Study finds Wi-Fi makes trees sick via Macworld UK:
Radiation from Wi-Fi networks is harmful to trees, causing significant variations in growth, as well as bleeding and fissures in the bark, according to a recent study in the Netherlands.
[…]
Besides the electromagnetic fields created by mobile-phone networks and wireless LANs, ultrafine particles emitted by cars and trucks may also be to blame. These particles are so small they are able to enter the organisms.
I also would have accepted “Either Wi-Fi or pollution is hurting trees, but we’re going to go with the sensational and inaccurate title.”
Even in areas heavily saturated with Wi-Fi or cell phone networks, the amount of man-made radiation present is negligible compared to the amount of radiation which the Sun creates. We get about a kilowatt of insolation per square meter at the earth’s surface. Cell phones and Wi-Fi routers produce milliwatts of radiation. (My router is set to broadcast at about 50 milliwatts, for the record.) If radio waves are making trees sick, let’s start by pointing fingers at the Sun, which bombards our leafy friends with far more radiation daily than my cell phone or my router.
I’ll dig up all the trees and put them in a dark room, where they will thrive far from the deadly rays of the Sun. Who’s with me?