In our present day, we have a Federation of Scientists who warn about averting environmental risks in the new space age, they believe we face an existential crisis created by the launch of so many new ‘mega constellations’ of thousands of satellites in the part of space near Earth called ‘Low Earth Orbit’ (LEO). 

What would Captain Kirk say? Even if we were a civilization capable of space travel, would we even be considered for ‘United Federation of Planet’ membership if we couldn’t even safeguard our planet? 

60 Starlink v0.9 satellites stacked together before deployment on 24 May 2019
Attribution: Official SpaceX Photos, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Interstellar governments (fictional or otherwise) may not want unfettered and unregulated commercial pollution for Starlink. We may violate the prime directive which states non-interference for other worlds: if we can’t control our own satellite pollution, there is no guarantee we may have discretion on other planets.

If there even was a present day Starfleet, would a Galactic Federation rescue us and interfere with our potential destruction of our magnetosphere from all the satellite launches?  “The Prime Directive prohibits Starfleet personnel from interfering with the natural development of a society for good or bad, and that has often meant that crews must stand by as an entire civilization is wiped away by natural disasters or technological folly.” according to Screen Rant.

There may be no Galactic Federation to save the day, let alone UFOs, if we have too many rocket launches.

Real life facts: International Astronomical Union has a conference on light pollution and radio interference caused by satellites: https://astrobites.org/2024/10/01/iau-dark-and-quiet-skies//

The United Nations recognizes light pollution as detrimental (https://www.un.org/e…migratory-birds). 

Timelapse of recently deployed satellites (vertical lines)
M. Lewinsky/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Common

International Astronomical Union (IAU-CPS), a worldwide institution focuses on mitigation of sky glow from satellites.

“Protecting the Sky is the Core Mission of the IAU because without the sky, there is no science of astronomy.” –  IAU

Do We Need to Worry More About Rocket Emissions Than Airplanes?

Unlike airplanes, rocket emissions from space affect every layer of the atmosphere with toxins and aren’t washed away according to  Scientific American. “Jet engines…burn very clean compared with rocket engines. Some types of hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engines emit hundreds of times more soot for each kilogram of fuel burned than do their jet engine cousins. And jets only occasionally fly in the stratosphere; rockets fly there every launch.”

Is Starlink Bridging the Digital Divide?

Starlink was denied 900 billion dollar broadband subsidies by the FCC for failing to meet its criteria of providing cheap internet to rural poor, according to Forbes.

“Gene Roddenberry always wanted Star Trek to depict a future of humanity without war, without hunger, without disease and without poverty: When she asks how much the ship has cost, Picard tells Lily: “The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century… The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.” (‘Star Trek: First Contact’); see this fascinating blog. 

Is Starlink embracing the Star Trek vision to eliminate poverty? Starlink did provide Hurricane Helene internet relief, and yet “The FCC previously found that Starlink had trouble meeting basic upload and download speeds and that rural subscribers would have had to pay an upfront fee of $600 at the time for a dish,” according to the New York Times.  

“Although hundreds of free Starlinks were donated to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene…the free internet service is temporary. On the company’s website, Starlink said it would provide 30 days of service for the devices in affected areas, before a standard residential subscription would be charged.”

Space Junk May Prevent Us From Belonging To A Future Galactic Federation?

Although SpaceX has a distinct incentive to make sure any faulty Starlink satellites don’t end up in the future path of its own rockets and spacecraft, Starlink satellites are expected to come into the atmosphere to eventually burn up starting five or six years after they are launched and deployed, according to BCSatelllite.net, which states:

“Everything going into space must pass through the region that is largely inhabited by Starlink. What are the implications of the Starlink constellation on space junk at this critical altitude at which they operate? As it turns out the situation does not look good. Currently most space junk is located in between the Starlink and OneWeb altitudes.”

SpaceX Debris Lands on a Farm in Australia!

The International Astronomical Union Urges Action In Its first paper: https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann24008/

If you want to hold ‘Space, the final frontier,’ sacred we need your help! One small step for all, one giant leap for all lifekind starts with a US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) grassroots petition:

Tell the FCC: Satellite mega-constellations need environmental review.  We’re in a short window of time when we can prevent making a mess of space and our atmosphere – US PIRG

Please feel free to share the petition with anyone you think might be interested! 

For a two part Persian translation of this blog see, Part 1 and Part 2, courtesy of Farhad Khelghati from Iran,

In a thought-provoking essay, The Simple Story of Civilization, author Tom Murphy condenses the approximately 2.5 million years we humans have been here on Earth into an average life span of 75 years. In this model, the first 70 years represent the period during which different species of humans evolved. The last five years correlate to the age of Homo Sapiens (starting c. 200,000 years ago) where we lived and evolved in a kind of ecological homeostasis with the rest of the natural world. 

The last 15 weeks (beginning c.10,000 years ago real time) represents the beginnings of agriculture where we set ourselves apart from, and above the rest of the natural world, and when we began to view Earth as a mere repository of resources for human endeavors. With the advent of agriculture came cities, property, surplus, storage, enslavement of both animals and humans­, armies, and hierarchy. 

In the last 36 hours, a mere blip in time, we dialed things up with the discovery of fossil fuels imagining we now had unlimited powers and could manifest all manner of creature comforts. 

The remaining 12 hours (representing the last 50 years in real time) bring us to the present day of “global ecological devastation” in Murphy’s own words.

Most recently, with the exponential proliferation of technology and AI, our hubristic notions of super-power have been amplified adding fuel to the already expansionary fires of unchecked growth and resource extraction. 

Implications of the technological Tsunami for 21^st century warfighting

War too has morphed over time from person-to-person combat, perhaps atop horses or on war elephants, to the current battlefield of AI-controlled systems that weave together Earth, sea, air, space, and cyber space. Invisible electromagnetic battles now take place through the airwaves, with cyber warfare a click away. Remote-controlled nuclear warheads boast speeds up to 20 times that of sound, and nuclear Armageddon is precariously locked in a global stalemate of mutually assured destruction – which, according to the Doomsday Clock, is currently 90 seconds before midnight.

The world’s military is a major contributor to our global ecological devastation. In 2022 it accounted for an estimated 5.5% of global CO2 emissions, although likely that figure is higher as militaries are quite secretive and not required to report emissions. The US military alone is the world’s largest institutional consumer of hydrocarbons “…belching out more emissions than industrialised nations like Portugal and Denmark” in the words of Lorraine Mallinder from Aljazeera. 

Mallinder goes on to say that military expansion has also impacted air quality, ecosystems, biodiversity, and the health of people living near bases. 

Outer space has become pivotal for warfighting and is now being decked out with thousands of satellites to weave together, coordinate, and manage the deluge of data flowing in from all branches of the military as well as from civilian sources. 

Transmitters include cell towers, satellites, underwater sensors, surveillance cameras, cell phones, smart cities, facial recognition technology and other biometric markers, robots, the Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT) consisting of networked helmets, combat gear and other wearables, etc. 

AI algorithms sort through and make sense of these vast streams of data and provide actionable items to militaries. 

In addition, electromagnetic radiation has significantly upped the ante in three new domains of warfighting: 

• Cyber Warfare – attacks on computer systems and connected infrastructure 
• Electronic Warfare – battles in the electromagnetic spectrum; electromagnetic pulse attacks potentially downing a nations entire electrical grid; or directed energy weapons used to fry components. 
• Cognitive Warfare – manipulation of how people think, feel, and act. 

Other means of expansion being used to recklessly hurtle us all from 5G to 6G, FutureG, and beyond include: 

• Dual use technology where militaries join forces with industry to speed innovation.
• Proliferation – whereby satellites and other systems scale to thousands or tens of thousands, so the loss of a few won’t affect the overall viability of the system. 
• Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWs) where warfighting is increasingly handed over to AI-controlled weapons and systems that make decisions at blistering speeds, while relegating humans to mere bystanders attempting to stay in the loop if at all possible. 

With the US and China vying for first mover advantage, over seventy countries sporting government space agencies, and many satellite programs springing up from the private sector as well, we are fast depleting Earth’s “resources,” turbo-charging warfighting, while clogging up the Heavens with ever more debris

Reflections

If the notion of digital technology as a testament to human ingenuity seems a bit grim, and techno-optimism – technology’s power to “save mankind” – is beginning to sound lame…. well, you’re not alone. Many of us are grieving deeply as we bear witness to the harms being inflicted on all Life.  

Personally, I find some solace and inspiration in the following phrase from the Hebrew blessing recited after a meal: V’achalta, v’savata, ou v’rachta – And you shall eat, and be satiated, and you shall bless. 

And you shall eat – in Hebrew v-achalta – refers to more than just consuming food. It means taking in or experiencing something from “outside” of ourselves and allowing it to inform or transform us as it is “digested” into our mind, heart, and body – e.g., smelling a flower, listening to a song, or navigating a life challenge.

And you shall be satiated – v’savata – refers to the sweet point of satiation where we have just enough but not one drop too much. When we ingest food deplete of nutrients or partake of experiences devoid of meaning, we are left feeling unsatisfied and prone to over consume. But when we partake of the substance of real life – not the illusory and frivolous distractions of for-sale and for-profit substitutes – then enough is truly and generously enough.

Ou’verachta — and you shall bless. We lend our unique signature to what we “consume” as we send it back out into the world via our thoughts, intentions, words, and deeds – hopefully, in the form of blessings to all living beings and to Earth herself. 

If we can find our eco-niche – our unique place in the web of life – we will interrelate with one another with respect, restraint, and love…  and our actions – both individual and collective – will bring blessing, not war.    

During this vanishingly small moment in evolutionary time brought about by the confluence of 

• separating ourselves from the web of life
• the desire for dominion
• the discovery of fossil fuels
•  and more recently supercharged by digital technology and AI, 

… we humans seem to have lost our way and have become a threat to all living beings. 

But there’s an undertow growing stronger by the day beneath the tidal waves of consumerism and war: A powerful movement of people dedicating every fiber of their being to help shift our global consciousness to one of inter-being, and to rekindle greater reverence and care for all Life. The movement isn’t new but thankfully is growing by leaps and bounds, fueled by our collective grief and our inherent reverence for Life. 

Many wonderful authors, visionaries, speakers etc. are contributing to the movement, each with their own unique flavor. Following is a small sampling of a few I have found particularly inspiring. 

Bill Plotkin from the Animas Institute has developed a program for guiding soul initiation and assisting people in becoming Visionary Artisans of Cultural Evolution. Author and visionary Jeremy Lent invites people to join Deep Transformation Network, a growing group of people feeling their way into a more eco-conscious future. In the podcast series, The Great Simplification, Nate Hagen interviews an extraordinary array of people from diverse fields each addressing the Metacrisis in their own way. Author and translator, David Hinten recalls past civilizations that were able to sustain and nurture the land they were on for thousands of years due to a profound understanding of their niche in the web of Life. And finally, Iain McGilchrist who explains how, in our 21^st century civilization, the more strategic goal-oriented left hemisphere of the brain has gained dominance over the right hemisphere that sees more holistically, and that intuits our interconnectedness with all Life. 

At this pivotal and critical moment in time the powerful forces driving expansion and war coupled with exponential technology and AI are a Cosmic Invitation – indeed a plea and a prayer – for us to find and savor our individual and collective ecological niche here on Earth where enough is truly and generously enough. 

Would Vincent Van Gogh been able to paint “The Starry Night” Milky Way if he could no longer see the night sky due to light pollution which includes Starlink?

Vincent van Gogh painted “The Starry Night” in France in 1889; according to International Dark-Sky, “Now, the Milky Way can no longer be seen from there.”

According to International Dark-Sky Association: “Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night sky. Now, millions of children across the globe will never experience the Milky Way where they live.”

Vincent Van Gogh loved the night sky

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream,” the Dutch painter wrote in a letter to his brother, Theo, in 1888,” according to DarkSky.org.

What would Vincent Van Gogh have painted if Starlink filled the sky a hundred years ago?

Would Vincent Van Gogh have painted space waste and called it ‘Starry Starry Satellite?’ Would our ‘wishing upon a star’ verse have a different rhyme?

Star light, star bright
First star I see, I wish tonight
I wish I may, I wish I might
Oh stars? It’s just a satellite.

“The new space race doesn’t need to create massive space waste,” experts warn, states ABC News. Many satellites have a lifespan of five years and then de-orbit. Sierra Solter-Hunt, Physicist, released a paper in 2023 warning about incinerated satellites in the atmosphere.

Scientists warn why we must keep our sky dark

“Dark skies are (important) for the well-being of humans, plants, and animals, and for opening a window to the observable universe,” states the Dark Sky Center.

“The natural world evolved with the rhythms of day and night, and light pollution disrupts that. Artificial light lures sea turtles away from the sea and toward the cities after they hatch; light pollution affects migratory and breeding patterns in animals,” according to Itemonline.

Space researchers urge regulatory agency to “press pause” on new satellite launches in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission.

If you want to see the Milky Way galaxy, we need your help! The US Public Interest Research Group has a grassroots petition that members of the public can support.

Tell the FCC: Satellite mega-constellations need environmental review. We’re in a short window of time when we can prevent making a mess of space and our atmosphere – US PIRG

Please feel free to share the petition with anyone you think might be interested!
Also sign Sierra Club’s petition to safeguard the night sky:

https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/protect-the-night/petition

What would the three wise men say if we could no longer see the Star of Bethlehem because Starlink satellites blinds us from seeing the stars in the night sky?

“For centuries, scholars have suggested the Star of Bethlehem may have actually been a ‘great conjunction’ of bright planets. Jupiter and Saturn came together in a ‘Great Conjunction’ in 2020 that was unlike any seen in nearly 800 years,” according to this article in Astronomy.com.

In the 17th century, Kepler suggested that a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BCE could be the astronomical origin of the Star of Bethlehem.

Why Starlink satellites blinds us from seeing the stars in the night sky

Starlink satellites are positioned in low-Earth orbit, so appear particularly bright and move rapidly across the night sky. Sky gazers fear that Starlink satellites may outnumber the stars there are to see. Starlink satellites appear as a trail of lights several days after launch and easily visible to the naked eye. What would the three wise men say if Starlink was in place thousands of years ago?

During this holiday season, you too can check for satellites in your night sky, in addition to the Bethlehem star:

“Astronomers warn bright light and electromagnetic radiation from thousands of Starlink satellites could be interfering with ground-based telescopes … limiting our study of the universe.“

“We’ve had satellites ever since Sputnik 1 launched in 1957. But today, the numbers are mind-boggling. In 1958, eight satellites were launched. By 1967, that number rose to 159. After that, roughly 40 to 150 satellites were launched annually. Fast forward to 2023, and more than 2,600 satellites were launched,” – CBC News

What would the three wise men see with SpaceX ‘mega constellation’ of 42,000 satellites in the sky – a train of lights instead? Would we have the same holiday stories if in ancient times there was an appropriation of our night sky by private entities such as SpaceX?

Credit: Victoria Girgis/Lowell Observatory Trails made by Starlink satellites

SpaceX is set to be even brighter with cell tower in space!

SpaceX’s new Starlink satellites that connect directly to phones are nearly five times brighter than traditional Starlink cites recent study. “SpaceX plans to form what it calls ‘a cellphone tower in space’ with thousands of direct-to-cell (DTC) satellites around Earth that offer service straight to unmodified smartphones ‘wherever you can see the sky.’ The higher luminosity of these DTCs compared to regular Starlinks is partly because they circle Earth at just 217 miles,” according to Space.com.

How do ‘mega constellations’ of thousands of satellites damage our earth atmosphere? Andrew Bacon of Space Forge and Jonathan McDowell, Astronomer at Harvard speak out about satellites burning up the atmosphere with aluminum ash in this Space.com expose: “There is now a Starlink reentry almost every day,” McDowell told Space.com. “Sometimes multiple.”

Satellite launches create ozone “mini holes”

“NASA aircraft showed that (Solid-rocket motor (SRM) oxidizer) …plumes create dramatic ozone “mini holes” that persist for several days after a launch,” according to Scientific American.

Next steps!

If you want to hold the legacy of three wise men seeing the Star of Bethlehem, or our ability to view our Milky Way, the starry sky needs our help! US Public Interest Research Group has a grassroots petition that members of the public can support.

“Tell the FCC: Satellite mega-constellations need environmental review. We’re in a short window of time when we can prevent making a mess of space and our atmosphere.”
– US PIRG

Please feel free to share the petition with anyone you think might be interested!

Introduction:

Sensing the Zeitgeist of the times, our team at Safe Tech International felt perhaps a renewed and internationally coordinated initiative focusing on local communities might be timely.

The idea was to invite people around the world to simultaneously send a letter to their local officials communicating strong dissent to the proliferation of EMFs in their community or city.  

We considered two possibilities: A Notice of Liability (NOL), or perhaps a more cordial but firm awareness raising letter. 

What emerged, while still a “letter” so to speak, could more aptly be called an ode to a simpler and saner way of life, with a special emphasis on the role of technology in our lives. A kind of invitation for ourselves, elected reps, and others to hold in our mind’s eye and heart the innate desire we humans share:

A desire for a life of health, well-being, wholesome relationships, a humble place to call home, a modest livelihood, and a way to contribute to the local and global family of life…and of course, all to the backdrop of world peace.   

The letter, or ode, has a very different style from how we usually communicate with our elected reps. This was intentional as for our civilization to open to the changes that life seems to be thirsting for, we must be authentic. No pretenses, role playing, or hierarchy. Just honest and open connections. 

The letter offers specific suggestions, many about technology, but also about education, the commons, healthy food, the skies, the ocean, and peace. Suggestions that emanate from common sense and a life centric perspective. 

If the letter resonates with you, please consider sending it as is, or edited, to your local officials or to anyone else you think may be interested. A link to both a PDF and Word version of the letter are provided at the end. An audio and video reading of the letter are provided as well.

I would like to acknowledge some of the many authors, podcasters, and speakers who have deeply informed my thinking: These include Nate Hagens, Vanessa Andreotti, Iain McGilchrist, Daniel Christian Wahl, Jeremy Lent, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Daniel Schmachtenberger, and Charles Eisenstein, among many others.  

And now…the letter. (To read, click on Page 2 directly below.)

Audio only – (Recommended as it’s far less energy and data consumptive than video) 
Video – 12:58 

Nomophobia is the fear of being without a mobile phone, which can lead to Anxiety Disorder and Panic Attacks.

What is coherence? Does it require access to a device?

Cultures of Coherence

There is something rare and precious about driving in the Cape Ann fishing port of Gloucester, MA. The city has a culture of courtesy on the roadways, built on a foundation of attention, presence, waiting, and….yielding.  

This is a coherent field.

Gloucester drivers yield to large, refrigerated tractor trailers carrying fish along impossibly narrow streets. Drivers yield, to wide turns, to trucks seeking to enter the roadway. The tractor trailers always create a delay in the traffic flow due to sheer size and weight, but drivers yield. No one honks.

If a Gloucester driver approaches a vehicle from the opposite direction waiting to make a left turn, the Gloucester driver will slow down or stop and wave the other car across its path – especially if other cars are also lining up and blocked by the turning driver.  

Those that don’t yield ‘aren’t from around here.’

A friend once remarked that it is ‘totally ridiculous’ to yield to an approaching left-turning driver if you are the only other car on the road. The other driver can easily wait another minute or two and turn after you pass.  But he didn’t understand the culture of courtesy and the grace of making eye contact, waving a driver through, and receiving a small nod of gratitude in return.  

My friend did not perceive or recognize the unified, coherent, field – of patience and presence that nurtures the greater good – with the knowledge that the driver behind you in the rear-view mirror is also paying attention and will also yield, and not blare the horn at you. Unassisted by tech.

It’s a touchstone – of humanity.

Drivers Not Driven by Time Urgency

I think that one reason why the seaside community offers the gifts of patience, presence, courtesy and Time to others is due to the relationship Gloucester holds with the rhythms of the sea, and the Laws of Nature.

It is about Time… but not the time shown on a cell phone or ‘smart watch’, – the industrialized, inanimate, left-brained averaged form of time -which is a tool to coordinate, manipulate, surveil, control, and monetize the masses, and which is irrelevant to the rhythms of the life force and the cosmic current.

In Gloucester, locals know that the highest tide on Monday is not going to happen at the same time on Friday, or on the same day next month. Fisherman and surfers do not rely only on the Gregorian calendar which rules the modern lifestyle, or a clock out of synch with the sun. They live the rhythms of the full and new moons and the tides. The sky still serves as a timepiece.

Each interaction on and off the roads, every day, is an invitation for connection and collaborative ‘right rhythm,’ which is local, inclusive, relevant, and grounded in biology.

We have been missing the boat.

The Cut Bridge and the Art of Waiting

Drivers in Gloucester cannot predict or control when the cut bridge will need to be raised, temporarily closing the vehicle road as boats travel from the harbor to the Annisquam River, or vice versa.

On a summer day, there can be a very long line of boats and crafts of all sizes. The drivers simply wait, in a most civilized manner. Travelers not impatient and not on devices look out on the horizon where the sea meets the sky, connecting with Nature, – and yielding.

You can watch a 5-minute video of the Blynman Canal Draw Bridge Gloucester MA here – patiently, as if you were a part of the coherent field.

Every horizon, in every moment, can offer a moment of calm and integration, and a reset, not via the World Wide Web, but via coherence with the Web of Life.  

We are reaching a critical choice point.

Those Lost at Sea

I believe there is another reason for Gloucester’s respect for one another and for Nature.

The names of the deceased lost at sea are engraved on the Fisherman’s Memorial, some recent.  “Men [] honored here:  5368”

One of 10 plaques mounted in a semi-circle, with the names of those lost at sea, at the Fishermans’ Memorial in Gloucester MA “Numbers alone can never chronicle the loss of human life, yet the statistics reflect the magnitude of Gloucester’s sacrifice. On these plaques are the names of men known to have been lost. This memorial also stands to honor those men and ships lost without record. Men known to be lost at sea and honored here: 5368 Of the nearly 1,000 ships lost, those lost with all hands: 265, Thousands of widows struggled to survive and raise their children and many of those fatherless children entered the trade of their lost fathers. Between 1860–1906, a staggering 660 ships sank. While many of the fishermen were saved, 3880 men were lost. A single storm in 1862 claimed 15 schooners and 120 men, while another devastating storm in 1879 took the lives of 159 men.”

Maybe these losses are one reason why many locals do not delude themselves into believing that humans, machines, or technology are detached, or separate from, or superior to the natural world. There is no illusion that some portion of humans at a distance, with tech, can or should be in control.

When Exiting a Coherent Field: Harmonizing with Incoherence

It is usually not possible or safe to practice “Gloucester driving courtesies” in other locales, because the coherent, unified cultural field is not present. It is especially not possible when approaching a driverless vehicle, or with a car following too closely behind, or a driver on a device, who is not integrated and present. Off island, over the bridge, safety and courtesy are not sustained by others because ‘the field’ is often one of detachment, rushing, and/or competition.

In living history, over the last few decades, humans have shifted further and further into these incoherent energies.  

It’s about our inattention, distraction, and our devices.

Outsourcing Attention, and Response-Ability

While driving, those rushing, and those on screens, do not recognize that they are outsourcing the responsibility for their safety and the safety of others – to others on the road.

Attentive drivers have to be on the lookout for cars that are not staying in their lane, with drivers who are distracted and in a state of incoherence.  

Technologies, as currently adopted by humans, have created this culture, and it is getting worse, not better, and it’s not only on the roads. 

When in the gym, a portion of patrons will be sitting on machines, texting or scrolling or adjusting their music, oblivious to the effects on others in the space, – who are waiting.

In the grocery store, some portion of shoppers will be talking on the phone or looking at the phone while heading down the aisle, or stopped in front of some section of the store, oblivious to others in the area,  – waiting.

Some portion of walkers on the rail trail will be talking on a cell phone or texting, and looking at their device, outsourcing the responsibility for coherence to others.

By definition, when a human being focuses on a small screen, they are directing their senses away from the outer environment. This narrowed screen-based focus is literally damaging posture and eyesight, including in children. Screen use and social media are also disturbing the balance of brain chemicals serotonin, dopamine, gaba, and acetylcholine.

We are no longer aligning with one another in the present time and place, fully embodied in all of our senses, nurturing the greater good.

The cost of lack of integration with both the inner and outer environment and with each other is unfathomable.  

The number of humans at any one point in time who are wholly aware of their environment, of others, of nature, of their own bodies, is at an all-time low on Earth – due to devices.  

“Smart Meters: My Name is Marguerite”

Over a decade ago, I witnessed coherence, community, and compassion when wireless smart utility meters began to be installed in Maine. A sweet elderly woman contacted our Massachusetts activist group asking for help. She started to suddenly collapse in her kitchen after a wireless smart meter was installed. Her son contacted us also, explaining that she was in her 80’s and perfectly healthy until the day the meter went in. Her family had reached out to many decision makers including industry, ecology groups, and politicians involved with the deployment of smart meters, to no avail.

Her fourteen neighbors, upon hearing her plight, immediately chose to opt out of having a smart meter installed on their homes. They were not willing to accept that the supposed energy and cost savings were worth the price of destroying their neighbor’s health.

This question of smart meter harm should have been addressed decades ago. In the meantime, deployments continue, and decision-makers in some areas are prohibiting the practice of opting out, and/or imposing punitive surcharges.

This represents an incoherent, unstable, unsafe field that must be sustained at great expense, through falsehoods, manipulations, and abuse of power.  

We are safer, in all ways, when everyone is watching out for others and for the coherence of the field, and not lying, exploiting, or treating others as collateral damage. Device use is sustaining an artificial reality about the safety of wireless tech – to sustain wireless tech. AI will not solve this.

The Art of Pausing – With and For Others

What do humans usually do when forced to wait, – that new behavior adopted the last two decades?

Humans detach, and scroll, and text, individually, everywhere.   

We didn’t realize what the consequences were of screen-centric behaviors adopted during the pandemic, and the harm it has caused to the” field” of our consciousness.

Whether intentional or accidental, a growing portion of the population is either drunk or drowning in wireless frequencies, including children.

We face countless choices every day, about how to fill spaces in time.

We have been acculturated to look at a small screen that in itself seeks to manage and control our reality, just as previous generations were acculturated to smoke cigarettes. Both have been justified as beneficial to health.  

Excessive “device-ing” is an increasingly unconscious and addictive choice, altering our reality, not for the better.

Right vs. Left Brained Consciousness

Part of this unbalanced dynamic has been caused by loss of right-brained, holistic processing discussed here recently by Kate Kheel of Safe Tech International.  “The 2009 treatise, ‘The Master and His Emissary, The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’ by Iain McGilchrist discusses at length how the different world views of the left and right hemispheres of the brain impact us both individually and as a society.

The left sees the world in parts, is detailed oriented, and has a single-minded focus on achieving a given task. In Iain’s words, it favors, “manipulation – grabbing, getting and controlling” and is an inanimate universe. It’s like a map of the world which leaves out the sentience, flavors, and nuance of the actual world. The right hemisphere sees more holistically and senses our interconnectedness with all life. Iain explains, “[It] sees not the representation but the living presence.” The right brain understands that life is ever morphing and evolving, and experiences an animate universe of richness, complexity, potential, and imagination.  In principle, the two sides of the brain complement one another enabling us to go about our daily activities and accomplish necessary tasks (more left brain skillset), while still sensing we are part of a grander interconnected and integrated living system (a right brain skillset).

Iain opines that since the Enlightenment, our Western civilization has moved increasingly to the left (i.e. left-brained thinking), “…drunk on the belief that it knows everything and can fix everything.” – Kate Kheel

(See the 2021 4-minute overview of the book about the asymmetrical brain with Iain Gilchrist here.  See the entire 1-hour interview here.  See the Feb. 2004 46-minute Creed Culture interview with Dr. Iain Gilchrist here. In this episode, Luke and Iain discuss his work, focusing on the importance of rediscovering the sacred, viewing the world holistically, and engaging the imagination alongside our reasoning faculties.”)

AI is a force multiplier of the imbalance between right and left-brain processing.

Replacing ‘Sailing Too Close to the Wind’ with ‘Digital Sobriety’.

There are an increasing number of efforts emerging towards establishing coherent fields, by challenging inaccurate narratives about tech, including wireless.   

# 1 Digital Sobriety, To Protect Nature

Guidelines governing wireless exposures have never considered the effects of RFR on the nature environment.

On April 17, Arthur Firstenberg of the Cellular Phone Tack Force published his alarming narrative “Whirling fish, bees, worms, sheep, turtles, penguins; More Than Fifty Species Of Fish Circling And Spinning Until They Die” culled from reports from the public – i.e. citizen science. See his other newsletters here.

See also: Microwave News

https://microwavenews.com/short-takes-archive/review-emf-and-rf-effects-flora-and-fauna

#2 Digital Sobriety, to Protect Children – It’s Still a Man’s World

Guidelines governing wireless exposures have never considered the effects of RFR on pregnant women, infants, and children.

Read about how cellphones are tested on a dummy – that represents the head of a male military recruit: We Are Not SAM.

Regarding mental health, John Haidt’s “After Babel “ Substack (free to all subscribers) chronicles his extraordinary research around the supposition that “the transformation of society in the 2010s was not caused by anxious college students. They were simply the “canaries in the coal mine” — the first generation whose social lives have moved onto smartphones and social media platforms. As soon as they did so, in the early 2010s, an epidemic of mental illness began.” Learn more here.

#3 Digital Sobriety, Regarding Neurological Health, EHS, Brain Cancer, DNA Damage, and More

Guidelines governing wireless exposures have never considered the non-thermal effects of RFR, assuming that the only mechanism of damage is heat.

See the Bioinitiative Report 2022:

See EMF Medical Conference 2021 59 videos (29 hours) of highly informative expert presentations and panel discussions. Trailer and more details: https://emfconference2021.com/online-cme-ce-courses/

The Return of Reason: Replacing NOMOPHOBIA (Fear of Being Without a Cell Phone) and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) with LOMO (Less on Line – More on Life)

Those not yet actively questioning technology and technocracy are outsourcing responsibility for the safety of the Earth and humanity to those who are not ready, willing and able to confront an incoherent worldview.

Wireless, in particular, is a harmful environmental pollutant. Nature does not recognize placing radio frequency transmitters on wildlife as conservation, or AI’s grotesque water and energy consumption or carbon credits as progress towards stewardship. Technology harmful to biology is violating the Laws of Nature. Promoting AI alongside scarcity and carbon narratives, and smart grid/smart meter manipulations that deny access to basic services when needed, is obscene.

We face a perilous crossing.

Digital Sobriety and Scientific Diplomacy

As individuals, we can begin reclaiming our own habit fields, to move towards digital sobriety and scientific diplomacy in response to real world damage already unfolding.

Most likely we can and will continue to use devices and technology, but first we need to backtrack to hold ourselves accountable for coherence, true inclusion, and safety.  

From mining to energy consumption to water use to disposal, we have unleashed a tsunami of outsourced damage, with new sights set on colonizing and exploiting space -competitively.

We need to make our choices and decisions about tech more conscious, more inclusive, more ethical, more truthful, and more protective of nature and human health, everywhere.

Screen Time (Perhaps) Can Recede to its Rightful Place

One way to start is to hard wire wherever possible as the first choice (especially in schools), and the minimize using screens and devices when in motion, for example when driving and walking.

There are so many good reasons and opportunities to forgo screens altogether, or to share screen experiences, rather than seeking faster, more ubiquitous wireless connections.

“Red, right, returning.” This Earth Day, more than ever, we need to call ourselves home.

“The real energy crisis, which exists upon this world, is the spiritual energy crisis and if this was solved all other crises would cease to exist” – George King – Western Master of Yoga

Image courtesy EPIC | Electromagnetic Pollution Illnesses Canada Foundation (EPIC) (iexistworld.org) To order bumper stickers and other LOMO items, send an email to epic@iexistworld.org.

SpaceX is scheduled to test operational compatibility between T-Mobile devices and satellites from 12 locations, reported to begin Dec. 10.

Suggested Reading: Jeremy Naydler’s 2019 article, Where the Sky Turns Black: Reflections on the 5G Satellite Net Surrounding the Earth published by New View, a quarterly magazine serving the anthroposophical community, informed by the work of Rudolf Steiner.

Broadband

In his blog Pots and Pans Broadband for All, industry analyst Doug Dawson recently commented about trends indicated by the 3rd quarter report by OpenVault for home broadband usage in the United States.

“In the third quarter of this year, the average U.S. household used 54.7 more gigabytes of data than one year earlier. That alone is a pretty amazing statistic – 54 gigabytes is a lot of usage in a month. With roughly 120 million residential broadband subscribers, this equates to over 6.5 billion more gigabytes of data used each month than just a year ago. That’s 11% more usage hitting the Internet backbones, just from residential usage.”

The report indicates that Americans did not recover from the pandemic lockdowns by returning to other activities and receding from trauma-driven and/or imposed increased broadband consumption, which according to the FCC includes fiber optics, cable, wireless, DSL, and satellites.

Classifying Broadband For Planetary Peril, and Paying for Coverage Again and Again and Again

The classification categories for broadband enable competition between providers and technology approaches for grants to provide coverage, despite the fact that Americans have already paid for coverage through billions in cross-subsidies, as documented by the The IRREGULATORS,

(“We found that Verizon NY Local Service was overcharged an estimated $1.1-$1.6 billion, in just 2019. (This is the low number.) Moreover, the Verizon NY FiOS cable franchise has expired. 100% of the City was supposed have have been upgraded to fiber optics, but 25% were never done and it gets worse in low income areas where 30-45% of the area was never completed. Nationwide, this equates to Local Service being overcharged in America an estimated $16-$23 billion in just 2019. (And this is only for expenses related to construction, marketing and corporate operations expenses.)” – Source)

The FCC’s throw-it-all-in-one-bucket approach (fiber optics, cable, wireless, DSL, and satellites) echos Vandana Shiva’s caution regarding nuclear energy, and the practice of splitting atoms to boil water. Discernment is about scale, complexity, resources, energy consumption, and risks. “Nature shrinks as capital grows. The growth of the market cannot solve the very crisis it creates.” Is there anything holistic or reasoned about assuming that the Earth’s atmosphere can be saturated with satellites and space junk without influencing Life? As Vandana notes, ““Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns which take more than we need, we are engaging in violence.”

The Straw That Breaks the Camel’s Back?

It would be lovely to think that now that the Hollywood writer’s strike has ended, that more Americans would become concerned about the infrastructure required to support the unexamined proliferation of faster, more ubiquitous telecommunications, and alarmed about the impact on society and on nature, as well as recognizing the absurdity of lumping satellite and fiber in the same bucket.

Accompanying increasing broadband consumption statistics, and the politicized efforts to provide internet access to all (even though consumers already paid for this), each seemingly insignificant new behavior (for example, unexamined pandemic-fueled group video chat data demand) is loading more stress on the camel’s back, meaning, the Earth’s ecosystem on a macro level, and on the bees and our cellular biology on the microlevel, also encompassing every living thing in between.

It would be a profound and authentic reset if wirelessly-enabled broadband consumption went down in 2024. Because this is not just about household devices.

From 2,000 to 1 Million

In 2019, Jeremy Naydler’s article, Where the Sky Turns Black: Reflections on the 5G Satellite Net Surrounding the Earth was published by New View, a quarterly magazine serving the anthroposophical community, informed by the work of Rudolf Steiner.

In the 2019 article, he provided an explanation and an image of the first stage of the Starlink/SpaceX-enabled global network.

Space Junk

Jeremy wrote, “In 2018, there were in total approximately two thousand fully functioning satellites and about three thousand defunct ones, often referred to as “space junk”. Of the actively functioning satellites, some beamed down commercial GPS (or ‘SatNav’), some provided TV, some provided smartphone services, and some produced high-definition images for meteorologists and military surveillance, and so on. The number of satellites has increased since then, most of this due to SpaceX setting up its first Starlink constellation.” – StarLink.pdf (website-editor.net)

(Note that already in 2018 there were more defunct satellites than functioning ones.)

As Arthur Firstenberg reported on November 1, the Number of planned low-orbit satellites NOW EXCEEDS ONE MILLION.

Three Different Constellations and Orbits

Jeremy Naydler explains, “Once the initial phase is complete, SpaceX will then establish further, much larger constellations of satellites, at different orbits. Currently, the company plans to set up a second constellation of just under three thousand satellites orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 690 miles, considerably higher than the first constellation. And then it will set up a third, much larger constellation of seven and a half thousand satellites, closer to the Earth than the initial constellation, in what is called Very Low Earth Orbit, at 210 miles altitude (just ten miles higher than the orbit of the International Space Station). The Starlink satellite net is therefore going to be three-ply, for the aim is that coverage of the Earth from space will be total, without any gaps.”

As reported by the Spokesman Review on Nov. 19, “[ ] in addition to deep-space exploration, SpaceX also intends to use Starship to launch its next-generation Starlink internet satellites, which are larger and heavier and require Starship’s greater power. Starlink beams the internet to ground stations, allowing users in remote areas to connect to the web.”

Larger heavier satellites necessitate larger heavier rockets. As noted here, SpaceX assures humanity that its experimental rocket launches should continue, because the rockets will self-destruct if needed., ‘Mishaps’ are considered to be part of the learning curve. The company is calling for faster regulatory approval.

As the Spokesman reported, “One of the concerns is that Starship requires its propellant tank to be refilled while in Earth’s orbit by a fleet of Starship tankers in an immensely complicated choreography. None of those tankers have been launched — or built.”

How many consumers understand that in order to provide internet access in remote areas via satellite. that every inch of the planet will be radiated within a multi-layered satellite-enabled cage? What other objectives are fueling SpaceX ambitions and authorizations?

For those cautiously watching the wireless roll-out, three concerning news items were circulated recently about satellite-wireless-5G-cellphone Armageddon, including another wrinkle in the SpaceX debacle (aside from the explosions).

#1 Botched Wireless “Conservation“

On Nov. 29, Arthur Firstenberg of the Cellular Phone Task Force shared the story of a botched conservation program in Hawaii, where endangered birds were fitted with radio transmitters, killing nearly all of the birds. The story did not make the mainstream news.

“By November 16, every bird was dead except the three who had succeeded in removing or disabling their transmitter. The details are shocking.”

Is equating conservation with monitoring an endangered species via satellites an evolutionary trap, as recently described by researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Center? “We set three criteria for identifying a phenomenon as a potential Anthropocene trap: (1) that it can be described as evolving from an initially adaptive process; (2) that it, at the global level, shows signs of undesirable impacts on human well-being or has been hypothesized to show such signs in the future; (3) that it has a trapping mechanism that makes it harder to escape from negative impacts once this mechanism is activated.”

When will conservation groups look at the impacts on the organisms and the sky, and not just screens and data?

#2 Pets

On December 5, Arthur Firstenberg subsequently published Dogs, Cats, Birds, and Maui, after readers contacted him about the effects of radiofrequency radiation powering wireless technologies on their pets.

“It’s like the light has gone out of things and a darkness has entered and for the first time in my life I am worried to the bone and scared.”

“This year only the squirrels and rats are eating the bird food. The sky is almost empty of birds. The bees have disappeared as well. From hundreds last year to one or two this year.”

#3 The T Mobile SpaceX Test December 10 Countdown to – the Solstice?

In addition to the two reports from the Cellular Phone Task Force about RFR and earth, recent news about upcoming TMobile and SpaceX testing of cellphones and satellites has more informed communities concerned about increasing experimentation without informed consent, and the growing density of satellites polluting space.

“The goal is to test out the system in partnership with T-Mobile using the carrier’s licensed microwave radio spectrum to beam the satellite connectivity to 2,000 test devices using the Sat-To-Cell service.”

On December 4, PC Magazine reported FCC Lets SpaceX Deploy Satellites for Cellular Starlink, But With Restrictions, The FCC only grants part of SpaceX’s application to operate a cellular version of Starlink, which is designed to work with T-Mobile smartphones.”

“After months of waiting, SpaceX has received partial clearance from the Federal Communications Commission to start deploying the company’s cellular Starlink system — but only to conduct short tests. On Friday, the FCC decided to “grant in part, defer in part” the company’s application to operate the satellite service, which is being designed to beam connectivity to T-Mobile smartphones.

The FCC’s ruling authorizes SpaceX to “deploy a modified version of the previously authorized Gen2 Starlink satellites.” However, the company is only receiving authorization so that it can verify the radios on the satellites work. Specifically, SpaceX can operate the satellites “within the 1910-1915MHz and 1990-1995MHz bands for limited on-orbit check out of the antennas immediately following deployment of each satellite for a period of 10 days or less, to ensure initial functionality of the satellite antenna,” the FCC said.“

According to the FCC filing, T-Mobile requested a 180-day test period. The FCC reportedly authorized the tests for only ten days. We should not be relieved. The overwhelming issue is not the 12 communities and/or the count of 180 or 10 days to verify operational status. The problem is the satellite cage enclosing the earth, also described as a global spider web.

We absolutely have no surveillance or regulations regarding the potential impact of SpaceX on nature and human health, because the fox (FCC) is guarding the henhouse. (For example, we have not been paying heed to the impact of launches on the ozone layer. Learn more: https://freethesky.org/2022/02/03/rockets-destroy-ozone-and-cause-climate-change-aerospace-programs-deadly-impacts/ )

In addition, the FCC has ignored the 2021 court order questioning the safety of its 1996 exposure guidelines for both human health and the environment.

Read more about the race to space here: AT&T and T-Mobile are in an increasingly heated race to space – Light Reading

How Are You Observing Nature?

I agree with the concern expressed by the Cellular Phone Task Force about birds and wildlife. On the day that the United States conducted its test of the Emergency Broadcast System for cellphones, I made the conscious choice to go to a nearby lake and swim while the testing was conducted. As I exited my car about 25 minutes before the specified time, I heard the birds in the trees in the nearby woods – screaming. (What surveillance capabilities were tested in the time period before the phones rang?)

At sunrise in my area, I can directly detect/hear (via microwave hearing) an increase in wireless transmissions. I suspect that coverage ramps up to accommodate morning commuters, and it is even louder in the rain.

There are no more birds singing at dawn.

Although many individuals discount concerns because they and their pets and loved ones seem unaffected, the overwhelming issue is that there is no premarket safety testing and no investigation of reported adverse effects from juxtaposed, chronic, cumulative frequency exposures. Meanwhile, harm is being reported. We do not know what frequencies being transmitted from multiple sources are impacting a particular location or living being at any point in time (now including satellites and 5G beamforming). Mainstream news is not reporting independent reports of harm. This article by Suzanne Burdick of Children’s Health Defense outlines a recent report from Sweden.

We do not know when transmissions are increasing in our environment, our health care providers do not know, and we are being brainwashed to disregard and to ridicule expressions of concern. We are not engaged in evidence-based decision-making that data is supposed to provide because no one is collecting or heeding the data.

Russia – Banning Cellphones in Schools

Juxtaposed with trends in U.S. regulation comes the news report from the Moscow Times that Russia is in the process of banning cellphones in schools.

Russia’s State Duma Bans Cellphones in School Classrooms Russian lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of banning the use of cellphones in school classrooms, a move they argue will help improve the learning process for students.  The speaker of Russia’s lower-house State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said cellphones would no longer be permitted in classrooms except for “emergencies.’ Parents and teachers asked us to back this rule. The adopted decision will improve the quality of our children’s education,” Volodin wrote on the messaging app Telegram.“

This follows on the heels of a similar decision in 2021 by China.

The rhetoric around the 5G roll-out during the Trump administration was about beating China in the race to 5G. At this point, is the US running in the wrong direction?

Apple Interference Warning

On December 7, Apple issued a warning “About potential interference with medical devices.” “Most consumer electronic devices, including laptops, tablets, smartphones, wearables, and audio devices, contain magnets and generate electromagnetic fields that might interfere with medical devices. For example, implanted pacemakers and defibrillators might contain sensors that respond to magnets and radios when in close contact.”

Through multiple feedback loops, Nature has been reminding consumers that living beings have a sensory system designed to alchemize with the flow of the Cosmic Current. We respond to magnets and so-called “radios” – an interesting euphemism for microwave, millimeter wave, and radio frequency radiation.

Where the Sky Turns Black vs. the Solstice Return of Light

As Jeremy Naydler wrote in Where the Sky Turns Black: Reflections on the 5G Satellite Net Surrounding the Earth, “As the conditions of life on Earth are increasingly overshadowed by forces which originate from the sub-natural realm, we have without doubt to redouble our efforts to counteract them with forces that build up life and health. It is of utmost importance that we nurture all that is life-giving and life-enhancing, so as to strengthen nature’s resilience. The more human consciousness is lured away from nature, and we allow our attention to be constantly claimed by the electronic world, the more we shall see the life of nature drain away, and the more we ourselves shall fall away from the realisation
of our deeper human purpose. Nature needs the reverent attentiveness and loving care that only human beings can bestow, just as surely as human beings need to bestow these gifts upon nature.” “It is these life-giving powers that we should be working with, so that we create a more intimate bond with them for the sake of the future of the Earth.”

As the solstice and new year approaches, how do we return our vision to strengthening Nature? We do it by remembering that the Sun is the source of Light on Earth, and that it inspires our illumination. We safeguard the finely-tuned electromagnetic pathways between the Earth and the Cosmos, and between the Earth and ourselves. We question the cage of technological demands that we have constructed. We come back home to ourselves and one another,in real time. We do it via one less unexamined paradigm of increased telecom and broadband consumption, and one less dismissal of concern, at a time. We heal our traumatized hearts.

Not blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress…― John Muir

Be on the right side of history.

(Be inspired by the Beatles here: Get Back )

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As the solstice approaches, for some, the laws of nature invite contemplation about the balance between yin and yang, darkness and light, will and surrender, and expansion and contraction. Many women (and informed men) recognize, already, that It’s time to question the lack of consciousness and care fueling the frenzied, domination-driven ‘race for space.’

(See One Million Satellites Planned, November 1, 2023; “As of December 31, 2022, the number of satellites being planned by 300 companies and governments exceeded one million”)

It is time to surrender to the errors of our ways.

The Reuters Investigation, Behind the Scenes Costs of SpaceX Rush to Mars, Moon, Militarization, and More Money

Prior to the recent November 18 SpaceX launch, Reuters published an investigation of workplace injuries associated with SpaceX’s quest to ‘save humanity by colonizing Mars.’

Trigger warning for sensitive individuals impacted by reports of harm to others:

Regarding SpaceX’s corporate carnage, Reuters reported, “Many were serious or disabling. The records included reports of more than 100 workers suffering cuts or lacerations, 29 with broken bones or dislocations, 17 whose hands or fingers were “crushed,” and nine with head injuries, including one skull fracture, four concussions and one traumatic brain injury. The cases also included five burns, five electrocutions, eight accidents that led to amputations, 12 injuries involving multiple unspecified body parts, and seven workers with eye injuries. Others were relatively minor, including more than 170 reports of strains or sprains.”

“After years of failing to report annual injury-and-illness statistics to regulators, some SpaceX sites started filing the data in 2021 or 2022. The data for 2022, which are more complete, reveal injury rates at three major SpaceX industrial facilities that far exceeded the space-industry average.”

“One severe injury in January 2022 resulted from a series of safety failures that illustrate systemic problems at SpaceX, according to eight former SpaceX employees familiar with the accident. In that case, a part flew off during pressure testing of a Raptor V2 rocket engine – fracturing the skull of employee Francisco Cabada and putting him in a coma.”

“The sources told Reuters that senior managers at the Hawthorne, California site were repeatedly warned about the dangers of rushing the engine’s development, along with inadequate training of staff and testing of components. The part that failed and struck the worker had a flaw that was discovered, but not fixed, before the testing, two of the employees said.”

“Cabada’s wife told Reuters the company has ignored the family’s attempts to find out why he wasn’t protected. “It would have been nice to get a call from Elon Musk,” Ydy Cabada said. ‘But I guess workers are just disposable to them.'” – Source

The Cabada family’s Go Fund Me page is here.

Taylor Swift and Grief

What does this have to do with Taylor Swift?

As noted in many news outlets recently, a fan died in excessive heat shortly before Taylor went on stage in Rio de Janeiro. She responded with apparent shock, grief, sincerity, and grace. Hollywood Life reported,

“Taylor Swift, 33, is mourning a fan who reportedly died at her Eras Tour concert at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Friday night. The singer took to Instagram to share a heartfelt message that revealed she learned about the passing and is “devastated” from the shocking news.

“I can’t believe I’m writing these words, but it is with her shattered heart that I say we lost a fan earlier tonight before my show. I can’t even tell you how devastated I am by by this,” Taylor wrote in her message. ‘There’s very little information I have other than the fact that she was so incredibly beautiful and far too young.‘”

How does this contrast with the SpaceX corporate culture of harm to worker rights and human rights chronicled by Reuters?

SpaceX ‘It Was a Success‘

On November 18, a SpaceX launch didn’t go as planned. Business Insider: SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded again. Elon Musk’s Mars dreams remain grounded, for now. “SpaceX launched Starship and its Super Heavy booster toward space for the second time [] The rocket exploded again, but this time it came within seconds of completing launch. Elon Musk wants Starship to settle Mars. NASA wants it to put astronauts on the moon. But it has to fly first.”

Yet, on November 27, Motley Crew exclaimed, “Don’t Cry for SpaceX. The Starship Test Was a Success.”  (“Founded in 1993, The Motley Fool is a financial services company dedicated to making the world smarter, happier, and richer.”)

“KEY POINTS

On Nov. 18, SpaceX blew up another Starship spaceship and its Super Heavy booster — but that’s just the start of the story.

SpaceX got Starship to fly twice as long as last time in Saturday’s test flight.

At this point, regulatory delays may be the biggest obstacle to SpaceX doubling Starship’s flight time all the way to 100% success.” – Source

SpaceX: Regulatory Delay is ‘the Problem.’

Reporting prior to the November 18 launch about the authorization process, the Spokesman Review noted, “[ ] delays have frustrated SpaceX. “[ ] we’d very much like the government to be able to move as quickly as we are. If you’re able to build a rocket faster than the government can regulate it, that’s upside down, and that needs to be addressed. So we think some regulatory reforms are needed.”- Tim Hughes, SpaceX’s senior vice president”

‘Mishaps are Part of the Learning Curve‘

On Nov. 21, Valley Central News reported SpaceX launch produces less litter and debris but is still harmful, environmentalists say. The article noted that there were no wildfires this time, and that the retaining wall for the launch pad held.

“In a statement posted to its website, SpaceX said this second flight “will provide invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship” and admitted that mishaps — including the loss of the spacecraft about four minutes into its flight — are part of the company’s learning curve.

Success comes from what we learn, and this flight test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary. Data review is ongoing as we look for improvements to make for the next flight,” the company said.

But there were no wildfires from the blast, which Jim Chapman, president of Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, says is a vast improvement to the April 20 test flight, [] Chapman says he is concerned, however, if deluge water is entering the tidal flats or nearby protected lands of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. “You can’t discharge into wetlands without hurting it,” Chapman told Border Report.

Mary Angela Branch, a board member of Save RGV, says she is waiting to hear what will come ashore from the Gulf, since the rocket blew up so many miles from the launch site. [ ] several members from Brownsville and the town of Laguna Vista reported “’the thunderous launch was felt at their homes and one member said he thought his house was going to explode off of the slab.’” – Source

It’s Not Only About Employees, or the Vicinity of the Launches and Landings, and it’s Not Just About SpaceX: It is About ‘Evolutionary Traps and Polycrisis Dead Ends‘

Physics.org recently published the article New research maps 14 potential evolutionary dead ends for humanity and ways to avoid them noting, “The new study shows how humanity could get stuck in ‘evolutionary traps’—dead ends that occur from initially successful innovations. In a first scoping effort, they identify 14 of these, including the simplification of agriculture, economic growth that does not deliver benefits for humans or the environment, the instability of global cooperation, climate tipping points, and artificial intelligence.”

The article includes an example of an evolutionary trap – seabirds not being able to discriminate between marine plankton and marine plastics. “In classic evolutionary traps, organisms exhibit a preference for behaviour that lowers biological fitness through either survival or reproduction.”

While investors were reportedly impressed that SpaceX introduced a new fire suppression system for its recent launch, and that it was airborne before it blew up, where is the balancing oversight that examines the entire scope of impact?

Ozone? Noise? Clean Water?

Nina Beety spoke before the California Coastal Commission about SpaceX and aerospace hazards, including ozone, on Friday, November 17.

Read more: https://freethesky.org/2022/02/03/rockets-destroy-ozone-and-cause-climate-change-aerospace-programs-deadly-impacts/

Another important contributor to the conversation about de-evolutionary trajectories is Paris Marx at Tech Won’t Save Us. In 2021, Paris interviewed Eric Roesch in SpaceX’s Regulatory Evasion Has Consequences. “Eric Roesch is an expert in environmental compliance and risk assessment who writes about the intersection of capitalism, markets and greenwashing. Eric wrote about the damage the Starship launch was going to have, SpaceX’s violation of the Clean Water Act, and Elon Musk’s general regulatory evasion. He also shared [] photos of the aftermath of the Starship launch.” – Source (You can follow Eric’s newsletter on Substack.” The interview of Eric by Paris is here. Support his work here.)

From the April 2023 article: SpaceX’s Regulatory Evasion Has Consequences:

Also, from November 16 Elon Musk is Above the Law Hot Rocket Water Rocks Out

Protecting What is Precious

The study reported in Physics.org about dead ends and evolutionary traps is Evolution of the polycrisis: Anthropocene traps that challenge global sustainability “We set three criteria for identifying a phenomenon as a potential Anthropocene trap: (1) that it can be described as evolving from an initially adaptive process; (2) that it, at the global level, shows signs of undesirable impacts on human well-being or has been hypothesized to show such signs in the future; (3) that it has a trapping mechanism that makes it harder to escape from negative impacts once this mechanism is activated.”

I have a theory about all of this. We need more compassion, and more consciousness.

I believe that Taylor Swift actually loves humanity as a whole, and many individual humans within her immediate circle.

I suspect if Taylor Swift had ten or more children, she would love them as much as she loves her cats, present in real time, in real relationships.

In contrast Elon Musk has taken humanity down a de-evolutionary path towards driverless vehicles because he abhors the idea of sitting next to a stranger on public transit.

We need heart-centered people making decisions about others who have the humility to sit with the pain that has been caused, and to address it.

Measuring Well-Being and ‘Stewardship of a Socially Inclusive and Biodiverse Planetary System‘

It’s a dangerous practice to put so much of the planet’s future in the hands of enabling investors who are caught in their own web of frenzied imbalance, free of conscience and accountability.

SpaceX reportedly already has four more rockets in the works. How else might that money have been spent? Adequate regulation. It could be spent addressing evolutionary traps, which are in fact de-evolutionary.

“For the question of whether modern societies can leverage their cultural evolutionary potential to avoid severe Anthropocene traps and move towards global sustainability, we define global sustainability as a trajectory or state where humans improve well-being through conscient protection and stewardship of a socially inclusive and biodiverse planetary system.” “Basic but sufficiently accurate measurements that capture ongoing social and environmental change are essential to detect and act on traps. Measuring human well-being and natural and social capital is essential here.” – Source

Those who are speaking to undesirable effects require a seat at the table. For example, see Call Me a NIMBY by Katie Singer; and Whales Could Save the World’s Climate, Unless the Military Destroys Them First by Koohan Paik Mander; and Family Injured By Cell Tower Radiation In Pittsfield Massachusetts concerning Courtney Gilardi and her community.

“Next-generation Starlink Internet Satellites are Larger and Heavier and Require Starship’s Greater Power”- Of Course They Do

“[ ] in addition to deep-space exploration, SpaceX also intends to use Starship to launch its next-generation Starlink internet satellites, which are larger and heavier and require Starship’s greater power. Starlink beams the internet to ground stations, allowing users in remote areas to connect to the web.” – Source

PLEASE DON’T FALL FOR IT. This is not for you or for me.

Unintended Consequences and the Ratchet

How Many Musk Enterprises Does It Take to Ratchet a Polycrisis?

“Maladaptation becomes apparent through negative impacts on human well-being, from incremental to catastrophic.” “Foresight involves enhancing our aptitude to predict both Earth system and social dynamics and depends on the ability to learn from available information gathered through measuring and monitoring what matters.”

Is a rocket ‘sustainable’ because it will eventually be ‘reusable’ after we destroy the ozone layer in the “learning” process?

Elon Musk refers to humanity as a multi-planetary species, but unless we stop, turn around, and start cleaning up the messes we have made here on Earth, do we have the right to assume that we can master living elsewhere?

A Case of Human Maladaptation: Artificial Light

“The concept of evolutionary traps has been used almost exclusively for studying how non-human species respond to cues in anthropogenic environments. Key examples include artificial human lights attracting insects, island species responding naively to the presence of introduced predators, and seabirds not being able to discriminate between the cues of marine plankton and marine plastics.” – Source

See the 3-minute video here on The Importance of Light by Quantum Biology Collective

While biologists caution that artificial light confuses insects, how is it that we have assigned Elon Musk the authority to preserve the light of consciousness on Mars?

Until we start recognizing and monitoring the effects of our pollution of the earth’s electromagnetic circuit, and until we start considering the effects of screens (which have become the primary manifestation of light for most of humanity, including children) we’re headed down that dead end street Taylor sings about.

Concerns about Musk are not limited to SpaceX; there are concerns about another Musk enterprise, Neuralink.

Not all of the responsibility for current challenges lies with Elon Musk, but his influence is extensive, and his actions are not indicative of a necessary course change.

Every consumer of satellite-related and wireless technologies, including GPS and cell phones, has the right and response-ability to question safety, for everyone, everywhere.

I’d like to think that if Taylor Swift were in charge of SpaceX development, that she would have already sat with the families of the dead and injured workers and called for corrective measures. I’d like to think that the satellite launches would be halted. I’d like to think that if Taylor were in charge of the FCC, that we would have already halted the misbegotten idea of a smart grid and wireless smart meters. I’d like to think that cell towers and 5G would not be installed.

Put a Woman in Charge

Keb’ Mo’ singing Put a Woman In Charge with Roseann Cash, with a reported 927K views:

“The time has come to turn this thing around.”

Read: Don’t Irradiate the Birds!, November 28, 2023 here: https://cellphonetaskforce.org/dont-irradiate-the-birds/

In terms of a classic evolutionary traps where “organisms exhibit a preference for behaviour that lowers biological fitness through either survival or reproduction” See also: Mobile phone use may affect semen quality A team from UNIGE and Swiss TPH has published a large study covering more than a decade of data on the effects of mobile phones on semen quality of young men.

SpaceX and Aerospace Hazards Update

Safe Tech International published SpaceX & Mars & Explosions & Injuries:  It’s Not Just Where We’re Going, It’s How We Get There and Who Pays the Price November 11. The article included the recent Reuters investigation of horrific SpaceX workplace injuries. “The lax safety culture, more than a dozen current and former employees said, stems in part from Musk’s disdain for perceived bureaucracy and a belief inside SpaceX that it’s leading an urgent quest to create a refuge in space from a dying Earth.” – Reuters

“Regarding SpaceX’s demand for regulatory reform and faster approvals, a growing portion of the awakened public sees the tech industry’s sense of entitlement to speed and lax regulation as unrealistic, ungrounded, and unsafe.

Humanity, and every species, have co-evolved for eons to live on the Earth. To imply that a refuge can be successfully created on the Moon or Mars by SpaceX, when it cannot operate in harmony with the Laws of Nature, and with its institutionalized lack of respect for human rights, community rights, employee safety, and the Rights of Nature, is wildly illogical.

Rather than assuming that the Earth is dying, disjointed tech industries are ignoring the damage that they themselves are inflicting.

This includes the alteration of the Earth’s electromagnetic environment, as noted in January 2022 by Arthur Firstenberg. – Source (It also includes mining, and disposal hazards).

November 17; Nina Beety Spoke to the California Coastal Commission about SpaceX and Aerospace Hazards

Nina Beety spoke before the California Coastal Commission about SpaceX and aerospace hazards on Friday, November 17,

Saturday November 18: SpaceX Starship Rocket Exploded, Again

Business Insider: SpaceX’s Starship rocket exploded again. Elon Musk’s Mars dreams remain grounded, for now.

“SpaceX launched Starship and its Super Heavy booster toward space for the second time on Saturday. The rocket exploded again, but this time it came within seconds of completing launch. Elon Musk wants Starship to settle Mars. NASA wants it to put astronauts on the moon. But it has to fly first.”

A “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly“

“Starship successfully separated from its booster, nailing the maneuver that turned it into a giant fireball last time it flew. time, the booster exploded as it tumbled back to Earth, but no matter — Starship was still climbing to the heavens. Starship successfully separated from its booster, nailing the maneuver that turned it into a giant fireball last time it flew. This time, the booster exploded as it tumbled back to Earth, but no matter — Starship was still climbing to the heavens. About six minutes later, however, Starship needed to shut off its engines so that it could coast around the planet. Instead, it stopped sending signals back to the ground. After a few tense shots of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaking with others in what appeared to be the Starship control room, the livestream hosts unceremoniously announced that Starship had met the same explosive fate as its booster — a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

“Starship is the cornerstone of Musk’s grandest plans. He and SpaceX both say the Starship-Super Heavy launch system will one day spit next-generation Starlink internet satellites into orbit, ferry passengers anywhere on Earth in an hour or less, and carry 100 people at a time to Mars to build the first settlement there.”

“SpaceX’s explosions aren’t necessarily failure in Musk’s Eyes“

“The complete Starship-Super Heavy system first attempted to reach space in April. It ended up exploding in a fireball, after Starship and the Super Heavy booster failed to separate at a critical moment of the flight, when the booster had finished pushing Starship through the skies and the spaceship was supposed to continue toward orbit on its own.“

“The April launch also blasted a giant hole in its launchpad, initiating a volcano-like eruption that rained debris down on towns five miles away.“

“These exploding Starships are not necessarily failures in Musk’s eyes. Unlike NASA or legacy aerospace firms, SpaceX’s testing philosophy is to build it, fly it, fix any problems that arise, and fly it again. That’s allowed the company to move quickly compared to its competitors.” – Source

NBC News: After successful liftoff and separation, SpaceX loses touch with Starship. One SpaceX official said an automated termination system onboard Starship was likely triggered, and the spacecraft appeared to have detonated.

“It was a mostly successful second outing for SpaceX’s next-generation Starship megarocket. The company did not elaborate on what happened to the spacecraft, Starship, which lost contact with SpaceX and may have triggered its self-destruct system.

With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multiplanetary,” the company added.” – NBC

MSN: FAA to oversee investigation of SpaceX’s explosive 2nd Starship flight

“The target was a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii about 90 minutes after launch. But Saturday’s flight ended just eight minutes in, with the “rapid unscheduled disassembly” of Starship’s upper stage. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) deemed this outcome a mishap and will supervise an investigation into its cause.“

“The FAA will oversee the @SpaceX-led mishap investigation to ensure SpaceX complies with its FAA-approved mishap investigation plan and other regulatory requirements,” the agency wrote via X on Saturday. There have been no reports of injuries or damage to public property as a result of the flight, the FAA added in another post.” – MSN

What About the Ozone Layer? Water? Debris?

“Musk was using “industrial” water this time to inundate the area under the engines to keep them from igniting a fire again. What is industrial water? Where does it come from? What contaminants did it contain before and after being exposed to SuperHeavy pollutants? Where did SpaceX dump it, or did they let it run off onto the mud flats of the wildlife preserve?

SpaceX had approval for 6 launches per year at Vandenberg. However, they violated that this year, almost doubling what they were allowed by launching 11 from Jan. – May. The Coastal Commission okayed 36 rocket launches per year in June. Will SpaceX come back and request more California launches for 2024?

At Vandenberg, SpaceX plans 6 rocket launches in November and 7 rocket launches in December. They include 4 Starlink satellite batches each month.

In Florida, SpaceX plans 7 rocket launches in November and 10 rocket launches in December, and they include 5 Starlink satellite batches each month.

At this rate, there won’t be much ozone left over the Santa Barbara region or over Florida. Attached are the most recent NASA ozone measurements of the Southern Hemisphere compared to the same date in 1979, the first year they published the data, with the Dobson units chart. We’re in trouble.” – Nina Beety

Read more: https://freethesky.org/2022/02/03/rockets-destroy-ozone-and-cause-climate-change-aerospace-programs-deadly-impacts/

Suggested Reading: Ozone loss – Free The Sky

One million satellites planned • Cellular Phone Task Force (cellphonetaskforce.org)

The environmental impact of emissions from space launches: A comprehensive review

The Climate and Ozone Impacts of Black Carbon Emissions From Global Rocket Launches

See also: 2-minute October 12 Presentation to CA Coastal Commission: https://freetheskyorg.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/10-12-23-coastal-com-presentation-on-spacex-final.pdf

“Left a 385-acre debris field that flung concrete chunks as far as 2,680 feet from the launchpad, sparked 3.5- acre state park fire” — Bloomberg

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) documented that the debris cloud of pulverized concrete deposited material as far as six-and-a-half miles north of the launch pad.” — Texas Public Radio

Additional Information about New York Times and 5G/EMF/RF Smartphone Science Hazards

On November 17, Safe Tech international published Who Pay$ When the New York Time$ Serves as a Mouthpiece for the Wirele$$ Industry? regarding the November 14 New York Times article Do I Need to Worry About Smartphone Radiation?

The New York Times article inaccurately reported, Q: I’m constantly on my phone, and it’s usually near my body when I’m not. Should I worry  about radiation exposure?

“Spending all day glued to your smartphone probably isn’t doing you any favors. Excess phone use has been linked with a range of concerns, including sleep issues, elevated cortisol levels, joint pain and even relationship woes. But if it’s radiation you’re worried about, experts say you don’t have to ditch your phone.

“There’s no risk of anything hazardous or dangerous with radiation from cellphones,” said Gayle Woloschak, an associate dean and professor of radiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

As with all cellphones (along with Wi-Fi networks, radio stations, remote controls and GPS), smartphones do emit radiation, said Emily Caffrey, an assistant professor of health physics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They use invisible energy waves to transmit voices, texts, photos and emails to nearby cell towers, which can shuttle them to virtually anywhere in the world. But nearly three decades of scientific research has not linked such exposures to medical issues like cancer, health authorities including the Food and Drug Administration say.“

The article by Safe Tech International reported that independent experts noted that “referenced papers are more than two decades old,“ and that “their research deals solely with the effects of ionizing radiation.“ The article also noted the potential influence of the New York Times Board of Directors, and the paper’s largest shareholder, telecom magnate Carlos Slim.

New York Times Smartphone Safety ‘Experts’

The NYT failed to disclose possible conflicts of interest for the “experts” they quoted, who also appear to have no background on topic.

All three are very government connected. They are not ‘independent’ nor do they represent the opinion of many scientists and researchers with expertise in non-thermal effects of radio frequency radiation.

None of their areas of expertise are in non-ionizing radiation or its biological effects. Two of them – Gayle and Emily — are in the field on nuclear radiation. Emily’s husband also works for NASA.

Gayle Woloschak worked for Argonne National Laboratory for 13 years

https://congress.gov/115/meeting/house/106564/witnesses/HHRG-115-SY20-Wstate-WoloschakG-20 171101.pdf

Howard Fine worked for NIH. He was founding Chief of the Neuro-Oncology Branch at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI). He also won an NIH award in 2017.

https://braintumor.org/news/a-pioneers-story-years-of-discoveries-and-commitment-to-brain- tumor-patients/

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/882492

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/882492

Emily Caffrey, as a consultant and through her own company, works on projects for government and industry clients including radioactive waste sites, and “helps clients obtain necessary regulatory approvals” for their projects.

https://engineering.oregonstate.edu/alumni-partners/oregon-stater-awards/searchable-awards-database/emily-caffrey-council-early-career

As a consultant with South Carolina-based Risk Assessment Corporation (RAC) and president of her own company, Radian Scientific, Caffrey performs radiation-dose reconstructions for numerous projects sponsored by government and industry clients.

…Another facet of her business is working with industry clients that run low-level radioactive waste sites to determine if the sites will be safe thousands of years into the future. In addition to providing radiation-dose projections, she helps clients obtain necessary regulatory approvals.

When she and her husband, Jarvis – also a Beaver – moved to Alabama in 2016 for his dream job at NASA, …”

https://scholars.uab.edu/5699-emily-caffrey

And she just won an American Nuclear Society’s Glenn T. Seaborg Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship. They “will help the Society fulfill its strategic goal of enhancing nuclear policy by working in the halls of Congress, either in a congressional member’s personal office or with a committee, when their fellowship term begins in January.

A New Way Forward?

Consumers would be far better served by not relying on industry 5G ads or the New York Times for guidance about cellphone safety, because they are essentially one and the same, and wildly outdated and/or misleading.

As noted by Devra Davis of the Environmental Health Trust, “Hundreds of expert scientists have concluded that cell phone radiation carries serious health risks. There is no scientific consensus that phones are safe. 

A growing body of peer-reviewed evidence links radiofrequency radiation (RFR) from cell phones and Wi-Fi to a broad range of harm. Even at levels compliant with current government limits, RFR can damage reproductive health, memory, behavior, and brain development. Published NIH animal studies found “clear evidence” of cancer and DNA damage. ” – Devra Davis, Environmental Health Trust

As Thanksgiving approaches in the United States, regarding the belief that ‘SpaceX is leading an urgent quest to create a refuge in space from a dying Earth’ many are recognizing that the Earth itself is an invaluable treasure beyond measure,

and that its time to rethink the rescuer/savior myth…

…and maybe to stop justifying ‘blowing things up’ as an appropriate learning curve.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. –John Muir

Recent Related Reading:

Mobile phone use may affect semen quality A team from UNIGE and Swiss TPH has published a large study covering more than a decade of data on the effects of mobile phones on semen quality of young men.

Mobile phone use and risks of overall and 25 site-specific cancers: a prospective study from the UK Biobank Study

Paradigm shift? US military studies find nonthermal RF radiation exposure causes biologic effects (James C. Lin, IEEE Microwave Magazine) The goal of RadioBio is innovative and the project is intriguing. They seem to suggest a paradigm shift in the U.S. military’s standard of operation procedures away from a conviction that nothing but thermal effects could be associated with electromagnetic fields and waves. The new initiatives instead appeared to allow exploration (and perhaps, exploitation) of low-level, nonthermal biological responses to RF exposure.

Italian Appeal Of Scientists For Electromagnetic Safety

Safeemr.com Joel Moskowitz has been circulating abstracts of newly-published scientific papers on radio frequency and other non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) monthly since 2016. The complete collection of these papers contains more than 1,900 abstracts and links to more than 2,000 papers. Several hundred EMF scientists around the world receive these updates. To see abstracts for the most recent papers or to download volumes 1 and/or 2 of this collection go to:
https://www.saferemr.com/2022/06/recent-research-on-wireless-radiation.htmlRecent Research on Wireless Radiation and Electromagnetic Fields

Be on the Right Side History.

“We’ve arranged a global civilization, which… profoundly depend(s) on science and technology. We’ve also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a recipe for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.” – Carl Sagan

On November 6, Americans heard optimistic news reports that “SpaceX’s Starship Rocket Could Fly Again in the Coming Weeks.” Gizmodo reported, “SpaceX is preparing to launch its Starship rocket for the second time, aiming for mid-November for another flight test of its launch vehicle after the first one didn’t go so well. It’s been over six months since Starship lifted off for the very first time, a problematic debut that has kept the rocket grounded since then. But now SpaceX claims that the second test flight of its megarocket could launch as early as mid-November, “pending regulatory approval.”

SpaceX Pending Approval:  “If you’re able to build a rocket faster than the government can regulate it, that’s upside down, and that needs to be addressed. So we think some regulatory reforms are needed.”

Reporting on the upcoming launch, a Washington Post article noted, “Before the world’s largest rocket blew up its launchpad on lift off, scattering debris and shrapnel into the Texas shoreline, before it started tumbling and exploded in midair, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk had a prediction on how the first test flight of his Starship rocket would go: ‘excitement guaranteed‘.“ Now, more than six months later — after the first Starship flight spawned an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, a lawsuit by environmentalists and hope by NASA officials that Musk’s towering, stainless-steel creation will be reliable enough to one day carry the next astronauts to the surface of the moon — SpaceX is getting ready to launch Starship again.

The FAA still has to issue a launch license, but SpaceX recently said in a statement that Starship “could launch as soon as mid-November, pending regulatory approval.” NASA officials have said they are eager for SpaceX to renew testing.

The company has added a water suppression system to its launchpad, which should help dampen the thunderous vibrations caused by the rocket’s staggering 33 first-stage engines. It has also added a new way for the stages of the rocket to separate, and it’s run multiple engine tests to continue to understand how they will perform in flight.“

(Not noted, how much water is required? Hopefully not on the same scale as the water required to suppress Tesla vehicle fires? See: Firefighters have to blast 40 times more water at burning Tesla than other cars)

“The significance of the test flight goes well beyond the combustible violence of rocketry as performance art. It is a key milestone for SpaceX as it tries to, once again, upend the space industry, and for NASA as well. The space agency is investing $4 billion into the development of the rocket and spacecraft, and it has placed the vehicle at the center of its campaign to return astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972.

While future moon-bound astronauts will launch on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and fly to the moon in the Orion capsule, Starship is the spacecraft that is supposed ferry them to and from the lunar surface. Officially, NASA’s plan is to land astronauts there by 2025. But that timeline is likely to slip, perhaps significantly. One of the concerns is that Starship requires its propellant tank to be refilled while in Earth’s orbit by a fleet of Starship tankers in an immensely complicated choreography. None of those tankers have been launched — or built. And before NASA allows its astronauts to board Starship, SpaceX will have had to have flown the vehicle many times to prove its reliability.

SpaceX has been grounded since the first test flight in April. That flight sent chunks of the launchpad into nearby wetlands and along the shoreline, though no one was injured. The FAA said in a recent statement that it closed the safety portion of its investigation focusing “on issues that affect public health and safety of property.” The environmental portion, done in consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service, is not yet complete, the FAA said. “We have not made a final license determination. We will let you know when that day comes,” Steve Kulm, an FAA spokesman, said in a statement to The Washington Post on Thursday.

The delays have frustrated SpaceX. “We’ve been ready to fly for a few weeks now,” Tim Hughes, SpaceX’s senior vice president, recently told The Post. “And we’d very much like the government to be able to move as quickly as we are. If you’re able to build a rocket faster than the government can regulate it, that’s upside down, and that needs to be addressed. So we think some regulatory reforms are needed.” – SpaceX is gearing up for the second flight of Starship | The Spokesman-Review

The NASA video of the earlier explosion in July of 2022 is here.

Not everyone is excited by the news of the pending launch, or by SpaceX’s demand for faster regulatory approval, particularly due to the company’s recently revealed culture regarding workplace safety. Less airplay and news coverage has been devoted to the alarming Reuters investigation At SpaceX, worker injuries soar in Elon Musk’s rush to Mars, published Nov. 10th, than announcements of the upcoming launch.

The Other SpaceX News Story: At SpaceX, worker injuries soar in Elon Musk’s rush to Mars. “Leading an urgent quest to create a refuge in space from a dying Earth, while harming workers and destroying nature”

 “SpaceX employees say they’re paying the price for the billionaire’s push to colonize space at breakneck speed.”

“Reuters documented at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries at Musk’s rocket company: crushed limbs, amputations, electrocutions, head and eye wounds and one death. SpaceX employees say they’re paying the price for the billionaire’s push to colonize space at breakneck speed.”

“The facility had a worker-injury rate six times the space-industry average in 2022.”

“”…workers are just disposable to them.”

“Through interviews and government records, the news organization documented at least 600 injuries of SpaceX workers since 2014. Many were serious or disabling. The records included reports of more than 100 workers suffering cuts or lacerations, 29 with broken bones or dislocations, 17 whose hands or fingers were “crushed,” and nine with head injuries, including one skull fracture, four concussions and one traumatic brain injury. The cases also included five burns, five electrocutions, eight accidents that led to amputations, 12 injuries involving multiple unspecified body parts, and seven workers with eye injuries. Others were relatively minor, including more than 170 reports of strains or sprains.”

“Current and former employees said such injuries reflect a chaotic workplace where often under-trained and overtired staff routinely skipped basic safety procedures as they raced to meet Musk’s aggressive deadlines for space missions.”

“Musk himself at times appeared cavalier about safety on visits to SpaceX sites: Four employees said he sometimes played with a novelty flamethrower and discouraged workers from wearing safety yellow because he dislikes bright colors.”

“Some SpaceX engineers say they relish collaborating with creative coworkers in an environment with little bureaucracy. “There’s a certain amount of red tape that SpaceX avoids, which allows it to move faster” than NASA or private competitors, said Chris Cunnington, a former engineer in McGregor, Texas. He said he believed SpaceX struck a good balance between speed and safety.”

“Carson worked at the Brownsville site as a welder in 2019 and 2020 and returned as a production supervisor in 2021 and 2022. He said some employees took Adderall, the stimulant typically used to treat attention-deficit disorder, without a prescription. Others fell asleep in bathrooms, said Carson and three other current or former Brownsville workers.” “To speed work and cut costs, SpaceX started manufacturing rockets in tents next to an undeveloped Gulf of Mexico beach. Workers welded rocket parts up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, often in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the SpaceX workers said. When overcome by heat, they were given IV fluids and sent back to work. When high winds disrupted the work, supervisors shut the tents, closing off ventilation that is essential for safe welding, according to the six current and former workers. OSHA warns that welding stainless steel can generate a highly toxic, cancer-causing dust.”

“SpaceX shouldn’t be exempt from protecting workers from being injured or killed,” Barab said, “just because they’re doing innovative work.”

“Other current and former employees at the company’s Brownsville site, which had the highest 2022 injury rate, said the company’s disdain for structured processes came at a high cost to workers.”

“Current and former employees said such injuries reflect a chaotic workplace where often under-trained and overtired staff routinely skipped basic safety procedures as they raced to meet Musk’s aggressive deadlines for space missions.”

“SpaceX, founded by Musk more than two decades ago, takes the stance that workers are responsible for protecting themselves, according to more than a dozen current and former employees, including a former senior executive.”

“The lax safety culture, more than a dozen current and former employees said, stems in part from Musk’s disdain for perceived bureaucracy and a belief inside SpaceX that it’s leading an urgent quest to create a refuge in space from a dying Earth.” – Source

(Note that the employee union advocacy movement in the United States developed due to abuses in the workplace. CNN reported in Sept. 2023, “Workers have attempted to organize at Tesla at least three different times. But the company, led by Elon Musk, has been difficult for unions to break into because of weak protections for labor organizing in the United States; Tesla’s aggressive tactics; and Tesla’s strategy of granting factory workers stock options, a rarity in the auto industry.” “Tesla will go to extraordinary lengths to prevent unions,” Logan said.)

Boca Raton Shoreline: “‘Elon Always Said This was the Place to Launch Rockets Because There’s Nothing Here, That it’s Just a Big Wasteland’“

In June 2021, Texas Monthly reported, Elon Musk Is Turning Boca Chica Into a Space-Travel Hub. Not Everyone Is Starstruck.“‘Elon always said this was the place to launch rockets because there’s nothing here, that it’s just a big wasteland,’ she says. ‘But that’s just not true. It’s an amazing place for shorebirds. It’s got to be one of the best places for shorebirds in the country.’

“Much of the land here is part of the 10,680-acre Boca Chica tract of the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge. Kemp’s ridley turtles, the most endangered sea turtles in the world, nest on the beaches; dolphins swim in the nearby Laguna Madre. The only remaining breeding population of ocelots in the United States lives here. The last confirmed sighting of a jaguarundi in the U.S. happened nearby, in 1986, and there are rumors some may remain.“

“It is the birds, though, that set Boca Chica apart: egrets, falcons, pelicans, plovers, sandpipers, sparrows, and warblers, among others. There are many species of birds in the Rio Grande Valley that can’t be found anywhere else in the U.S. But it’s a hard time for shorebirds up and down the Gulf Coast. Too much development, too many vehicles, a changing climate. The Boca Chica portion of the wildlife refuge is intended to provide a sanctuary.”  – Texas Monthly

As Texas Monthly explains, the July explosion was not the first experimental launch failure. “Perhaps in the distant future historians in far-flung corners of the solar system will note that the twenty-first-century Texas space program did not get off to a particularly strong start. The first proper test of the Starship, the (aspirationally) reusable rocket offered by the SpaceX corporation and launched from the southern tip of the Lone Star State, took place on December 9, 2020. The rocket climbed some 41,000 feet, halted as it was supposed to, and returned to its landing pad—much too rapidly. Crunch. The second test, in February, crunched too. The next, on March 3, appeared to land mostly intact but exploded eight minutes later. On March 30, the fourth test didn’t even make it back to the pad: near the apogee of its flight, it blew up with a calamitous boom, spreading shrapnel more than five miles afield. “Looks like we’ve had another exciting test,” announced the sheepish narrator on SpaceX’s official livestream. “Flying debris and pieces of Starship; there’s stuff smoking on the ground in front of the camera!” said the host of a privately run livestream, one of many catering to the company’s fans, its lens pointed at the landing pad in the town of Boca Chica as steel chunks rained down with frightening velocity.” – Texas Monthly

Debris Raining Down

In September 2016, Spaceflight 101 reported, SpaceX Rocket Parts Rain Down over Indonesia. “Large rocket parts rained down over a pair of small Indonesian islands on Monday when the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket launched earlier this year fell from orbit and, at least to some extent, survived its fiery re-entry over the island of Java. At least two sizeable tanks were reported falling from the sky around 10 Western Indonesian Time in the Sumenep Regency on the eastern end of Madura Island located north-east of Java. The tanks landed on the small islands of Giliraja and Giligenting, causing damage to an animal enclosure but luckily leaving the animals and all locals in the area unharmed. The timing and location of the debris sighting is consistent with the uncontrolled re-entry of the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket launched in August of this year.“

“Given the extremely high speed of the object at Entry Interface, air in front of the vehicle is compressed, creating a shock wave layer in which molecules are separated into ions and temperatures rise to the extreme. The shock wave layer forming just in front of the spacecraft and any separated components leads to considerable heating that causes the incineration of the majority of its structure – especially for rocket bodies that consist to a large part of hollow tank assemblies. The mechanical deceleration experienced during re-entry can be up to 20Gs, further crushing the structural components and causing the break-up of the spacecraft. Temperatures reached during re-entry can melt most metal types and the majority of fragments created on entry fully burn up, leaving a cloud of dust in the upper atmosphere. However, dense components such as pressurant tanks and engine components can survive re-entry and reach the ground. Similar objects were found in Brazil after the re-entry of a Falcon 9 rocket stage.

According to reports by locals, at least four objects related to the Falcon 9 stage were discovered, two of them in shallow waters near the coast. Photos shared by Indonesian media outlets show charred objects of different shapes and sizes, and reports also indicate that a sonic boom associated with the re-entry was heard. Monday’s incident was a rare re-entry event over a populated area, showcasing the danger space debris can pose to human life and property and illustrating the importance of mitigation techniques such as deorbiting spent rocket stages or bringing sizeable objects to a controlled re-entry over remote areas.” –SpaceX Rocket Parts Rain Down over Indonesia – Falcon 9 – JCSat-16 | Spaceflight101

The 2021 SpaceX Protest: Satellites, Rockets, and 5G on Earth and in Sky; What is the Cost to Health and the Environment?

Safe Tech International and other advocacy groups delivered an open letter and held a protest at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA in March of 2021. The video promoting the event is still relevant except for the increase in the number of satellites quoted.

Video Production and Editing: Amber Yang; Event Sponsored by Safe Tech International, Americans for Responsible Technology, Children’s Health Defense, Environmental Health Trust, Moms Across America, Stop 5G on Earth and in Space International Appeal, Stop 5G International, 5G Free California,

Arthur Firstenburg of the Cellular Phone Task Force tracks satellite applications. The most recent tally, published Nov. 1, 2023: One Million Satellites Planned. As noted by Safe Tech International, “Dangers posed by satellites include space debris, collisions, depletion of the ozone layer; risk of devastating cyber attacks, pollution from rocket launches and from “dead” satellites burning up in the atmosphere; plutonium and uranium spills from nuclear-powered satellites and space vehicles; increase in already harmful levels of EMF radiation, permanent compromise of the night sky, interference with astronomical research and weather forecasting; effects on wildlife, yet more tracking, surveillance and erosion of privacy; vastly more energy consumption, and the “promise” of increasing the lethality of war.” – Safe Tech International

Unpacking a Few Concepts

“The lax safety culture, more than a dozen current and former employees said, stems in part from Musk’s disdain for perceived bureaucracy and a belief inside SpaceX that it’s leading an urgent quest to create a refuge in space from a dying Earth.”

Regarding SpaceX’s demand for regulatory reform and faster approvals, a growing portion of the awakened public sees the tech industry’s sense of entitlement to speed and lax regulation as unrealistic, ungrounded, and unsafe.

Humanity, and every species, have co-evolved for eons to live on the Earth. To imply that a refuge can be successfully created on the Moon or Mars by SpaceX, when it cannot operate in harmony with the Laws of Nature, and with its institutionalized lack of respect for human rights, community rights, employee safety, and the Rights of Nature, is wildly illogical.

Rather than assuming that the Earth is dying, disjointed tech industries are ignoring the damage that they themselves are inflicting. This includes the alteration of the Earth’s electromagnetic environment, as noted here in January 2022 by Arthur Firstenberg:

“The pure Yang forms the heaven, and the turbid Yin forms the earth. The Qi of the
earth ascends and turns into clouds, while the Qi of the heaven descends and turns
into rain.” So the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine described the global
electric circuit 2,400 years ago — the circuit that is generated by the ionosphere and
that flows perpetually between the Yang (positive) heaven and the Yin (negative)
earth. The circuit that connects us to earth and sky and that flows through our
meridians giving us life and health. A circuit that must not be polluted with
frequencies emitted by a hundred thousand satellites, some of whose beams will
have an effective power of up to ten million watts. That is sheer insanity, and so far
no one is paying attention. No one is even asking whether the satellites have
anything to do with the profound and simultaneous decline, planetwide, in the
number of insects and birds, and with the pandemic of sleep disorders and fatigue
that so many are experiencing. [] no one is paying attention to the holocaust descending from space.” – 441449-Low-Earth-Orbit-Satellites.pdf (cellphonetaskforce.org)

Kate Kheel of Safe Tech International and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space observed, “SpaceX policy toward workers is a microcosm of how the entire industry sees the public and indeed all life. Their mission to “go to Mars as fast as possible and ‘save humanity’ permeates every part of the company” and all life on Earth. The Reuter’s article quotes an employee saying, “The company justifies casting aside anything that could stand in the way of accomplishing that goal, including worker safety.” …and we might add: …including the safety and well-being of all life.”

Reuters reported, “SpaceX shouldn’t be exempt from protecting workers from being injured or killed,” Barab said, “just because they’re doing innovative work.” Unfortunately, electric vehicle and so-called green energy advocates often dismiss criticism of Tesla and Musk based on the assumption that he is unfairly targeted due to his success challenging the fossil fuel industries with electric vehicles. Ignoring mining, disposal, and other exploitation issues, the green energy movement has fallen prey to the belief that the ends justify the means. Along with Musk.

Many informed activists recognize that the “light regulatory touch” towards Elon Musk is derived from his work for the military and the war industry.

Dig Deeper

Paris Marx has been responsibly and accurately investigating Elon Musk on the platforms “Tech Won’t Save Us” and “Disconnect.”

In 2021, Paris interviewed Eric Roesch in SpaceX’s Regulatory Evasion Has Consequences. “Eric Roesch is an expert in environmental compliance and risk assessment who writes about intersection of capitalism, markets and greenwashing. Eric wrote about the damage the Starship launch was going to have, SpaceX’s violation of the Clean Water Act, and Elon Musk’s general regulatory evasion. He also shared [] photos of the aftermath of the Starship launch.” – Source

See: Elon Musk Unmasked: Origins of an Oligarch (Part 1) 40 minutes

Elon Musk Unmasked: Creating the Genius Myth (Part 2) – Episodes – Tech Won’t Save Us (techwontsave.us) 45 minutes

Elon Musk Unmasked: Building An Empire (Part 3) 53 minutes

Elon Musk Unmasked: Shaping the Future (Part 4) 65 minutes “We can learn more through the Hubble horoscope. We don’t have to colonize these other places.”

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” – Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Join the conversation.

The ends do not justify the means. We are not a multi-planetary species. We have the ability and responsibility to seek the deeper truth and invite Light to prevail, here, on the abundant and beautiful Earth, where we can and do live, now.

Action: The Appeal — 5G Space Appeal