I traveled to Lana'i and attended the Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday evening with friend and colleague Simon Russell. Our intention was to listen, gather information and give testimony against the football field sized flying (5G) drone.
After my previous email call to action to contact the planning commission, on the eve of the Lana'i Planning Commission meeting, Project Manager George Purdy posted on his Facebook page: "We have listened to your concerns and have removed 5G from our program". It seems we are having an impact! Yay us!
We are grateful the developers are willing to listen to the community. However, there are still major concerns about this project. In a follow-up article about the removal of 5G, no mention was made of responding to community concerns. Instead Purdy said: "No more 5G to the project because it was overshadowing the solar power, electric aviation part. That was the whole root to the program...."
Even more disconcerting, when asked at the meeting about the duration of 5G removal from the project, we were told it would be removed "until a future date". In other words, it could be reinstated tomorrow! In the meantime developers said they plan to transmit 3G/4G from the drone, as if that's safe! Substantial scientific evidence
shows it's not.
Of particular concern is that the project's Use Determination Application, being considered by the Lana'i Planning Commission, states on page 1:
"The purpose of the HAWK30 program is to develop new airborne overhead 5G
communication, which would provide strong wireless service over a large area,
including deep valleys, remote lands, and over the ocean".
We are calling on the project developers to revise and resubmit their Use Determination Application to reflect their promise to the community not to include 5G. Although 4G is still not safe, the revise and resubmit request could delay the process and potentially derail it. The developers say project approval needs to be rushed or else there will not be enough sun
available in winter months to solar power the massive drone.
Please submit your testimony using the emails listed below (scroll down, keep reading)!
Here are some points to include. Mix them up. Pick choose and add your own words:
- Make sure your subject line says: No Massive Drone for Lanai (often only subject lines are read).
- The Hawk30 drone project's Use Determination Application includes 5G as its purpose. The application currently under consideration by the Lanai Planning Commission states: "The purpose of the HAWK30 program is to develop new airborne overhead 5G communication, which would provide strong wireless service over a large area, including deep valleys, remote lands, and over the ocean". Yet the applicants' publicly stated that they have removed 5G from the project. Please require them to revise and resubmit the project's Use Determination Application to reflect this change. To neglect doing this gives them free reign to go back on an important promise to the community to protect our health
and safety since 5G technology has never been safety tested.
- 200 acres of agriculture land on Lana'i should not be used for this high tech drone experiment. It was proposed as an overhead 5G wireless service project. A presentation for AeroVironment investors last year showed how a single Hawk drone could provide coverage equivalent to 1,800 traditional cell towers.
Even if 3G or 4G are used at first in the Lana'i project there are well documented harmful health effects of this existing wireless technology.
- The Lanai drone has a longer wingspan than any jumbo jet or military aircraft in existence. Drones of this size are highly experimental. There have been two prototypes of this drone and both have crashed. This massive drone weighs 3000 pounds and is meant to fly at 65,000 to
85,000 feet. It is approved by the FAA in its test run to fly over the ocean as well as Lana'i and Kao'olawe and to skirt the south shore of Maui. At that altitude there is no one to police it, should it wander out of its approved airspace during experimental testing when pilots are learning how to fly such a behemoth. Even a very small drone, weighing just a couple of pounds, falling from about 200 feet would produce 7173 Newtons of force, more than enough to kill someone. Only 2300 Newtons of force is needed to crush a human skull, even if that person is wearing a helmet. Falling from a height of 70,000 feet weighing 3000 pounds produces 266,756,000 Newtons of force! That could cause overwhelming
destruction! Of course there would be air resistance but if this massive experimental drone with a bad track record malfunctions and falls from the sky it could wreak unfathomable devastation to humans, whales, dolphins and other life forms that inhabit the Hawaiian islands.
- The developers are not acting in good faith. They built a massive 12,000 square foot aircraft hangar for the drone on the proposed project land prior to approval from the Planning Commission and without any notice to the community. They have not received exemptions from the building code for their aircraft hangar in the agriculture district, nor have they received permission for the planned runway in the agriculture district. Still they built
it. This shows troubling disrespect for the Lanai community. The community did not ask for this project.
- Overhead wireless transmission from the sky will vastly increase our exposure to wireless radiation, shown in studies to penetrate the skin and cause damage to cells, organs and the nervous system. It has been shown to especially harm children, and also
wildlife, including plants and bees. There is overwhelming scientific evidence, including thousands of studies and three large recent studies, showing that wireless radiation is a biohazard. It has been clearly linked in a large NIH study with heart and brain tumors. The FCC guidelines are out-of-date and do not account for the latest research. To impose overhead wireless radiation on us without safety testing is wrong. We have not been consulted and do not give our consent to it. Wireless radiation is a well documented health hazard. We do not consent to being experimented on with this massive drone. We do not want to be guinea pigs. This is a violation of the Nuremberg Code.
Here are the email addresses:
Other important information we discovered during our visit:
- The Lana'i community (population approximately 3100) has been heavily influenced by the developers for months in advance of the meeting with promises of jobs and STEM learning to benefit Lana'i students
- Many spoke in favor and others told us they are afraid to speak against the project because the island is owned by Larry Ellison, who supports the project
- The developers are using an obscure loophole saying the project is for agriculture and conservation
- The drone technology is so new and experimental that almost no laws exist to govern it
- The plan is to turn Lana'i into a global drone manufacturing factory and launchpad to deploy these massive wireless communication drones to blanket most of the Earth's population in toxic wireless radiation
- The Lana'i Planning Commission is ill equipped to deal with this $120 million project involving giants such as Alphabet (Google LOON), Mobile High Altitude Stratospheric System Japan (HAPS Mobile/SoftBank), and AeroViroment, (NASA project contractor)
Please email now!
Thank you for all you do! Our actions are making a difference!
Imua,