In the past eight years, sea ice in Antarctica has reached a new record low four times, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports. The first three times, ice levels that have dropped in the summer have rebounded in the winter.
But this year — during what is currently winter in Antarctica — scientists have confirmed that the ice is not re-forming, leaving long stretches of the Antarctic coastline bare.
What’s happening?
According to physical oceanographer Edward Doddridge, this is the first time an event like this has been observed, the ABC reports — and it’s extremely unlikely to have happened on its own.
As a person living in FLORIDA this is pretty fucking bad. I wonder about our future. And I am so tired of us allowing governments to screw us for money.
This account was so fascinating, that I decided to translate it myself from Spanish to English, the original article in Spanish is here.
Title
The sacred ritual with a hallucinogenic tea that rescuers used to find lost children in the jungle of Colombia
With little hope of finding the four children who were missing for 40 days in the Amazon after a plane crash, the indigenous people turned to ayahuasca, and one of them predicted:
“Today we find them.”
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The weary indigenous men gathered at their base camp. Among towering trees and dense vegetation that forms a green sea so immense it is disorienting. They perceived that their ancestral homeland — Selva Madre — was unwilling to allow them to find the four children. Who had been missing since their charter plane crashed weeks earlier in a remote area of southern Colombia. Indigenous volunteers and military teams had found signs of hope: a bottle, half-eaten fruit, dirty diapers strewn across a wide swath of rainforest.
The men were convinced that the children had survived. But the heavy rains, rugged terrain and the passage of time had dampened their spirits and drained their energy. The weak in body, mind and faith cannot get out of this jungle. Day 39 was life or death, both for the children and for the search teams. That night at the camp, Manuel Ranoque, father of the two youngest children, resorted to one of the most sacred rituals of the Amazon’s indigenous groups.
Yagé, a bitter tea made from plants native to the rainforest, widely known as ayahuasca. For centuries, the hallucinogenic cocktail has been used as a cure for all ailments by people in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. Henry Guerrero, a volunteer who joined the search from the children’s village near Araracuara, told The Associated Press that his aunt prepared the yagé for the group. They believed it would induce visions that could lead them to children.
“I told them, ‘ There’s nothing to do here. At first glance we will not find them. The last element is to take yagé, ‘ “ says Guerrero, 56. “Really the trip for us is made in very special moments. It’s a very spiritual thing. For us, it’s like the last resort.”
Ranoque took a sip and the men watched for a few hours. When the psychotropic effects wore off, he told them it hadn’t worked. Some rescuers were ready to leave. But the next morning, 40 days after the accident, an elderly man drank what little was left of the yagé. Some people take it to connect with themselves, cure illnesses, or heal a broken heart.
The elder Jose Rubio was convinced he would help find the children sooner or later, Guerrero said. Rubio dreamed for a while. Vomited: a common side effect. This time, he said, it had worked. In his visions, he saw them. He told Guerrero,
“The children, today we found them.”
The four children — Lesly, Soleiny, Tien and Cristin — grew up in and around Araracuara. A small Amazonian town in the department of Caquetá. That can only be reached by boat or plane. Ranoque said the brothers had happy, but independent lives because he and his wife, Magdalena Mucutuy, were often away from home. Lesly, 13, was the mature and quiet one.
Soleiny, 9, was playful, and Tien, almost 5 years old before the accident, restless. Cristin, then 11 months old, was just learning to walk. At home, Mucutuy grew onions and cassava, using the latter to produce fariña, a type of flour, for the family to eat and sell. Lesly learned to cook at age 8. In the absence of adults, she often cared for her siblings.
On the morning of May 1, the children, their mother and an uncle boarded a plane. They were heading to the town of San José del Guaviare. Weeks earlier, Ranoque had fled his hometown, an area where illegal drug cultivation, mining and logging have thrived for decades. He told the AP he feared pressure from people connected to his work, though he declined to elaborate on the nature of his work or his business dealings.
“The work there is not safe,” Ranoque said. “And it’s illegal. It has to do with other people… in a sector that, well, I can’t mention because I put myself more at risk.”
He says that before leaving, he left Mucutuy 9 million Colombian pesos (about $2,695) to pay for food, other necessities and the charter flight. He wanted the children to leave the village because he feared they might be recruited by one of the rebel groups in the area. They were on their way to meet Ranoque when the pilot of the single-propeller Cessna declared an emergency due to engine failure. The aircraft disappeared from radar a short time later.
“Mayday, mayday, mayday… The engine failed me again… I’m going to look for a river… Here I have a river on the right,”
Pilot Hernando Murcia told air traffic control at 7:43 a.m., according to a preliminary report released by aviation authorities.
“One hundred and three miles outside of San Jose… I’m going to aquatize.”
The Colombian military began a search for the plane after it failed to reach its destination. About 10 days later, with no aircraft or signs of life found, indigenous volunteers joined the effort. They were much more familiar with the terrain and families in the area. One man told them the plane made a strange noise when it flew over their house. That helped them outline a search plan that followed the Apaporis River.
As they walked the unforgiving terrain and took breaks in groups, ants climbed on them and mosquitoes fed on their blood. One seeker almost lost an eye to a tree branch and others developed allergy- and flu-like symptoms. They kept looking. Historically, the military and indigenous groups have been at loggerheads. But deep in the jungle, after food supplies and optimism dwindled, they shared water, food, GPS equipment and satellite phones.
Via Associated Press (in Spanish)
Sixteen days after the crash, with the mood low among all search groups, rescuers found the wreckage of the aircraft. The plane appeared to have plummeted: it was found in an almost vertical position, with the front down. The group assumed the worst. The men had found the aircraft and saw human remains. Guerrero said he and others began packing things from their camp.
But one of the men who had approached the plane spoke.
“Listen,” he said, according to Guerrero. “I didn’t see the children.”
The man slowly realized that when they found the wreckage of the aircraft, they had not seen the body of any children. He had approached the aircraft and saw the children’s bags outside. He noticed that some things looked as if someone had moved them after crashing. He was right. The bodies of three adults were recovered from inside the aircraft.
But there was no sign of the children. Or indications that they were seriously injured, according to the preliminary report. The army’s special operations forces changed their strategy based on evidence that the children might be alive. They no longer moved silently through the jungle.
“That’s where the second phase begins,” says First Sergeant Juan Carlos Rojas Sisa. “We went from the stealth part to the noise part so that they would already hear us.”
They shouted Lesly’s name. And played a recorded message from the children’s maternal grandmother. Asking them in Spanish and the language of the Huitoto people to stay in one place. Several helicopters dropped boxes of food and flyers with messages. The military also brought in trained dogs, including a Belgian Malinois shepherd named Wilson who did not return to his caregiver and is still missing.
On the ground, about 120 soldiers and more than 70 indigenous people searched for the children, day and night. They left whistles for children to use if they found them and marked about 6.8 miles (11 kilometers) with tape similar to crime scenes. Hoping the children would take the marks as a sign to stay in place. They began finding clues to the children’s location, including a footprint they believed was Lesly’s, but no one could find the children. Some rescuers had already walked more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) — the distance between Lisbon and Paris or between Dallas and Chicago.
Exhaustion was beginning to weigh and the military implemented a plan to rotate the soldiers. Guerrero made a call and asked for the yagé. It arrived two days later. On day 40, after Elder Rubio drank the yagé, rescuers combed the jungle again from the site where they found the diapers. His vision had rekindled hopes, but he did not provide details on where the children might be.
The groups deployed in different directions, but as the day progressed, they returned to base camp with no news. Sadness descended upon the camp. Guerrero told Ranoque when the teams returned:
“Nothing. We couldn’t… There is nothing.”
Then came the news. A soldier radioed that the four children had been found, 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the crash site, in a small clearing. Rescuers had passed between 20 and 50 meters (66 to 164 feet) from there on several occasions, but did not see them. The soldier informed Guerrero, who ran toward Ranoque.
” They found all four of them,” she said through tears and hugs.
A helicopter pulled the children out of the dense forest. They were first airlifted to San José del Guaviare and then to the capital, Bogotá. Each with a team of health professionals. They were covered with insulated aluminum foil blankets and given intravenous lines due to dehydration. His hands and feet showed scratches and insect bites. Ranoque said Lesly reported that his mother died about four days after the crash.
The children survived by collecting water in a soda bottle and eating cassava flour, fruits and seeds. They were found with two small bags of clothes, a towel, a flashlight, two telephones and a music box. Tien and Cristin had birthdays while rescuers searched for them. All four remain in the hospital. A custody fight has broken out, with some relatives claiming Ranoque was violent toward the children’s mother.
He has admitted to occasional verbal and physical fights, which he called “a private family matter.” He has also said that he has not been able to see the two older children. Officials, medical professionals, special forces and others have praised Lesly’s leadership. She and her siblings have become a symbol of resilience and survival around the world. The Colombian government, meanwhile, has highlighted cooperation between indigenous communities and the armed forces in their bid to end national conflicts.
“The mother jungle gave them back,” President Gustavo Petro declared. “They are children of the jungle and now they are children of Colombia.”
That’s true, Ranoque told the AP. But they were also saved by indigenous culture and rituals. He credits the yagé and the vision of the old man in his group.
“This is a spiritual world,” he said, and the yagé “is of utmost respect. It is the maximum concentration that is made in our spiritual world as an indigenous people. That’s why they drank the tea in the jungle, he said, “It’s like for the goblin, the cursed devil, to let go of my children.”
The smell of dog shit on hot pavements in Florida.
That damned heat that could cook an egg on the road. The endless construction projects that are supposed to make travel, and life easier. And instead just give us never ending traffic. Protests over the newest corrupt city officials embezzling funds that are supposed to be helping us. People telling you to not get vaccinated or wear a mask because the pandemic is “over”.
Then saying the biggest threat right now isn’t COVID. It’s kids being allowed to become trans. Or being “groomed” into it. Welcome to a Florida city. Where ignorance is not bliss.
And where Satan comes to sunbathe.
Maybe I’m biased, but to me, modern cities breed anger and resentment. I was just thinking the other day about this. Apartments were originally supposed to be about Community making life easier. Instead it has brought together the most hostile elements of society. Not the community planning they were originally supposed to be about.
Even people with good intentions tend to become hostile busy bodies. Who don’t know how to mind their own damn business.
Futuristic Dreams
“Terraforming and Colonization” by Michael Daglas
I keep praying for a track of land somewhere and a home for my family and myself. To be out there amongst nature. And far the hell away from most people. Or even to make a sanctuary for animals and people I choose. Specifically homeless people.
Or other kinds of people down on their luck. So we can work together. And what I really want to do, is create a submersible bunker.
Dreams of the Future
Terraformer from the Evo Game, absorbs pollution and converts it into vegetation
A sort of land based submarine ark. One that can contain animals and plants and thousands of people. So that if Florida truly is destined to be sunk beneath the waves, we could survive. Ideally, if we had that kind of technology already, it would be a machine that could interface with the Earth itself. As a sort of life sized nanotechnology for the Earth.
A living machine that could be a symbiont for the Earth itself. That way we could heal the Earth while saving ourselves. And let’s go further. Make it so that the Earth Ark could grow. Merge with more and more land.
Creating more land for the animals and people.
Safeguarding more trees and nature in general. Until all of Florida is one with the Ark. So when the massive wave comes, Florida will not sink. But will be shielded.
And if it does sink, it can survive under water. And from there? Who knows, perhaps the whole continent. And the same could be replicated to other lands and continents. Perhaps to the whole entire world. Turn the planet itself into a perfect, life saving ark.
And have a society similar to Star Trek. A society where money and acquisition of personal wealth, is not our guiding force. But rather a society based on community planning. Of sharing of all resources. That’s what I want.
These are the things I envision for our future. Organic nanotechnology. True wisdom and knowledge. Inventions that actually help humanity and all of nature. Not just the latest iPhone. The more I live in “modern” or “civilized” world, the more I feel like screaming into the void.
Take capitalist exploitation of the masses which is worse everyday. Is it any wonder we have such a large suicide rate in this country? It’s insane. We need a new society. At some point we have to do something to not collectively lose our shit as a people. And to that end, I think we all need to look at our indigenous ancestors.
Indigenous here means our original societies. Not specifically Native American. But African, Celtic, Sumerian (Iraqi), and so forth. But since we live on Turtle Island, the land that belongs to Indigenous peoples here. I used one of the First Nations as an example.
Back to nature
The Aztecs it was discovered, went back to nature at the height of their civilization. Supposedly, civilizations only do that in their decline. Like the fall of the Roman Empire. When people left the cities in Rome to go to the country. As a way of escaping the carnage.
Because of that, they lost most of their technology and skill. Lost their knowledge and wisdom. And de-evolved under the boot of the barbarian tribes. Tribes once oppressed by the Ceasers. Who now sought to break the yoke of their former masters.
But for the Nahua or Aztecs, this wasn’t the case. At some point they figured out that to truly evolve, you need nature. So they built large eco cities deep within nature. And this served many purposes. For one, it had inherent strategic value.
They could hide in the Wild from enemies using natural land barriers. Instead of being driven into exile in the wild later. Then starting from scratch as the Romans and many Europeans were forced to do. For another, this would have been a survivalist’s and conservationist’s dream come true. They were masters of Agriculture.
And created roads and canals that rivaled the Roman Empire. Their ways were also sustainable and not at odds with nature. It magnified nature. It built upon it. And evolved from it.
They did too. Building tools and weapons using rich resources like obsidian to do it. The first organic based technology.
Using some of the very first eco technology the world had ever seen. Even today these canals and roadways rival much of what we use. We could expand upon that if only our corporate overlords and rulers would allow us to. We could return to nature via agriculture for a better society. The Romans had to create urban areas to do this.
The Nahua did it by embracing the Earth itself. Racial symbiosis of humanity with Earth, our progenitor. We could learn a lot by learning from indigenous people.
Evolve Organically
We have separated from nature so much. Too much, that now technology is replacing things that shouldn’t be replaced. Some people don’t even bother camping anymore. They do this weird thing where they camp inside their beds in hotel rooms. Then listen to nature sounds on a recording.
I think it’s called Glamping.
Don’t get it twisted. I think that as a meditation strategy, or a way to fight insomnia it’s very useful. And ingenious even. But it shouldn’t be used to replace the act of becoming one with nature. We need to be released from the stress and machinery of this world.
It’s necessary to go back to the drawing board. And see what really works. And what doesn’t work. Something’s gotta give. Now we don’t have to give up everything.
I think we can all agree that insulin, computers and phones, vehicles, and air conditioning are definitely a necessity. And not everything has to be a necessity. There’s nothing wrong with tech that’s used for pleasure like a smart TVs or an iPhone. My problem is when it becomes an obsession. When it becomes an unhealthy addiction.
And even more than that, when nothing else is being done. When all our society cares about are meaningless pleasures like social media. Yet no one is doing anything to stop global warming. Now more than ever with global warming. Our pleasures should not override our serious search for knowledge.
And they need to be in-line with nature. And not contribute to our problems.
One Final Thought
Did you know that Tenochtitlan was built at the center of a lake? That’s right. A lake. It was called the city where one “becomes a God”. They used a combination of rotting vegetation and lake water to build massive crops to feed thousands. By doing this, they created an empire from nature.
Can you imagine what they could have become? If only the Colonizers hadn’t arrived. Don’t get me wrong, the Nahua had many problems. But pollution and scarcity weren’t among them. And they kept their population at sustainable levels. Without being underpopulated.
Or succumbing to lack of genetic diversity. If they had been allowed to evolve on their own. They could have created a civilization that rivaled, or even dwarfed the ones we have now. Civilizations built on organic technology. And maybe by now we would have computer-trees.
Or maybe natural power sources that would never run out. Even tapped into the earth’s geomagnetic power. It pains me to think what could have been. All I know is, this world breeds anger and resentment. And disappointment.
We must return to the Earth. For all our sakes.
Biosphere 2, a gigantic eco city that mimics the Earth’s ecosystem. From the documentary “Spaceship Earth” about a group of people that were quarantined here in the middle of the 2020 pandemic
Adventures of A Mage In Miami 