Turn Off Cell Phones: Stop Global Warming

I'm not a scientist and my math skills have deteriorated since I finished my third semester of calculus oh so many years ago. So, when Kurt Wimer of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, showed me pages of diagrams and formulas he's used to prove that electro magnetic fields cause global warming, I might as well have been looking at Einstein's theory of relativity.

But, I listened. And, to a layman, it made some sense.

After all, radio came along a century ago followed by television, satellites, computers, cell phones, wireless networks . . . wow, imagine all the waves shooting through our atmosphere.

That, Kurt says, is what has excited atmospheric particles to the extent they've opened and closed holes in the atmosphere to allow heat to enter and to hold it in.

While many experts say the cause is greenhouse gases, that we need to reduce use of fossil fuels and look for alternative methods of producing energy (solar and wind power come to mind), Kurt has another idea.

"Everybody needs to turn off their cell phones," he says. "I know cell phones really pound out the disturbance. They're building more towers. They're stronger towers. That's why we're getting more and more into trouble."

As I said in today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette, nobody's going to turn off their cell phones. Not even global warming guru Al Gore.

But, after doing some checking online, I've learned that Kurt's theory is held by others. One of note is Global Warming and Microwaves (click here) that definitively says greenhouses gases are not the cause; that the proliferation of microwaves since the 1950s is the problem. To quote:

"Since our atmosphere is made of water and the Earth is covered with water and ice, microwave radio frequencies pass through our atmosphere, oceans, and ice caps. Because the wattage levels are minimal, warming is caused by a constant flow of waves that are never turned off."

So, in that light, Kurt's theory makes sense. Turn off some of the waves, stop the slow heating of our environment (air, water and land) and stem the tide.

I don't know what to believe, except that it could be a combination of all the theories. All I do know is that our weather seems to be wackier than ever, from spring flooding to record snowfalls. And, like a snowball, it's just going to keep rolling along until we do something to stop it.