BN Frank – Activist Post Sept 5, 2022

Opposition to 5G is worldwide and for numerous significant issues associated with the controversial technology.  This has limited, slowed, and/or stopped deployment in some locations (see 1, 2) including near U.S. airports due to aviation interference risks (see 1, 2, 3).  Nevertheless, deployment continues worldwide on a massive scale and devastation continues to be reported where it has been activated, including on the Greek island of Samos.

From Safe Tech International:

5G Cell Towers Cause Massive Insect Decline on the Greek Island of Samos Part 2, Guest Blog by Diana Kordas Ed.m, M.A
(see Part 1 here)

Abstract

Insect declines have continued on Samos since the introduction of 5G. The situation has worsened since 5G became commercially available from July 1, 2022. Not only are insect numbers in general continuing to decline; pollinators including butterflies are declining very rapidly. Insectivore birds are declining also. Soil conditions have worsened as well, with the soil becoming more acidic than previously. There are no visible insects in the soil, and many plants are not growing as well as they should, or growing to full size. Melons and aubergines show signs of DNA damage. Lack of pollinators, poor yields and withered plants are apparent all over the island. The implications for food production generally are frightening: a combination of declining soil quality, declines in pollinator numbers and radiation-damaged plants means that it will be harder to grow food and that food prices will continue to rise. Total crop failures may occur in future.

Observational Study Area, May-July 2022

5G was introduced in July of 2021 on Samos, but only became commercially available at the beginning of July 2022. During the year in which the technology was live but not commercially available, adjustments were being made to the system so that it would operate properly. The 5G wavelengths of 0.7 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 22.5 GHz have been operational from July last year.

Insects

Serious insect declines began with 4G, but the introduction of 5G caused a rapid and massive decline in many types of insects, many of them pollinators. Climate change, which is often given as the reason for insect declines, could not have had this effect within a single growing season. Also, climate change should bring an increase in the number of insects rather than a decline. As mentioned in “5G Cell Towers Cause Massive Insect Decline on the Greek Island of Samos”, the area does not have pesticides.

The number of pollinators has visibly dropped since the beginning of this summer (2022). In May we still had some hoverflies, bumblebees, honeybees and white bees. There were a few bee flies and, in general, the situation was much as it had been at the close of last summer. Now virtually all the larger bees and hoverflies are gone. Since July 1, we have seen only 2-3 carpenter bees, two bumblebees, and no honey bees. There are no drone flies and there are very few hoverflies or wasps. Of the hoverflies, the only two types we see now live in underground burrows—and there are not very many of them left. The same is true of the wasp species we are seeing: the only kinds we have left live underground, with the exception of very tiny wasps (see below). We have seen no red bees at all this year (there are several species which are mostly active in spring and early summer), and no white bees, which used to be the main pollinators of our summer vegetables along with bumblebees.

Crops are still getting pollinated, though we expect yields to be much lower than last year (courgettes are not being pollinated at all, very few melons have been pollinated, and we will definitely have farfewer tomatoes, less than a quarter of what we had last year). The main pollinators are very tiny wild bees, some only 2-3 millimeters long. We are seeing several species of these tiny bees. There are also a few tiny wasps, also 2-3 millimeters long, of a species we have not noticed before. Except for a few burrowing wasps, these are the only wasps we are seeing.

In general, insect numbers have continued to fall since last summer. There are very few grasshoppers, almost no crickets, very few beetles, fewer butterflies and moths, and fewer cicadas. Some species, such as the spoonwing lacewing and indeed most lacewings, have vanished entirely. Until recently, and despite overall insect declines since the introduction of 4G, species that lived or laid eggs underground were more abundant than species that lived or laid eggs above ground. This is mentioned in Lazaro et. al (2017) with reference to wild bees, but the same principle applies generally.

Cicadas hatch and develop underground, where they spend the whole of their lives until they emerge for a few weeks to find mates and breed. Until recently, they had not declined noticeably; only last year (2021) did we notice declines in numbers and see signs of DNA damage in some cicadas, in the form of damaged wings. This year, not only are there markedly fewer cicadas, but there are generally fewer insects that breed and live underground. This may be due to both direct and indirect effects of electromagnetic radiation on the soil. Insects like cicadas, which hunt underground in the larval stage, may be finding less to eat. The change in the electromagnetic balance of the soil itself may also be killing them (see the section “Soil Acidification” in “5G Cell Towers Cause Massive Insect Decline on the Greek Island of Samos”).

Table of Pollinators in the Study Area, 2012-July 2022

List of Abbreviations: NA= Not Applicable; AY= All Year
5 = 100% is given as a baseline for 2012 and does not reflect insect prevalence of earlier years.
4 = 80%-61%, 3 = 60%-41%, 2 = 40%-21%, 1 = 20%-1%, 0 = none seen

Birds

Birds are also being seriously affected by 5G. There are many fewer birds around than there were several years ago; bird populations have fallen all over the island and finches of all species seem to be virtually extinct, as do kingfishers. On our land, sardinian warblers, orphean warblers, great tits, blackbirds and jays all nested, but we have seen no juvenile birds except young great tits. We seem to have lost our wrens and song thrushes. Warblers are insectivores and with declining insect populations, their future is not assured. Other birds have also not bred successfully. Chukars, a common island subspecies of partridge, have had very few young this year; some pairs have not bred and of the few with young we have seen, there are fewer chicks than usual. We had a pair of tawny owls, but they do not seem to have bred and these days we only hear one owl. Since rodents have seriously declined, the decline in owls may be due to lack of food.

In our local wetlands, flamingos have failed to breed for the first time that we have seen. The lagoon there functions as a sort of creche for baby flamingos, and generally there are 30-40 first-winter and second-winter birds. This year there were only two first-winter flamingos and three second-winter ones. In addition, seven pairs of ruddy shelduck failed to breed at all. The lagoon used to have numerous little egrets; now there are none.

There were very few migrating birds this year. The bee-eaters arrived in early May, but not so many of them as usual. Barn swallows, house martins, common swifts and alpine swifts also arrived, but numbers are very small and red-rumped swallows have not arrived. These birds generally hunt insects on and above our land throughout May, and did so this year, but—and this was the first time we have ever seen this—they were relentlessly attacked by the yellow-legged gulls, who tore swallows and martins literally to pieces over our heads, and captured bee-eaters in their beaks and killed them. This went on day after day, and was sickening to watch.

Gulls are not raptors; they are mostly scavengers although they may steal eggs and young from other birds’ nests. However, the gulls may be starving as there is nothing in the sea at all: no urchins, starfish, shells, cuttlefish and other sea life that usually wash up on beaches where the gulls scavenge.

We have seen nothing washed up on beaches for several years except rubbish, driftwood and ribbonweed. There are also very few fish. Clearly the taking of smaller birds in flight was a new method of getting food for these gulls; they became more adept at catching other birds as the days passed.

Soil Conditions and Soil Insects; DNA Damage in Plants

The soil is becoming much more acidic. In April we dug a new vegetable bed, on virgin soil: the land has not been used since before World War II. We found absolutely no insects in the soil, not even a single earthworm. There should have been large numbers of earthworms, grubs, small centipedes and various beetles. In order to grow our summer crops we have had to add calcium to soil three times, and even so our peppers are showing signs of calcium deficiency, with black spots and areas of thin walls appearing near the tips of the fruits. The peppers themselves are thinner-walled than they should be, and cook down to nothing. Were we market gardeners, these would be unsaleable. Some tomatoes are also showing damage due to lack of calcium: weak spots like scars in the skins of the fruits and, in the plum tomatoes, some fruits where the lower half has turned black and rotted. A number of tomatoes and peppers rot entirely before ripening; this is not due to insect damage.

In last year’s summer bed, we attempted to grow peas and beans in the early spring. Nothing sprouted. We were not the only people whose beans did not grow. The same thing happened to several of our neighbours and friends, who all grow broad beans every winter. This year, their beans did not grow.

We used the other half of the same bed to plant potatoes, which like acidic soil. These grew, but yields were low, with some plants producing no potatoes at all. Despite the fact that the soil was kept moist, when we dug the potatoes out we found, once again, no insects at all, not even a single earthworm.

We planted courgettes and melons in the half of the bed where the peas and beans had failed to grow. They sprouted, but no courgettes and few melons have been pollinated, and the plants have not grown to normal size; they have remained very small despite fertilization (we use both goat and chicken manure, the one dug into the soil and the other watered in as the plants are growing).