‘A Gift to This Earth’: Remembering Arthur Firstenberg — Scientist, Writer, Advocate

‘A Gift to This Earth’: Remembering Arthur Firstenberg — Scientist, Writer, Advocate

by Children’s Health Defense Team, The Defender. Feb 28, 2025

Arthur Firstenberg, author of “The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life” and “The Earth and I,” died Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was born May 28, 1950.

Firstenberg described himself as a scientist, journalist, and practitioner of several healing arts. To those who knew him personally or through his books, he was a gifted writer-philosopher with the rare ability to convey science through the art of prose.

Firstenberg suffered from Electromagnetic Radiation Syndrome (EMR Syndrome) and dedicated his life to raising awareness about environmental health and the need for scientific inquiry in this field.

A passionate advocate for understanding the hidden impacts of electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs), Firstenberg was a pioneer whose work sparked global conversations on the health effects of modern technology.

"The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness"

"The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness":

Bestselling author Jonathan Haidt warns against smartphone usage

As one of today's 50 most influential psychologists and most cited researchers of political and moral psychology, Jonathan Haidt and a team of experts examined the changes in children and young people growing up with smartphones.

About the book

From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health-and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the *play-based childhood" began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the "phone-based childhood" in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this "great rewiring of childhood" has interfered with children's social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Dr. Arazi’s Phonegate ebook available in English for free

Dr. Arazi’s Phonegate ebook available in English for free
Par : Equipe Phonegate • 18 Sep 2023

Link to download of the ebook to be found in Phonegate's article:

https://phonegatealert.org/download/dr-arazis-phonegate-ebook-available-in-english-for-free/

Following the revelations about Apple's iPhone 12 exceeding SAR, our NGO asked Dr Marc Arazi, the author of the book Phonegate and his publisher Massot éditions to allow the ebook to be downloaded in its English version. They have authorized us to make it downloadable for one month, i.e. until October 18, 2023. This should enable a better understanding of this global scandal, the extent of which we are only just beginning to grasp.

The scandal finally revealed for the first time in the world. There are more than 5 billion phone users in the world and many of us keep them at our fingertips. And this from a very young age! Some even sleep with it.

You have been lied to for years: YOUR CELL PHONE IS DANGEROUS.

Few know that the manufacturers of our beloved smartphones have knowingly overexposed us to waves, well beyond the safety standards. Worse, some of them have faked the test results with software, as in the case of dieselgate. This scandal has a name: PHONEGATE.

The Book "Phonegate" in English Is Released Today

The book Phonegate in English is released today
Equipe Phonegate 2 Jun 2022

It is with great pleasure that we announce the release of the English version of the book Phonegate by Dr Marc Arazi. Many thanks to Devra Davis for prefacing the book and for her support in this difficult struggle for the truth. Thanks also to Regan Kramer who translated the French version and to Meris Michaels. And of course to the whole team at Massot Editions, starting with Florent Massot, who is accompanying us with courage and determination to have this international health and industrial scandal recognised.

The paper book is now available for sale on Amazon :

BUY THE BOOK NOW

We will need your help to make it known as widely as possible. Thank you in advance!

"ELECTROSMOG – The Health Effects of Microwave Pollution" by Dr. Susan Pockett

"ELECTROSMOG – The Health Effects of Microwave Pollution"
Safer Technology Aotearoa New Zealand, May 11, 2021

The 125-page book can be downloaded at:
http://bit.ly/ElectrosmogPockett

This book written by Dr. Susan Pockett from the University of Auckland explains how the telecommunications industry and the military combined to blanket the world with electromagnetic waves of a sort that have never before been seen on planet Earth. Life evolved in the complete absence of these waves so this development has become a serious "bio-hazard.”

Part I of the book describes in a non-mathematical way the technology underpinning the problem, then shows how public exposure limits have been manipulated all over the world through the orchestrated capture of regulatory agencies by the very industry those agencies were set up to regulate.

Part II summarises a huge volume of scientific evidence showing that exposure to power densities of pulsed radiofrequency radiation a tiny fraction of those permitted by the aforementioned, industry-­‐manipulated, public exposure limits actually causes cancer, DNA damage, diabetes, immune system and cardiovascular problems in humans – and similarly serious problems for wildlife (birds, bees and trees).

"The Microwave Delusion" - the Diary of an Electrosensitive

"The Microwave Delusion" - the Diary of an Electrosensitive
by Brian Stein CBE and Jonathan Mantle

For Immediate Release: 26 January 2021

The Microwave Delusion is the story of how one man’s personal experience of the damaging health effects of low-level microwave radiation became part of an international campaign to hold the mobile phone industry to account for its defective safety practices.

This book charts industry dirty tricks, government indifference and the rise of independent science over industry-controlled studies, leading to campaigns, political action, legal judgements in mainland Europe, North America and Israel and action to protect children in schools: a change of process which many countries are adopting and which British health authorities, politicians and those with a duty of care are the slowest to acknowledge.

The roll out of 5G worldwide presents the greatest threat yet to public health from low-level microwave radiation generated by a mobile phone industry which places profit above the long-term wellbeing of pregnant women, babies, children and adults at home, school, in public and in the workplace. As one leading independent scientist says: ‘We are taking risks of the sort that no rational society on earth should take.’

The Microwave Delusion describes how an industry-driven tragedy in the making has come into being on a scale comparable to tobacco and asbestos, how it can be averted, and what we as individuals and a society can do about it.

*All profits from this book go to charities campaigning for a safer wireless environment around the world.

"The Invisible Rainbow": The Story of the Invention and Use of Electricity from an Environmental Point of View

I am reading this amazing, informative book by Arthur Firstenberg.  It is my hope that everyone who does NOT believe that electricity can harm humans, plants and animals will read this book. 

THE INVISIBLE RAINBOW 

by Arthur Firstenberg, 2017

THE STORY OF the invention and use of electricity has often been told before, but never from an environmental point of view. The assumption of safety, and the conviction that electricity has nothing to do with life, are by now so entrenched in the human psyche that new research, and testimony by those who are being injured, are not enough to change the course that society has set. Two increasingly isolated worlds—that inhabited by the majority, who embrace new electrical technology without question, and that inhabited by a growing minority, who are fighting for survival in an electrically polluted environment—no longer even speak the same language. In The Invisible Rainbow, Arthur Firstenberg bridges the two worlds. In a story that is rigorously scientific yet easy to read, he provides a surprising answer to the question, “How can electricity be suddenly harmful today when it was safe for centuries?”

Book Review: "No Family History" by Sabrina McCormick

Re-posted on 1st November 2015:  The book discusses the environmental links to breast cancer, with a personal testimony from a resident of Long Island, New York State, which has the second highest breast cancer rate in the United States.  The book is also an excellent resource for advocacy.

[For years, I have been living my life between Long Island and Geneva, Switzerland, which also has a very high rate of breast cancer.  I was treated for breast cancer in 2004.  The latest statistics from Switzerland are alarming:  one in 10 women diagnosed with breast cancer is under age 40.  The prognosis is less favorable for young women.]

“NO FAMILY HISTORY” by Sabrina McCormick (2009) (www.nofamilyhistory.org).

The author discusses the environmental links to breast cancer, focusing on Long Island in New York State, which has the second highest breast cancer rate in the United States after Marin County in California. She says we must rethink advocacy which is currently concerned with detection, treatment, research and support groups. Associations advocate better treatment options for women and raise more awareness about the disease. In fact, these actions generate more profits for the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries instead of focusing on prevention.

For instance, AstraZeneca, a producer of drugs for chemo and hormonal therapies, created the National Cancer Awareness Month. As is often the case with these corporations, there is a conflict of interest, since on the one hand, they are helping to raise money for research through organizing “pink” events to generate awareness of breast cancer, while on the other, polluting the environment with very toxic chemicals which cause cancer. AstraZeneca, formerly the Imperial Chemical Industries, used to manufacture personal care products and food ingredients which have been found to be harmful to health.

Excerpt from Dr. Martin Blank's Book "Overpowered"

Salon.com has placed on their site an excerpt from Dr. Martin Blank's excellent book, "Overpowered", published in March 2014.  Here is the first part.  Click here to continue reading the excerpt.

Your cellphone is killing you: What people don’t want you to know about electromagnetic fields - The industry doesn't want to admit it, but the science is becoming clearer: Sustained EMF exposure is dangerous

by Martin Blank

You may not realize it, but you are participating in an unauthorized experiment—“the largest biological experiment ever,” in the words of Swedish neuro-oncologist Leif Salford. For the first time, many of us are holding high-powered microwave transmitters—in the form of cell phones—directly against our heads on a daily basis.

Cell phones generate electromagnetic fields (EMF), and emit electromagnetic radiation (EMR). They share this feature with all modern electronics that run on alternating current (AC) power (from the power grid and the outlets in your walls) or that utilize wireless communication. Different devices radiate different levels of EMF, with different characteristics.

What health effects do these exposures have?

"Overpowered: The Dangers of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMF) and What You Can Do About It" by Dr. Martin Blank (Book Review)

"World-renowned researcher Martin Blank pulls back the curtain on industry lies and government regulatory failures about the health and environmental damage of unchecked electromagnetic fields and wireless technologies. In this easily accessible ‘good-read,’ he shines blazing light on one of the most significant public health concerns today. This book is a must for anyone concerned with protecting their well-being, that of loved ones, and other species. Dr. Blank makes clear that continuing this ever-increasing ambient EMF/RF has dire consequences." (B. Blake Levitt, former New York Times contributor, Author of Electromagnetic Fields...)

Overpowered: The Dangers of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMF) and What You Can Do about It by Martin Blank, published 28 January 2014

Keys, wallet, cell phone...ready to go! Cell phones have become ubiquitous fixtures of 21st century life--suctioned to our ears and stuck in our pockets. Yet, we've all heard whispers that these essential little devices give you brain cancer. Could it be true? In 2011, the World Health Organization shocked the international community by confirming that the radiation from cell phones is a possible carcinogen to humans. Many of us are left wondering, as Maureen Dowd asked in the New York Times, are cells the new cigarettes?