5G/EMF/RF/IOUT: An Ocean Of Consciousness to Protect the Seas
By Patricia Burke with Kate Kheel
At the Solstice, many groups and individuals were reflecting on the balance between darkness and night, observed by indigenous groups though-out millennia.  The Ocean Mammal Institute and Stop 5G International hosted a gathering, identifying the need to address the onslaught of “the Internet of Underwater Things” with an evolution in consciousness.
Kate Kheel of Stop5G International provided an introductory overview. Dr. Marsha Green, Founder and Director of the Ocean Mammal Institute, and Dr. Alerik Arenander of the Brain Research Institute discussed the need to harmonize head and heart, and brain function, which yields higher moral decision-making. Music with whales by Steven Snow was included.
Kate Kheel explained,
“We explore [ ] root causes and solutions to the crises we now face, including the “smart ocean.”
The technology revolution has [ ] expanded to the sea in the form of the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT), aka the Smart Ocean.
The ocean is fast becoming an integral part of a worldwide network of “smart” interconnected infrastructure and objects that will complement satellites in the skies and cell towers and other wireless infrastructure on land. The idea is to enable seamless connectivity throughout the ocean, Earth, and skies.
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Whereas wireless data transmissions on land and in space rely primarily on radio waves (RF/Microwave radiation) and laser to a lesser degree, these are not well-suited for underwater applications. In the ocean, sonar is the go-to technology for transmitting and receiving data wirelessly.
[ ] Voluntary standards are being hashed out by international standard setting bodies.
What we know so far is that the smart ocean will house underwater wireless sensor networks communicating and gathering data via sonar. These sensors will communicate with relay stations on the surface of the water, which in turn will communicate with satellites in space and cell towers on land. Some companies are exploring sending data directly from beneath the water to drones hovering overhead, with conversion from sonar to radio taking place at the surface of the water.
The frequencies used underwater will likely be primarily low or mid-range sonar. The decibel level, how loud it will be, remains unknown. Optical communications such as laser or lidar, alone or in combination with radio waves may be used for specific short-range data intensive transmissions. Phased arrays of sonar are also being developed for stronger directional beams.
The military, commercial, and research sectors would all make use of the IoUT. For the military, a “smart” ocean would help with autonomous underwater vehicles, drones, robots, torpedoes, communications, bombs, reconnaissance and so forth.
The commercial sector would use it for mining for minerals, seismic drilling for oil and gas, commercial shipping, and recreational travel.
For the research community, the smart ocean would be used [ ] to gather data for monitoring weather, climate change, wildlife and so on.
Without balance (an attribute sorely lacking in our times), the ocean will likely become a booming seabed of technology, noise, and pollution with dire consequences. for marine animals.
Whales and other marine animals rely on sound to navigate, communicate, find mates, forage, avoid predators, and defend territories. These animals can become disoriented by sonar waves which are known to cause deafness, bleeding in the brain, and in some cases, stranding and death.
Whales play a key role in Earth’s ecosystem. Whales’ excrement, known as “fecal plumes”, support phytoplankton, the microscopic creatures that produce well over half the oxygen on Earth, earning them the title of [ ] the “lungs” of the planet.
Both phytoplankton and whales [ ] Â help sequester huge amounts of carbon, and are key players in mitigating climate change.
Environmental groups and government agencies, even those with a [ ] focus on oceans, seem oblivious to the potential harms of an IoUT.
For eg., [ ] the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is supporting an initiative In Monterey CA that will use unmanned sail drones. Multibeam sound data will be used to map the ocean floor.  Sonar will also be bounced off marine animals to “track populations”.
Though aware of the impacts of sonar on whales, NOAA is not making the connection that the sonar itself is a pollutant and proven biological stressor.
So, what’s going here? What’s the rationale?
A smart ocean (along with satellites and ground-based towers) will accomplish three main things: fuel war; facilitate further consumption and extraction; and provide a tool to control our environment.
Do we really want to facilitate 21st century Systems Warfare using money that might be better spent protecting nature? Do we need more stuff, generating yet more plastics, pollution, and noise in the oceans? Is data collection (though it can have useful applications) [ ] the best path toward helping us make wiser choices [ ] ?
I am reminded of a story a friend [ ] shared.
Her mother-in-law was given a wireless pacemaker and instructed by her doctor to sit by the WiFi router to recharge her pacemaker, wirelessly. She [ ] developed memory loss, cognitive decline, and vertigo. Eventually, she fell from a vertigo episode, had a stroke, and died. But the hospital was able to monitor and chart it all.
Will we “monitor” and chart whales into extinction? Will this worldwide network of internet-connected “things” and AI chart our own demise?
But the problem goes even deeper.
One of my mother’s favorite sayings was, “No man is an island” (by the English poet, John Donne). I understood [ ] that our actions affect others, so we must be considerate and thoughtful of what we do or say.
What I didn’t realize till many years later, was this wasn’t just good advice for common decency, it was a foundational principle for all existence.
We, and all life are not separate animate chunks of matter, but rather we are the patterns that emerge from the interconnection of trillions upon trillions of systems. Our brain, our consciousness is not comprised of a head full of neurons, but rather emerges from the energies, patterns, and connections between the neurons. A forest is not a collection of trees, shrubs, and dirt sharing a parcel of land. It’s the intricate interconnection between the decaying leaves on the ground that fertilize the nutrient dense soil beneath them, the elaborate network of mycelium, the generously cooperative root system underground. It’s the worms, the termites, the fungi, the excrement – escorted through time by the cycle of seasons.
Without interconnection, there is no life. No existence.
Yet the worldview many of us have grown up with is one of separation. We have been taught we are separate and outside of nature.
And we have also grown up with the mostly unspoken world view that we are not only separate from nature, but from one another [].
Lacking the foundational understanding of life as the fractal flourishing of patterns and systems, we default into what author and visionary Jeremy Lent describes as the “hedonist treadmill”, sending us yet further down the pathway of “more”, “bigger”, “faster”, “newer,” and yet never finding contentment from “just enough”.
Our civilization – our values, norms, and ethics — emerged from the combined insights, ideas, perceptions, and feelings of individual people over centuries. A new culture, so desperately needed now to protect our oceans and all life, will emerge in much the same way. But time now is of the essence.
The greater our intrinsic interconnectedness is felt, lived, and embodied, the greater the harmonization and coherence of the systems, patterns, and vibrations of Life. As Dr. Alaric will discuss, the greater the connections in our brains, the more coherence, clarity, and peace we can access.
[ ]. The more we connect with the natural world and one another (understanding we are part of a grand fractal interconnected system), the more we and all Life will thrive.
So, getting back to addressing our current obsession with digitalizing every “thing”, event, and moment in time with the goal of solving world problems through data analytics and AI – That’s doomed to fail because it’s rooted in a worldview of separation and disconnect. That paradigm sees the world as seemingly infinite disparate bits and pieces to be quantified, charted, and ultimately, controlled.
Once we come to fully embrace that life itself is interconnection and fractal flourishing (a term coined by Jeremy Lent) …from the smallest atom out to the entire universe, we will be better able to breathe a cosmic sigh of relief and embark on the long-awaited journey home toward health, contentment, laughter, vibrancy, and peace. As a friend of mine once put it: When we feel everyone and everything as ourselves, we can no longer conceive of harming another being, or Earth herself, as it would be akin to harming ourselves.
More and more people feel a longing for simplicity, local, and connection to nature. As Charles Eisenstein so aptly puts it, for “The more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.”
This is the promise of the solstice. The return of light.”
More information about whales here.
