Updated on April 26, 2024. International Arbor Day (scroll down to “Attention”)

Original article: Furu og gran skades av stråling fra basestasjoner

Here’s another reason to switch off mobile data – at least when you’re not using it, and in any case when you are in nature, anywhere in open space: Else Nordhagen and Einar Flydal – 29 March 2024

There are many articles that show that trees are damaged by electromagnetic radiation. A Turkish research team has done a long-term study showing the effects of a mobile base station on pine trees. In addition, the researchers provide a thorough summary of research that demonstrates damage to plants and trees and how such damage can occur – also to pine and spruce in Norway.

The case clearly points in the direction that both the use of WiFi and mobile data in cabins, both now at Easter and otherwise, damages the forest around us, and especially in a solid perimeter around the mobile base stations. The following research article deals with a pine species that grows in the Mediterranean region, which in Norwegian is called Turkish pine (Pinus brutia):

“The effects of base station as an electromagnetic radiation source on flower and cone yield and germination percentage in Pinus brutia Ten” Published: September 2021 Ozel HB, Cetin M, Sevik H, Varol T, Isik B, Yaman B. Biol Futur. 2021 Sep;72(3):359-365. doi: 10.1007/s42977-021-00085-1. Epub 2021 Apr 26. PMID: 34554556.

The research that the article describes is clear and simple: The researchers found an area with monoculture, that is, exactly the same plants planted in the soil at the same time with fixed distances. The soil, solar conditions, etc. were also exactly the same. At one end there was a mobile mast with a base station and the area stretched from this and for 800 meters in length. Thus, they had a perfect test area.

The plants were planted in the soil as 2-year-olds in 1994 in an area called Cestepe in the Bartin province of Turkey. The trees were examined in 2019, while the base station was set up 14 years earlier, i.e. in 2005. At the time of the examination, the trees were 27 years old and had been irradiated from the base station for half their lives.

The researchers analyzed trees at a distance of 100 meters from the base station and every hundred meters up to and including 800 meters. They considered 30 trees and counted:

• Number of flowers on the tree, both male and female flowers. – All pines have separate male and female flowers on the same tree.
  
• Number of one-year-old cones
  
• Number of two-year-old cones. – All pines have two generations of cones and the cones fall in the second year with mature seeds in them.
  
• The germination capacity of the seeds from the mature cones. That is, they planted the seeds in soil and counted how many sprouted and how many did not sprout.
  

The results they got are frightening, see the graph. There was a very big difference between the pines 100 meters from the base station and those 800 meters away. On all the measured parameters, except germination capacity, the trees 100 meters from the base station had only approx. 1/10 of the result compared to the results of the trees that stood 800 meters away. The germination capacity 100 meters from the base station was 1/3, i.e. far worse than 800 meters away, where it was 100%.

The frightening thing is not least that the results are completely consistent: The decrease with proximity applied to everything they enumerated. It is completely clear as you approach the base station: the closer, the more negatively affected the trees.

If you put together the decrease in the number of cones and the decrease in germination, there will be an extremely large number of fewer spreading trees from a pine 100 meters away from the base station than those further away, since there will be both fewer cones, and thus fewer seeds, and the few seeds that will be , have poorer germination capacity.

The article mentions many different effects of electromagnetic radiation which may be underlying reasons for the results they find. There is an extensive reference list in the article. The authors refer to research that demonstrates stress in exposed cells, changes in the function of the ion channels located in the cell membranes, various biochemical changes and also changes in the soil’s chemistry and biology as a result of electromagnetic radiation. All of these can damage the trees and are general damage mechanisms that will also affect other trees – and other living organisms.

The researchers also refer to research that has shown growth-promoting effects of electromagnetic radiation, but this only applies to short-term exposure. All experiments with long-term exposure show negative effects. They therefore point out that since they find such important differences in effects from short- and long-term exposure, it is very important to use realistic exposure conditions.

The pine in Norway is a sibling of the examined pine from the Mediterranean region. Pines are experts at managing in barren areas and little water. Pine and other conifers are also from a very old plant genus with many basic properties found in most plants. They are “primitive” in the sense that both the seeds in the female flowers and the pollen grains are poorly protected and thus much exposed to what “is in the air” where the plants stand. The results from this research are therefore very likely transferable to Norwegian pine trees, and also to other conifers such as spruce, of which we also have a lot in Norway.

Some insects are also dependent on the flowers of conifers, they have specialized in this. Furthermore, there are birds and spiders that eat these insects. This entire food chain is affected when the number of flowers on conifers is reduced.

In this case, the mobile base stations are thus the cause of a major problem affecting nature. We humans are also completely dependent on it.

But is the Turkish research to be trusted? Yes. Too many others have also demonstrated damage – in other places with other methods:

Perhaps you have caught the story from Arthur Firstenberg’s great book The Invisible Rainbow about the German radio engineer from Siemens who discovered that something was breaking the trees in front of his house, but not behind it? He understood that it must be the thin radiation cone of the German postal service’s radio connection that was the cause, and was eventually able to calculate that the energy of the radio waves, which traveled through the pine needles and into the ground, not only damaged the trees, but also created acidic soil.

Perhaps you have also caught the little booklet on damage to trees that a German forester has prepared (blog post 24.05.2022) and the large survey of damage to trees done in two German cities (blog post 16.3.2023)?

— o —

The most important thing you can do yourself is to reduce the use of mobile data as much as you can! This applies even if you are sitting in a cabin out in the open air – yes, that is exactly the case! And then you should avoid long mobile phone calls. Read more in blog post 23/03/2024 about what you can do.

As the problems sink in with the authorities, one can hope that they too do their part of the job…

Else Nordhagen and Einar Flydal, on 29 March 2024

PS. Of course, it has not been proven that Norwegian pine and spruce are damaged until someone has made an attempt. But the results from other research are so clear that it is strictly speaking unnecessary. We know that the mechanisms that cause damage also apply to Norwegian pine and spruce. Demanding separate research on Norwegian pine and spruce would be completely pointless.

And here you see what Turkish pine [Pinus brutia] looks like: (photo from https://www.freepik.com/)

Find out more:

• EMF radiation creates Tree Damage
• Pine trees – Source: click on one of the buttons below
  • Premature aging of pine needles
  • Smaller tree growth ring
  • Decreased seed germination in pine trees
• The World Foundation for Natural Science – The healing power of trees

All EMF effects in a list:

Attention

In the area where I live in Norway, Hallingdal, or Halling valley, the pine trees, they said, did not grow anymore, which became the reason for massive deforestation: these trees were hacked down massively. Video, video 1, Video2, Video 3

There are high voltage cables through the entire valley, transporting electricity from the very beginning of Hallingdal, into the direction of Hønefoss, Oslo.

The entire valley, shaped by the Hallingdalselva, and the mountains on both sides of its borders, is also radiated with the RFs of the many cell towers, increasing in power levels during the years. Electromagnetic radiation and the radiation from the high voltage cables echo from the one side of the valley, to the other.

I had asked Suzanne Simard (Professor of Forest Ecology at University of British Columbia) if wireless radiation could be the cause of a stop in growth in the pine trees. She never reacted on my email.

“The forest is more than a collection of trees. Trees exist in a web of interdependence, linked together by a system of underground channels. This network connects all trees and the system in a constellation of nodes and connections: young and old communicate and respond to each other by sending each other (biochemical) signals. Mother trees – majestic nodes, or hubs, that play a central role in the communication, protection and awareness of the forest – pass their wisdom on to their descendants, their seedlings, generation after generation, sharing their memories of what is helpful and what is harmful , who is friend and who is foe, and how to adapt and survive in an ever-changing landscape.” – Suzanne Simard (Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia)