars in Orbit
“There is an additional downside to all of these 5G satellite launches,” says Gagnon of the Maine-based international organization. “With each launch, the resulting toxic rocket fuel is punching a larger hole in our planetary ozone layer which exacerbates the climate crisis. In addition, the orbital parking lots, which are already quite crowded, are quickly filling up which will become a point of conflict in the near future as other nations become agitated that the US is grabbing most of the parking spaces in the increasingly contested orbits.’
Points out Gagnon: “There is presently no national or international regulation over the use of space. Not only is this a worry, because of the resulting increase in dangerous space debris, but one must recognize that humankind is creating a deadly new arena of competition and military confrontation.”
“It is up to all of us,” says Gagnon, “to speak out and demand that NASA, the Federal Communications Commission, the United Nations and the Pentagon quickly undertake a process of fair regulation of space-launch operations. If not done immediately, we will face a cascade of deadly collisions and even war in space.”
“There are many reasons to oppose 5G — health impacts, environmental impacts, loss of the night sky which is angering astronomers — but the military use of 5G is possibly the worst,” says Gagnon, “as it needlessly accelerates the already huge concern about keeping space for peace.”
The Stop 5G International announcement on Saturday’s “5G Global Protest Day” includes a “Stop5G International Declaration” which relates: “We envision and seek to ensure a world where 5G, 6G or any other ‘G’ is replaced by safe technology that has undergone scrutiny to ensure the health and well-being of all life on the planet before being unleashed. We envision and seek to ensure a world where the health and well-being of all life takes precedence over corporate self-gain.”
The announcement also states: “The Heavens, our planet’s last precious frontier, are not a commodity to be bought and sold and degraded for private commercial gain; but rather, they are Sacred and held in public trust; and we stewards here on planet Earth are legally and ethically responsible for their wise and careful exploration.”
StopG International has prepared an “Open Letter to Elon Musk & SpaceX” which it is asking individuals and organizations to sign on to. It declares: “We are writing to you at this time because SpaceX is in the process of surrounding the Earth with a network of thousands of satellites whose very purpose is to irradiate every square inch of the Earth. SpaceX, like everyone else, is treating the radiation as if it were not there….We write to you today to ask you to halt the Starlink project because it is so destructive.”
There is also a 5G International Legal Action Network led by attorneys Julian Gresser and Amber Yang. which has advanced a “Healthy Heavens Trust Declaration.” It explains: “We are a professional network of lawyers and relevant experts, dedicated to redirecting the 5G Juggernaut toward balance and wisdom. Our species is rushing toward a future that feeds our addiction to speed, instant gratification, energy consumption, and disconnection from Earth. By creatively working together, we have a chance to cause a shift.”
Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and is the author of the book, The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet, and the Beyond Nuclear handbook, The US Space Force and the dangers of nuclear power and nuclear war in space. Grossman is an associate of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
