2 thoughts on “Does anthropogenic electromagnetic noise disrupt bird navigation?”

1. Greg, here’s what will convince the general public that this is serious:

   Remember Jose Delgado’s electrified bull? Delgado was a researcher in Spain in the 1960s who wired up a bull’s brain with one or more electrodes controlled by a remote control that he held in his hand. He got in the bull ring with the bull, dressed as a bull fighter. Delgado waved a red cape, and when the bull charged, he pressed the button and the charging bull stopped in his tracks and turned away.

   This made instant news around the world, for example the full-page picture of it was carried in Life magazine (back when Life was a major magazine). It became an instant Famous Experiment (capital F capital E) in the same manner as Milgram’s “obedience experiment” with volunteers delivering dangerous shocks to others.

   Here’s how that applies to birds:

   Someone needs to build an RF generator with a highly directional antenna, that they can point at one or more birds in flight, press the button, and cause the bird to change direction. Ideally, cause the bird to fly in circles “on command.” Equally good, cause a visible portion of a flock to change direction and diverge from the flock.

   Take video of sufficiently high quality that there is no question as to what’s happening. Do Not put on Youtube, but instead take it to the serious mainstream media. It will go viral as hell, and when contextualized by news announcers with gravitas as Something Serious (capital S capital S), the public will get the message that birds are affected by our stray RF fields. After that, the only remaining point of debate is what to do about it. Though, expect opposition from the “we want our consumer baubles and we don’t care about anything else” crowd.

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2. I have seen video of exactly what you are talking about with sharks.

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