Subject: Destruction of Iridium has begun (Lundquist)..
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 192005 -0600 (CST)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
--------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody:
......I believe that the jury is still out on the question of how
desirable might be a wireless system that would be entirely space
based, which is what Marjorie is defending below.....
But it is possible that in a "Blue World" of all bad choices, such
a system might be the "least bad." I don't find that unreasonable
to **assume** at this stage in our march up the EMF/hazards learning
curve.....
The point which I would like to zero-in on in Marjorie's piece below,
however, is the economic side, which is not being recognized - but is
starkly revealed by this **horrendous** financial bankruptcy, the collapse
of Iridium....
Marjorie refers to the $15 billion that is the company's lost investment.
I suggest that there are many other billions of dollars there, too, which
society has not calculated..... And cannot calculate when the "free
market," alone drives the decision....
If ... Marjorie's thesis is right - that the space based system would do
less harm to people AND LESS DEVALUATION TO PROPERTY - then someone ought
to be calculating the value of those lost alternative savings!?! My guess
is that they would add to the $15 billion many times more than that.....
.......All because society has let the profit motive, alone, drive the
decision.....!!!
In other words, the "free market" does not always make the most sound
**economic** decisions ... from the perspective of the whole of society
-- just as it often does not make the most humane decisions....!!!
(And I can think of many other examples where this is true - maintenance
of the economy's infrastructure, for example, or the irretrievable
environmental costs which are usually ignored by the "free market.")
And, if society had the fiber and willingness to bring itself to
examine such matters from the perspective of "the larger good" - rather
than just "the corporate good" - the outcome of these affairs ought to
be favorably influenced..... More favorably influenced than when left to
the kind of decision we get out of $$$$$$$ "profit" thinking, alone?!?
I suggest: A great black hole of economic **waste** is beginning to show
up in our "laissez faire" American economic model ... when societal
"costs" of this magnitude are objectively examined from a societal
perspective.....
Cheerio...... (Marjorie, thanks for what you have sent below.....)
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
NEW!!! Website... http://emfguru.com
...................People are more important than profits.................
Missed opportunity...
$$$$$ We could have changed the corrupted system!! $$$$$
McCain !!
DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST???
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 20 Mar 00 15:53:50 MST
From: MARJORIE LUNDQUIST
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: Destruction of Iridium has begun
Roy, I thought it would be appropriate to call everyone's attention to the
fact that Iridium, the company created by Motorola to provide global wireless
telecommunications service to all parts of the earth's surface, has been in
bankruptcy and on Friday, March 17, the barkruptcy court judge approved the
destruction of this $5 billion system (because additional investors could not
be found).
For those who don't know, the Iridium system consists of 66 satellites in low
earth orbit, which provide coverage of all (or nearly all) of the earth's
surface. It has 55,000 subscribers in 160 countries, but has been operating
at a loss ($17 million per month, I was told by Iridium's COO this morning).
When new investors could not be found by the Friday deadline, the destruction
of the system was authorized, to halt the financial hemorrhage. Phone service
was shut off at the end of the day Friday, and the process of bringing the
satellites down to a lower orbit, so they will burn up in the earth's
atmosphere, has begun.
Why should this be of interest to EMF-L? Well, by bringing the wireless
telecommunications industry into existence, governments everywhere have
whetted the public appetite for this service. The handy, compact little
cellular/mobile phones that people carry in their purses or pockets or on
their belts are extremely convenient, and not enough people opted for the more
cumberson Iridium system, which is not so convenient.
But those convenient, compact phones are hazardous to use for lengthy
conversations, and they require base transmitters situated in populated areas
(which tend to lower property values, because people proerly don't want them
nearby). The Iridium system has its base transmitters far away in space, and
its cumbersome portable phone does not pose the same hazard to health as do
the popular compact mobile phones in such wide use today.
So, from my perspective, it looks as though the human race is getting rid of
the one wireless telecommunication system that poses the least hazard to
health (and does not devalue properties, because it does not require base
transmitters on the earth's surface) while all those mobile phone systems that
pose a more serious hazard to health are left in place!
I have written letters to Iridium and Motorola asking for a two-week halt to
the destruction of Iridium, to allow governments time to consider collectively
supporting it. So far, no attention is being paid to my request.
If anyone wants to protest, I suggest writing to Motorola CEO Christopher
Galvin (I have tried to FAX a letter but cannot get through; I have tried to
phone, but also cannot get through):
Mr. Christopher Galvin, C.E.O.
Motorola Communications
1303 E. Algonquin Road
Schaumberg, IL 60196-1079 USA
Here are the phone and FAX numbers I could not get through on:
phone: (847) 576-5000
FAX: (847) 576-3477
Of course, if anyone will promptly pony up $17 million U.S., they will be glad
to postpone the shutdown of Iridium for a month . . .
Some of you may want to write to your representatives in Congress (or
Parliament) about this. Once Iridium has been destroyed, I doubt that anyone
will want to spend another $5 billion to re-create it! -- Marjorie
*********************************
Marjorie Lundquist, Ph.D., C.I.H.
Bioelectromagnetic Hygienist
P. O. Box 11831
Milwaukee, WI 53211-0831 USA
*********************************
P.S. Just for the record, I have no financial interest in Iridium or
Motorola, and have no relatives working for either company.
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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com