Last year I wrote a rather humorous take on Arkansas’ mass bird deaths, anticipating a wave of paranoia amongst conspiracy theorists that would most certainly blame the strange, “Fringe”-like “pattern” on the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP.
HAARP, of course, has been been blamed for worldwide catastrophes ranging from earthquakes and tsunamis to dead fish and global climate shifts, with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez even positing that the Haiti earthquake had its origins in HAARP, which he believed created the conditions for U.S. occupation of the island country.
That HAARP is funded as a joint research project between the U.S. Air Force, Navy and DARPA (creator of James Bond-like gadgets, the internet and advanced artificial limbs) certainly doesn’t help its cause. And so when Arkansas birds once again dropped from the sky on New Year’s eve, conspiracy chatter soon took root, even though it’s known that birds can get disoriented by fireworks or be sucked up into storm systems and spat out. One can almost hear a legion of soothsayers divining 2012 portents in the curious timing of the bird deaths.
Nevertheless, that such events as this remain rare and rather unexplained, ascribing a conspiracy theory to it is no doubt attractive, suggesting that many of us are either natural born storytellers or at the very least fans of fiction.
For HAARP to succeed in killing these birds, at least two conditions would have to be met. For instance, we know that HAARP is based in Alaska, and so to hit Arkansas birds from that far flung location, there would have to be pinpoint accuracy. Not only that, but the technology would have to be so complex as to perturb the air from Alaska to Arkansas—no small task. And if these two conditions were able to be met, why would HAARP bother with a few birds in Arkansas? Why not point it directly at U.S. enemies such as Iran?
I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next person, but fun as it might be to suggest HAARP felled the birds, it is after all a stretch in the overwhelming desire to add to the ongoing accretion of a total pattern, a unified theory if you will (to borrow terminology from physics). The mind that believes the bird deaths are a evidence of a sinister plot will find examples of the pattern everywhere, just as in “Fringe.”
My advice? Enjoy both the entertainment of birds falling—tragic though it may be—and of the conspiracy theory chatter.
January 03, 2012 at 11:42 am, Brian Dunning said:
Not all such events are unexplained. The case that hit the news big-time last year turned out that the flock had been poisoned by the state, because they were causing damage to some municipal facility. It was all done properly in accordance with guidelines. The flock took flight, the poison they’d eaten took effect, and they dropped out of the sky.
January 03, 2012 at 2:10 pm, Mikewadestr said:
The same species of bird in the same town. This is sounding more like a practical joke than a bizarre ooccurence. Wit the large flocks of black birds in that area it would not be real difficult to drive them into a brush net with a trained hawk. I used to go out with a friend who had a red tail hawk and he his hawk could drive a whole flock of grackles into a bunch of bushes. All you would have to do is put netting in the bushes and wrap them up and smash them around a bit and then scatter them across a field.
January 04, 2012 at 9:05 pm, Cdengler2010 said:
Hi there,I live in Canada in the country and I think it is very possiable that HAARP could have possibly have killed the birds.If it was it was probably not done on perpace,they could have just bin in the way.I see red winged black birds out here trough the summer months,then in the fall they all flock together but never have I seen them roost nere or in any town,so unless these fire works were out in the country I can’t see fire works killing these and other types of birds.To also say they all commited suicide,well,that is rediculas.Maybe you can research HARRP more and see for yourself how high tech HAARP really is.I’m not saying HAARP is good or bad I just think they are a key role in alot of unexplained mysteries. That”s all for now.
January 18, 2012 at 9:18 am, Jose Mendez said:
I believe it could have been an action of HAARP. This morning I found an interesting article that contains a picture of a weather radar with what is claimed to be HAARP signals. Here’s the link. If the waves reached eastern North Carolina I’m pretty sure it can reach Arkansas. It’s certainly not impossible to have pinpoint accuracy when you have one of the strongest radio frequencies in the world.
http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/TWS-11112-57-mag-haarp-status-eastern-nc.html