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In theory, a wireless world in which everyone is continuously connected to everyone else via an assortment of handheld devices seems like a dream come true. Yet even now the usual cavalcade of naysayers, spoilsports, and harbingers of doom are mustering their forces to oppose this latest face of the technological revolution that is rapidly reshaping society.

Consider the vexing issue of telephone lines. As the wireless revolution spreads, telephone lines will soon cease to be necessary and both the poles and the wires strung from them can be torn down. In their place, trees can be planted all across the heartland. On the surface, this seems like a pleasing proposition. But already environmentalists in Vermont, Oregon, and Arizona are predicting an ecological holocaust should this event come to pass.

"Telephone poles that have been in place for years in rural environments provide a semi-natural habitat for the Minoan snow crow, the runic thrush, and Pitcairn's Egret, all of which appear on current lists of endangered species," fumes Annabeth Prescott, president of PETB (People for the Ethical Treatment of Birds). "Because telephone poles, unlike trees, provide clear sight lines for birds, it is impossible for cats to sneak up on them and eat their young. When telephone poles pass from the scene, more than 5,000 species of birds will see their habitats destroyed."

This is not the only menace to the avian community posed by wireless technology. Ornithologists also predict a catastrophic disruption in migratory patterns once phone lines are dismantled.

"Birds have a terrible sense of direction," says Ray Sharkey, a professor of ornithological psychology at the University of Cairns in Australia. "When you see birds flying south in the winter, they are actually following the north-south direction of the telephone lines, which replaced easily identifiable Native American portage trails in the second half of the 19th century. Without telephone wires to direct them, Canadian geese flying south will probably end up in the Yukon."

# posted by Medical Information : 4:51 AM