GPS Failure Is Becoming a Form of Pollution

A navigation outage no longer requires a satellite failure, a sophisticated military operation, or a solar storm. A small transmitter, sometimes purchased for little more than a tank of fuel, can overwhelm the faint signals reaching Earth from orbit. That changes GPS interference from an exotic security scenario into something closer to pollution: cheap to produce, difficult for victims to trace, and capable of spreading costs far beyond its source. The invisible exhaust of connected transport A recent [Wall Street Journal report](https://www.wsj.com/tech/gps-jammers-dead-zones-e76f3261) describes the widening impact of inexpensive jammers on aviation, shipping, logistics, and other systems that depend on satellite navigation. Although the public commonly says “GPS,” the broader concern is interference with global navigation satellite systems, or GNSS, including American, European, Chinese, and Russian constellations. These services do more than put a blue dot on a map. Their precise timing signals help synchronize telecommunications networks, financial systems, electric-grid equipment, data centers, and industrial operations. Navigation is merely the most visible layer of a mu