I would like to address and discuss a few things under the umbrella of ambient radiation and share my thought and opinions.
When it comes to ambient
energy we really are mostly concerned with man made sources and their affects on birds, insects and human health.
Static Electricity:
I know someone who used to live under big industrial power lines in the mountains. Under which you could hold a
light bulb overhead and it would light up from the ambient energy which you could audibly hear.
Static electricity is the most dangerous kind, However on that property I noticed that plant, animal, bugs, birds and people didn't seem to be bothered. That is probably because powerlines have an extremely low frequency ELF.
Typically 10-10^2 KHz at the very end of the spectrum meaning that it is non-ionizing. The main concern here would be lightning strikes, ozone and fires but given that this is pretty circumstantial it is probably not worth bothering with in your design;
not like you could take power lines down or do much to shield yourself from them anyways.
EMF, Broadband, Wi-fi "electro smog":
Another source of ambient energy are things like radio waves, internet, satellite and appliances. These are within the 3KHz to 300GHz range (5G included, which has been around for decades) these sources do seem to affect insects and birds. See
here.
This spectrum is also non-ionizing and non-visible so we don't have to worry about it cooking our plants and animals. But what can we do to limit its affects on birds & insects?
EMF shielding:
We could incorporate into our designs EMF shielding by adding
Faraday cages in our Zone 1 plans between our generators, freezers, power conduits/poles. This will try and keep any ambient radiation from leaking into the environment. Of coarse we don't want to block out what we do want such as our internet connection. But we can keep ambient radiation levels down by making sure to cage outdoor electronics that don't need to transmit/receive wireless information. What has your
experience been with this, have you seen more insect activity since implementing EMF shielding?
Sound:
Sound may be another important aspect of the affects of radiation on living creatures. Things like server farms (their cooling units) and freezers emit a frequency that can with prolonged exposure can cause tinnitus, a ringing in the ear. Humans loose the range of frequency as they age, for example I'm in my twenties and the freezer section of grocery stores sometimes has a high pitch ringing in the background that I can hear but my parents in their 40s can't hear. Perhaps sound proofing is also needed to keep electronics from harming the natural ambience of the environment.
Negative Ions?
Here is something that has been a trend for a while, it is found that positive ions depress you and negative ions make people feel better. With this information many products have been sold with the claim that they release negative ions. In nature many things do this such as waterfalls and decaying elements. So things like heated salt lamps and crystals are sold. I am of the opinion that these are just expensive decoration and don't actually have any meaningful effect besides that they look pretty. After all how do ions even interact with biology? If the purpose is to ground you, you would do better literally hugging a tree for a second each day. Its like saying that having .0000001% of X mineral on your skin actually helps you in some way, but its just your "charge". Some products that claim to emit negative ions are actually just releasing radioactive material slowly giving you cancer, these are constantly being banned by organizations such as the Federal Trade Commission in the United States. Personally I wont design for this since I don't think adding exotic minerals has a big
enough affect on the environment to justify the time. For decoration though sure, pretty rocks are nice.
Here is a
video that goes into the science behind negative ions:
Video
The Sun:
This here is the big danger boi the sun's radiation covers both the visible and ionizing spectrum of light. It is very capable of burning you, giving you cancer, blinding you, it can cook your plants alive if there is to much of this radiation.
DEFINITLY design for this one, it is the biggest source or radiation. Be sure to balance shadows, seasons and all that to be sure that your plants are not to hot or to cold. Be sure not to stand out in the sun for to long, a crispy permaculturist isn't a happy permaculturist.
The Moon:
I don't know about this one, I hear it makes things sleepy *yawn* ZZzzzz.
What do you know about this light?
As much as I would like to add yellow squiggles coming off of poles, and buildings in my designs. I have not found it worth it. What has been your experience? Is radiation something we
should account for in a holistic design philosophy?
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