Wi-Fi Killing Trees???

[wesdor]

Read an interesting article about Wi-Fi and trees.  Here is the address (for attribution purposes only).  Any of you know anything more about this topic?  It seems like every year another species of tree gets attacked. 

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/211219/wifi_makes_trees_sick_study_says.html

Here is the article:

Radiation from Wi-Fi networks is harmful to trees, causing significant variations in growth, as well as bleeding and fissures in the bark, according to a recent study in the Netherlands.

All deciduous trees in the Western world are affected, according to the study by Wageningen University. The city of Alphen aan den Rijn ordered the study five years ago after officials found unexplained abnormalities on trees that couldn't be ascribed to a virus or bacterial infection.

Additional testing found the disease to occur throughout the Western world. In the Netherlands, about 70 percent of all trees in urban areas show the same symptoms, compared with only 10 percent five years ago. Trees in densely forested areas are hardly affected.

Besides the electromagnetic fields created by mobile-phone networks and wireless LANs, ultrafine particles emitted by cars and trucks may also be to blame. These particles are so small they are able to enter the organisms.

The study exposed 20 ash trees to various radiation sources for a period of three months. Trees placed closest to the Wi-Fi radio demonstrated a "lead-like shine" on their leaves that was caused by the dying of the upper and lower epidermis of the leaves. This would eventually result in the death of parts of the leaves. The study also found that Wi-Fi radiation could inhibit the growth of corn cobs.

The researchers urged that further studies were needed to confirm the current results and determine long-term effects of wireless radiation on trees.

[Jeff]

Bull Puckey

[Tom]

What is Wi-Fi?

[Bill Gaiche]

Dont know fer sure Tom. Looked outside and didnt see any. Trees still standing outside for now. bg

[fishpharmer]

Just imagine what wi fi does to people?    

Let's outlaw wifi!    Naw, lets outlaw people and trees.

[ErikC]

Kill Trees or go back to dial-up.....Pretty tough call

[Jeff]

Well, we might even have to start eliminating sunlight too. I don't know how anything will survive from all those differently combined waves of radiation, especially trees.

[fishpharmer]

Don't let those folks know that paper, especially toilet paper kills trees too.  Consider the implications of that!

[wesdor]

glad to see all of you have the same reaction.  I didn't want to lead you in any manner.

My guess is that someone received a lot of money to do this research and of course they would want to come up with a cause.

[Pilot1]

Was this "study" published on April 1st?

[Gary_C]

I don't know about Wi-Fi, but knowing that scientists are searching the skys for signs of intelligent life, I wonder how our Planet Earth would look to other life, if it does exist, with all our cell towers, Wi-Fi, radio and TV broadcasts, etc. We must stand out like a massive electromagnetic signal. I sure don't think we could hide from any other life forms, even if we tried. 

But I do see one thing that doesn't get much attention. On I-35 between St. Paul and Duluth there are stretches of the highway that pass thru tunnels of mostly Red (Norway) Pine and in the late winter to early spring the needles of the trees next to the roadway on both sides will turn brown. I never see significant mortality later and the trees seem to recover later in the growing season. And I have been in some of those pine stands and they are healthy. So perhaps we should ban all autos and trucks too. Or maybe just those crazy Twin Cities area drivers that drive like maniacs. 

Or another thought. Since the state patrol says that "speed kills," maybe it is speeding vehicles that is injuring those trees. 

[isawlogs]

Gary do they use salt or calcium along those roads ...

It must be the speeding cars, they produce all that turbulence that the tree can't handle . 

[Jeff]

First thing I was going to say was salt.

[isawlogs]

 What was the second     

[Gary_C]

 

I thought of the salt or the spray from when the road is wet, but the brown needles are all the way up the trees on all the exposed face. The only thing I can think of is the carbon monoxide from all the exhaust is burning the exposed needles.

[clearcut]

The purpose of the yet to be published study was to determine causes of urban trees are decline. The study exposed ash seedlings to a Wi Fi source at various distances in a growth chamber for 3 months. Seedlings closer to the source had some leaf damage. These results could not be confirmed in a repeat study. Other literature suggests no effect except in the case of extreme exposures.

A translation (Dutch to English) of a statement from the researchers can be found here:
     http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.antennebureau.nl%2Factueel%2Fnieuws%2F2010%2Feerste-indruk-kennisplatform-onderzoek-naar-bomen-en-wifi-zendsignalen

My conclusion: someone was sharing preliminary results for comment and the press picked up on the most sensational aspect of the study.

[mrcaptainbob]

There was a study in Russia about the affects of radiation on trees. They set up a short tower and placed some low level nuclear stuff in it with maybe a couple holes facing various directions. There was a straight path of death emanating from those holes for quite a distance. Don't remember any specifics though, just the black and white picture. Of coarse, nuclear is a whole lot different than the radiation the op is speaking off, I'm sure. But I'll bet there's still some kind of affect on plant life, regardless of the radiation. Some radiation is positive, some negative.

[Texas Ranger]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,who made that famous quote "Bull pucky"?