5G Impacts and Environmental Decay: When Technology Erodes the Unobserved Biosphere

South Africa is a relatively young country with an under-developed infrastructure network that has been adaptively maintained since its inception in colonial times. The rapid expansion of business, residential development and commercial opportunities has made South Africa the economic hub of Africa.

However the country’s communication demands have skyrocketed alongside the expectations of developed nations. As a result, the last decade has shown a massive introduction fibre and 5G initiatives throughout the country, rolled out by both government and private entities.

The Rapid Rollout of 5G in South Africa

The implementation of such an advanced technology in a largely rural landscape has promulgated at such a rapid rate, sanctioned and partially funded by government entities. Towers, infrastructure and networks became established long before any serious impact or risk assessments could be conducted. This rollout occurs largely behind a grey area designated by the government as ‘communications development’.

Potential Environmental and Health Risks of 5G Technology

Unlike any other type of potential environmental damage, the modern world has shown an acute trend towards destruction of the human environment at a molecular and biological level, as learned from the hasty retreat towards nations at war using nuclear-level weapons of destruction and leniencies towards potential chemical warfare.

It is therefore pertinent to akin the potential drawn-out harm that long-term exposure to 5G radiation can have not only on our direct environment, but as humans, our ability to co-exist with such a silent molecular assassin such as ultra-high frequency electro-magnetic waves.

The environmental risks and threats posed by 5G technology must include the human element, as per Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic (1949).

In this context, we can outlay the environmental dilemma using the European Environmental Agency’s (EEA) DPSIR model as follows:

The Precautionary Principle and the Lack of Risk Assessments

One of the hallmarks of the precautionary principle, originating from the German ‘vorsorgeprinzip’ in the 1970s, was fore care of the environment considering clean technological alternatives alongside economic viability.

The uncertainty with which the hazards of 5G technology were still underway with research at the time of the rollout throughout South Africa, as long-term implications and forecasting were being conducted on trial tests with plants and animals in different countries, most notably in Australia.

As the South African government was given an incentive by international investors to begin the rollout of 5G, little to no attention was given to funding research or applying a reserved approach when selecting mounting sites for different 5G masts, especially in suburban areas that did not have the electrical infrastructure or landscape to accommodate as such.

No legal mandate was provided by the South African government to effect informed risk management assessments and environmental or health studies before earmarking mast erection sites close to or inside of dense residential and ecological zones, where much of the country’s sprawling population resides.

Corporate and Government Interest vs. Environmental Responsibility

The precautionary principle begs the question of who bears the risk and benefits of 5G technology, and this can be argued as both the populous and government as economic advantages increase with the ability to communicate on a faster level along-side international counterparts.

In this case, government and private investors have a mutual relationship where municipal departments receive benefits and kickbacks from investors in exchange for permission to erect masts on sites through fast-tracking the approval process, another critical short-circuiting of the environmental considerations that need to be undertaken before this is granted.

Citizens using the designated land are also handsomely compensated for the use of their land and thus the privilege to erect a 5G mast is ‘bought’ rather than granted.

The energy consumption, electronic waste, habitat disruption and constant exposure to electro-magnetic radiation is an environmental impact that many discount when considering the benefits of faster communication, and this has proven to be a major discouragement against the protests for a more environmentally sustainable solution.

The Global and African Context of 5G Expansion

As it stands, the sheer power needed to fuel the AI revolution developing around the world at an exponential rate has resulted in data hubs and power farms being setup in thousands of locations around the world, purely to fund the data-hungry and power-thirsty needs of this technology while almost irreparably destroying millions of acres of undisturbed natural land.

Apart from studies and statistics that show a harmful link between 5G emissions and DNA damage in smaller animals, further research has shown clear links between cognitive disruption and harm to the human nervous system. It may be popular opinion that since most research has yielded no plausible link between 5G electro-magnetic frequencies and cancer, that this is reason to deny the possibility of cancer ever manifesting - but with DNA manipulation already being tabled as a consequence of close 5G proximity, then in a manner similar to radiation poisoning, it is only a matter of time that will reveal the long-term consequences.

African nations, however, have a proclivity to live for the ‘here and now’ in a hand-to-mouth fashion, and rarely consider the protracted consequences of environmentally sensitive issues – a fact that other nations bank on in order to land their technology.

It is no surprise that South Africa, a country ripe for the picking of Chinese investors, has been backed into a corner with a frail economic standpoint against major players in the international arena, and tries to stand out amongst its African counterparts by pioneering technology introduced to the continent, however the flawed behaviour of African nations to embrace investments with open arms while foreign nations surreptitiously usurp the natural environment for economic gain, leaves our nation vulnerable to eminent and unexpected environmental damage, which includes the cost of human health.

Our ability to inhabit an environment requires that such a designated area be free of all environmental encumbrances that can potentially lead to an unnatural level of ecological degradation, and the integration of damaging technology without the foresight to include long-term social development is a clever side-step to brand the environmental damage as economic progressive improvement.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it needs to be made clear that 5G technology and other similar forms of augmented technologies need to be approached with a guarded and reserved hand, taking all forms of environmental risk into consideration, including human health, before championing the economic and technological benefits that, at the core, serve little more than to merely lay down conduits for meaningless entertainment in 4K ultra-high definition or artificial intelligence.

The purpose and necessity of such technologies must be measured against potential environmental loss and degradation, and not merely from a structural and aesthetic point of view – but from a molecular and biological perspective as well.