First of all, let's ask a basic question: How smart are these meters? Not smart enough, according to a new wave of pioneers, who want the better life our forebears left their home countries for, a few hundred years ago.

We, however, have the advantage they didn't have: we talk to each other via cyberspace, and can learn in moments what took years back then. And a lot of us aren't at all sure we know enough, or like what we do know about “smart” meters.

Advanced electricity metering, using a fixed network communications path, has been around for at least 25 years. But the widespread installation of new, so-called smart meters to keep track of and to control electricity and gas usage by householders and businesses is relatively new. Since the early 2000s, a massive number of installations of smart meters has brought citizens to attention all over the world. It is increasingly informed and negative attention.

Noted scientists, public officials, and ordinary citizens are among those who are in opposition to the fast-paced, dogmatic move by utility companies imposing the smart meter technology. 

People are protesting having to give up safe analog meters for unwanted smart meters, which emit high frequency radio wave radiation. They are leery of the high-powered relay boxes going up all over their countries that are part of the mega wifi network they are exposed to. People are protesting having no say in this mass move by utility companies, governments at all levels, and big corporations to force their will without first consulting us and divulging information we feel we have a right to.

Many regions/cities in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, continental Europe, and the UK have citizens who are becoming more and more vocal against imposed technology that they are forced to pay for but have no choice about when it comes to installation. The implication that only folks who wear tinfoil on their ears and believe in alien abductions oppose smart meters is stale and unjustified. Noted scientists, public officials, and ordinary citizens are among those who are in opposition to the fast-paced, dogmatic move by utility companies imposing the smart meter technology.

"...the inauguration of smart meters with grudging and involuntary exposure of millions to billions of human beings to pulsed microwave radiation should immediately be prohibited..." -- Olle Johansson, Ph.D. (Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute (Sweden)

"It's one thing to be on a cell phone for one hour per day, but if you are exposed to a smart meter or a cell tower, you are exposed 24/7, so the effect is cumulative." -- Henry Lai, Ph.D. (Professor, Bioelectromagnetics Research Laboratory Dept. of Bioengineering, University of Washington (Seattle)

Citizens want to know what the true costs of smart meters will be, and what their choices are for energy monitoring and billing. They want to know if the systems in place and being forced on them are cost effective, energy effective, and safe. Utility companies claim that citizens will pay less for their utilities when smart meters are keeping track. But evidence is starting to point to the opposite being true.

Check back in to RosebudMag.com soon for more about this topic. We have extensive research about the latest concern to citizens, whether you're a grower or not, so be sure to check back soon, and share this story with your friends.

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