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60 MORE SATELLITES WERE LAUNCHED TODAY
This morning, at 9:06 a.m., SpaceX launched another 60 “Starlink” satellites, bringing the number of these satellites in low orbit around the Earth up to 240. These are already streaking photographic plates at observatories around the world, although they are not even one percent of what SpaceX is ultimately planning. SpaceX already has permission from the Federal Communications Commission to litter our night skies with 12,000 satellites, has applied for an incredible total of 42,000, and is now launching them, 60 at a time, twice a month, indefinitely into the future, unless someone puts a stop to it. If they are all launched, they will far outnumber the approximately 9,000 visible stars, and will be brighter than all but 172 of them.
This act of global vandalism threatens to put an end to astronomy, and to ruin the night sky forever for all of humanity, for migratory birds that orient themselves by the stars, and for all other creatures who enjoy life under the eternal unchanging sky.
This act of global vandalism also threatens to bring about the sudden extinction of all or most life on the surface of the Earth, as the 12,000+ satellites will be located in the Earth’s ionosphere, and will emit extremely powerful pulsating beams of radiation into it. The ionosphere is a source of high voltage, charged at all times to an average 300,000 volts. It controls the global electrical circuit which connects every living thing — bird, animal, tree and human — to the Earth and sky; the electrical circuit that courses through our veins, which the Chinese call qi, and the Indians call prana. An eternal circuit of life that has been gentle and unchanging for three billion years.
The Astronomers’ Appeal, called Safeguarding the Astronomical Sky, launched just a few weeks ago, already has 1,300 signatures of professional astronomers from 48 countries. They are asking for the Starlink project to be put on hold, immediately, and for all governments to abide by international treaties — the same treaties that are invoked in the International Appeal to Stop 5G on Earth and in Space:
The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 requires that the use of outer space be conducted “so as to avoid [its] harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth.”
The United Nations Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities (2018) requires users of outer space to address “risks to people, property, public health and the environment associated with the launch, in-orbit operation and re-entry of space objects.”
“THE INVISIBLE RAINBOW: A HISTORY OF ELECTRICITY AND LIFE”
WILL BE IN BOOKSTORES ON MARCH 2
The book that I published in hardcover on Earth Day of 2017 has been picked up by Chelsea Green, the environmental publishing house. They are publishing a paperback edition that will go on sale on March 2, 2020. It will be available in the USA and the UK from Chelsea Green, as well as from Amazon and bookstores.
I wrote this book in order to tell a history that has never been told before, and to explain to a stubborn world just what it is that makes everyone’s lights turn on, and their appliances run; what it is that we have been sending through wires and broadcasting through the air without a thought; what it is that we are holding in our hands, giving to our children to play with, and pressing against our heads. I wrote it to describe to a world in peril what life was once like, and what it could be like again — if we wake up in time.
About 370 copies of the hardcover edition are left. They can be purchased from me until they are sold out.
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