FIRST GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST 5G GATHERS MOMENTUM

FIRST GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST 5G GATHERS MOMENTUM   A Global Day of Protest against 5G was just an idea three months ago. At this writing, more than 205 events in more than 195 cities in 32 countries are being planned for Saturday, January 25. Some events will also take place on Friday, January 24, when government offices are open, and on Sunday, January 26. Most of the events, together with contact information, are listed here: https://stop5ginternational.org/5g-protest-day/. So far, events are planned in:   Austria - Vienna Australia (5 cities) Belgium Bermuda Canada (13 events) Croatia (6 cities) Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark (7 cities) Finland France (many cities) Germany (11 cities) Greece - Patras Hungary (3 cities) Ireland - Dublin Italy (39 cities) Japan - Tokyo Kenya Malta Netherlands - Amsterdam New Zealand (15 cities) Norway (5 cities) Poland (9 cities) Portugal - Lisbon Romania (4 cities) Serbia - Belgrade Slovenia - Ljubljana South Africa - Durban and Cape Town Spain (5 cities plus two events in the Canary Islands) Sweden (3 cities) Switzerland (13 cities) United Kingdom (13 events) United States (34 events)   If your event is not listed on the website, please contact team@stop5Ginternational.org and request your event to be added.   Here is an updated press release about the Global Day of Protest. Please send it to newspapers and other media in your county.   SIXTY MORE SATELLITES TO BE LAUNCHED SHORTLY BY SPACEX Astronomers Protest   SpaceX intends to launch another 60 satellites as soon as the weather is favorable, bringing the total number of "Starlink" satellites in low orbit around the Earth to 240. Originally scheduled for tomorrow, the launch has been postponed due to weather conditions.   An Appeal by Astronomers called "Safeguarding the Astronomical Sky" is circulating, spearheaded by Italian astronomer Stefano Gallozzi. The appeal will collect signatures for about one more week, and then will be sent to governments, institutions and agencies around the world, and to newspapers and other media.   Most of the satellites will be visible to the naked eye, especially in the time after sunset and before sunrise, when they will most strongly catch the glare of the sun. If tens of thousands of them are launched, say the astronomers, they will ruin the night sky for all of humanity. The satellites will not only “greatly outnumber the approximately 9,000 stars that are visible to the unaided human eye,” but will “reach the brightness of the stars in the Ursa Minor constellation,” and will be “exceeded in brightness only by 172 stars in the whole sky.” Even if the satellites are coated with non-reflecting paint, say the astronomers, they will still eclipse stars, and their radio transmissions will cripple radio astronomy, “making the astrophysics community blind to these spectral windows” through which they are currently able to observe the universe.   “THERE IS NO MORE TIME TO DISCUSS, IT IS TIME TO ACT!” states the appeal.   The appeal can be signed by    Professional Astrophysicists and Astronomers Technologists/Engineers PHD students Collaborators and/or Associates at International Scientific Institutes.   If you are an astronomer or if you fit into one of those categories, please sign the Astronomers' Appeal and ask your colleagues to sign also. At this writing, the list of signatories contains 263 astronomers from 25 countries (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela). An article about this threat to the night sky was published in the popular and widely-read science magazine, Scientific American, on January 16, 2020. It is titled, "The FCC’s Approval of SpaceX’s Starlink Mega Constellation May Have Been Unlawful." It quotes Ruskin Hartley, the Executive Director of the International Dark Sky Association. Such a large number of satellites, he says “has the potential to change our relationship, and our connection, with the universe.” And it quotes Ramon Ryan, a law student at Vanderbilt University. Ryan has written an article, to be published later this year in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, in which he argues that the Federal Communications Commission’s approval of 12,000 satellites was illegal because no environmental review was carried out. If the FCC is sued in a court of law, he says, it will be likely to lose. Arthur Firstenberg P.O. Box 6216 Santa Fe, NM 87502 USA phone: +1 505-471-0129 info@cellphonetaskforce.org https://www.5gSpaceAppeal.org