October Snow! Winter Arrives Early!

Migrating Geese
Quickly disappear
Flying like ghosts
Through the Autumn snow

October 27, 2012 .. many of the trees are full of green leaves. The Willow and Acacia trees, the Sycamore and all the smaller bushes closer to the ground are still green. There will be no Autumn this year .. Winter has arrived.

I knew it when I saw the flowering Elder trees at the beginning of the year. I love Elder trees and have observed them closely since I was a child. I have never seen so many flowers on the trees as there were this year, in 2012...

There is a saying of our forefathers: When the trees produce an abundance of berries you know a harsh Winter is coming. The Elder trees were almost completely white with flowers, and then the branches were heavy with elderberries beyond abundance.

The Elder trees are now still green with leaves and the dark clusters of berries are still hanging on the weighted branches. But .. Winter is suddenly here .. the snow has arrived early.

The sudden and extreme drop in temperature has set the migratory Geese into flight. I am on the "flight path" .. their magnetic path crosses directly over my head. As cold as it is today, I have learned something new. I have learned to see with my ears what I cannot see with my eyes.

Large flocks of migrating Geese began their flights South three days ago .. lots of them. It is difficult for the migratory birds to leave earlier, should temperatures suddenly drop. The young birds have to develop and be strong enough to fly those challenging distances.

Birds migration routes are called "flyways" [and not flight-paths ;-) ] .. I could hear the Geese all times of the day passing overhead in large flocks. Days before, I could already hear the calls of Herons .. but now .. it is mostly migrating flocks of Geese.

Migrating Geese talk to each other and call out as they fly .. especially when there is bad weather .. misty/foggy .. or low, rainy-grey cloud cover. I could hear the groups passing in the clouds from early morning to the afternoon and evening. Only today, was I lucky to see them.

There have been larger concentrations of migrating Geese passing overhead in the last three days. I don't usually hear so many in such a short time. You don't always see them; but you can mostly hear them calling to each other.

Today, I saw larger groups of Geese flying through the driving snow and icy winds. First I heard them, then I saw them .. grey upon ghostly grey. They soon disappeared into the wind driven snow. Their 2012, Autumn migration has become a cold Winter migration.

Migrating Geese form flying squadrons and the V shaped formations often follow one behind the other .. sometimes split into three or four groups. I think this is why they talk back and forth. If they cannot see each other they can hear each other .. and they encourage each other to fly.

Some birds come from Russia, they continue to fly down through Central Germany, through Central France, through Central Spain and then they fly straight to the narrowest Mediterranean crossing .. to Africa via Gibraltar.

Scientists were reporting at the end of November, 2011 that birds were delaying their migrations South due to rising temperatures. This year many birds left early. Their "Autumn migration" South is being made more difficult by freezing temperatures, icy winds and driving wet snow.

In 2011 there was no snow here all year round and not a lot of moisture or ice. When the South of France had heavy snow - I was wearing a Summer jacket. Birds from the far North stop over in this area .. using the wetlands and marshes on their long journey South. The micro-climate keeps us warm through until January/February. But, not this year!

In Spring, 2011 .. the Elder trees produced hardly any flowers and the small amount of elderberries dried up fast in the warm dry heat of Summer .. the following Winter was mild. I knew when I saw the [2012] fruit trees heavy with cherries, plumbs, berries and apricots that this Winter was going to be harder. I have never seen so many cherries on the branches of those trees.

Compared to other areas our October snow and sleet was extremely "mild" .. some areas were covered in 10cm of snow. Although snowfall is rare in October, historically this happens every 20 to 30 years, and is know by the Farmers Wisdom Almanac. Of course! The farmers know the long term weather cycles better than anyone.

From my observations, 2012 is a "water year". Flooding around the world has translated to a warm (but humid) Summer .. and now a watery cold-wet Autumn/Winter. There is a lot of water in the air.

This amount of water may translate into widespread storms, inundations, sudden changes in temperature .. warm to cold / cold to warm. However, it could translate into an early end to Winter and a quick return of mild weather.

One Old Farmer Almanac says:
"Snow fall in October and the Winter will be mild."

The Geese were not hanging around to find out !!

Northern Australia In 2030

Ach! So! Other people think like me °^° ...

Northern Australia In 2030
Sustainable Development of Northern Australia
Land and Water Task Force

It is the year 2030 and the world's population is approaching 9 billion. While Australia's population has increased by only 8 million in the past 20 years, nearly 6 billion people live in neighboring Asian and South Pacific nations...

...While Indigenous people make up less than 3 percent of Australia's population in 2030, they compromise nearly 50 percent of the population in Northern Australia. In some areas, such as the Kimberley, Indigenous people represent nearly 60 percent of the population.

This PDF is about resource management, water resources and water management and stewardship of the land you live on. The question is should/do/can local people and local Indigenous populations landscape the environment and manage the resources? Why not!

The premise is that planning institutions thousands of miles away do not and cannot understand the local environment and its needs. The land is not only a 'resource' it is a dynamic living phenomenon. Something people have to get to know when they live in an area. For example, you need to know where to build and where not to build and in what style you have to build in order to adapt to the land and climate.

I was researching the history of Queensland floods and I came across the "Waters Futures Forum" .. Northern Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance - NAILSMA

There are some interesting PDF files online, with a wealth of information and relevant proposals. It seems to be a question of regional management of resources and local knowledge of the area.

So What? People of The Eora Nation
In that country on the edge of Kakadu where the great rivers of the north make their way from the majestic Arnhemland escarpment across vast flood plains and on into the Arafura Sea, Aboriginal people are seeking to play their role in the sustaining of the resources that have been entrusted to them from their fathers and mothers and those before them.

Terra Nullius: Land Belonging To No One
In the context of Aboriginal people and government interaction assimilation is aimed at achieving the original colonial dream and assertion that Australia was terra nullius – land belonging to no one...

As a result Indigenous Australians have found themselves standing alongside a group of almost equally politically excluded Australians; those living in the Northern half of the Nation who are non-Indigenous but who have chosen to contribute to the future of the Nation by working for the development and sustaining of our deserts, our northern coastal regions and the pastoral regions of the Northern Territory, Western and South Australia and Queensland.

Recent amalgamations of Shires in Queensland and the creation of local government entities in the Northern Territory has seen the erosion of Aboriginal peoples capacity, in those regions, to have a say in the management of their communities to the same extent that they had hitherto enjoyed.

People in remote Australia, covering most of our continental land mass have found themselves more than ever subject to the decision making processes and priorities of governments authority in southern cities, far removed from the reality of the lives of those in the bush. We require regional empowerment as part of good governance of our regions and resources, especially water.

Animals Use Plants To Kill Parasites & Bacteria

Self-medication - animals know how to use Nature's pharmacy... can humans do it too? I am not saying that humans are intelligent enough to self-medicate, it is not something I would advise! It seems animals are intelligent enough to know which medicinal plants and herbs to eat so they stay healthy.

Not only monkeys, but bears and insects consume plants, bark and herbs that have apparently little or no food value. Researchers have discovered that the medicine plants animals have been observed to eat, have been found to contain compounds that kill parasites and eliminate bacteria and fungus...

Chimps Eat Herbs To Cure Maleria
Researchers at Kibale National Park have discovered that chimps eat plants similar to the ones used by traditional healers to treat malaria and diarrhoea.

"The chimps and human beings around Kibale use similar plants to overcome sickness," Sabrina Kreif, a researcher, said. She was speaking at Makerere University's Faculty of Science at a ceremony to launch a memorandum of cooperation between Uganda Wildlife Authority and French institutions.

In her five-year study at Kanyawara research station, located on the edge of Kibale, Krief found that chimps carefully select and consume plants like mululuza, which have little nutritive value.

These plants, however, have medical properties that help the chimps to overcome malaria and diarrhoea, as well as to expel worms from their intestines, Krief said. Her research included collecting and analysing chimp dung and urine.

"I had to examine the dung to find out the plants in their diet and then extract the active components," she said.

She also monitored the behaviour of the chimps to find out if there was any improvement each time sick chimps ate the plants. She also found that traditional healers in the area use the same plants.

In some cases, the chimps ate the bark of certain trees, which helped them to overcome parasites that cause diarrhoea.

"It was stunning to see that the traditional healers use the same plants to treat the diseases," she said. "The studies on great apes, which are the closest relatives to humans, will help us to discover plants with medicinal properties."

Healing Herbs: In Uganda, chimpanzees swallow leaves of Rubia cordifolia, a plant deemed so dandy for easing stomach ailments that local villagers cultivate it in home gardens. Ugandan chimps also carefully select and chew young leaves of a particular species of fig tree. Tests by phytochemist Rodriguez reveal that the fig leaves contain 5- methoxypsoralen, an antibiotic compound that kills nematodes, or wormlike parasites. Read More...

The term Zoopharmacognosy refers to the process by which animals self-medicate, by selecting and using plants, soils, and insects to treat and prevent disease. Coined by Dr. Eloy Rodriguez, a biochemist and professor at Cornell University, the word is derived from roots zoo ("animal"), pharma ("drug"), and gnosy ("knowing").

'- ) Just break it up to understand it: Zoo - pharma-cognosy

Nature's Pharmacy Used by Animals - Self-medicating behavior is a topic of rapidly growing interest to behaviorists, parasitologists, ethnobotanists, chemical ecologists, conservationists, and physicians. Scientists from various disciplines are currently exploring the possibility that many species use plants, soils, insects, and fungi as 'medicines' in ways that guard against future illness...

The Lion Whisperer

Animal Behaviourist, Kevin Richardson from South Africa, can freely interact and communicate with lions. "If they did kill me ... if I had the opportunity to come back after dying, I would do it all the same," he said.

National Geographic Lion Whisperer Video

Rising Sea Levels

People may find this strange, but I have learned that observing nature directly and carefully is the way to understand global events. All living things are part of the web of life. So, when you observe the animals, trees and the local weather the whole world is mirrored in those observations.

As a child I would observe the Curlews and the cormorants in the North West Highlands of Scotland. Wherever I go I watch the birds, the animals, the local plants and all aspects of nature unfolding and adapting to a changing world.

Over the past few months I began to notice the arrival of cormorants and curlews in the middle of South Germany. These birds were not living in this area until recently. In fact, I have noticed an increased arrival of many species of non-native birds from all over the world. The strongest presence are water loving birds.

I began to wonder what would happen to this area if a rise in sea levels pushed the rivers to greatly overflow. In fact, what if there would be a much greater expansion of marshes and water catch areas due to pushing the water on land deeper into the continents due to a drastic rise in world sea levels.

Is it possible that birds and animals would know or sense, due to some kind of electromagnetic change in the earth's atmospheric field, that current land areas would be water? Does the consciousness of the earth communicate with the creatures living on this planet? Those life forms who adapt to change survive. Even more interesting, what if the birds an animals sense change ahead of time?

Sea Level Rise and the Future of the Netherlands
As an economically and socially advanced nation, the Netherlands is a low-lying nation, with a sophisticated agricultural sector and high population density. Half of the country lies below 1 meter above sea level, with an eighth of the country lying below sea level. Without an extensive network of dams, dykes and dunes, the Netherlands would be especially prone to flooding. As a predicted outcome of Global Climate Change, sea level rise could impact the Netherlands drastically, leading to social and economic devastation.

Is The Netherlands Europe's Bangladesh?

"What they found are distinctive features indicating that the valley formed in a catastrophic flooding event, rather than through normal fluvial erosion." - Megafloods

Rare White Stag

A rare white stag has been observed on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. The animal has been seen with other red deer by a member of the John Muir Trust, which has kept its location a secret to protect it from poachers. The white stag, an animal of such rarity that it was revered by the ancient Celts as a messenger from the afterlife, has been seen on the west coast of Scotland. The animal was spotted during a recent field trip by Fran Lockhard, the partnership manager with the John Muir Trust, who photographed and filmed the white stag.

"It was amazing to crawl up so close to such a magnificent looking animal," she said. "He looked almost ghost-like next to the group of young red stags that he was mixing with. I am thrilled to know that there is a white stag roaming free out there in the Scottish Highlands. We will be watching this animal with interest, particularly as he will be reaching his full potential in the next couple of years."

White deer are potent figures in the mythology of many cultures. Celts considered them to be messengers from the otherworld. They are closely identified with unicorns and their appearance is said to herald some profound change in the lives of those who encounter them. It is like a ghost fleeting among the heather, a beast of myth whose precise location must be protected from those who would do him harm. In Arthurian legend, the white stag is a creature that can never be caught and King Arthur's unsuccessful pursuit of it represents mankind's quest for spiritual knowledge.

The pursuit of creatures that can never be caught is a recurring theme in mythology. King Arthur attempts to capture a white stag on more than one occasion, and is always eluded. The white stag is a true faerie-beast, and represents mankind's quest for spiritual knowledge. In his book The White Goddess, Robert Graves asks “how many kings in how many fairy tales have not chased this beast through enchanted forests and been cheated of their quarry?” The white stag keeps the wisdom we seek from us, for we are not ready to know his secrets. By vanishing into the forest (a gateway to Annwn), the white stag reminds us that until we accept the existence of the unseen and unknown, we will not find the answers to our questions. And so the white stag comes to symbolize something new: our renewed spirit of adventure. As we follow him along our life-path, we should consider the quests of the Arthurian knights, and remember that the path we follow is as important as our destination. The things we see along the way are all part of the adventure.

Galtisant the Questing Beast is perhaps the most extraordinary creature to appear in the Arthurian myths. Galtisant was a chimaera or monster in the truest sense, for it had a serpent's head, a leopard's body, a lion's hindquarters and a stag's hooves. In the tales, Galtisant is pursued vainly by Pellinore, and the knight fails to realise that his prey, like the white stag, is a faerie-being which can never be caught. Yet there are some within the tales who have some degree of control or influence over the animals of Annwn. Merlin's great black horse rides freely through the middle of battlefields without receiving a single wound. During the quest to free Mabon (the Celtic god Maponos), Arthur's interpreter Gwrhyr spoke with the ouzel (blackbird), stag, owl, eagle and salmon. The tale represents the release of the young god from an underworld prison, and it is the wisdom of these sacred Celtic animals which allows Arthur to complete his quest. Celticwolf.co.uk

Lugh Ireland, a sun god of all crafts and arts, healing, journeys, prophecy. Son of Cian, a Tuatha De Danann. Of legend, his skills were without end; in Ireland he was associated with ravens; and a white stag as his symbol in Wales. He had a magic spear and otherworldly hounds. His festival was Lughnassadh, or Lunasa - August 1.

Tolkien Fiction or Reality?

© Janet Ossebaard, January 2005
In a recent copy of Frontier Magazine, an article was published by fellow researcher Bert Janssen about a most remarkable close-encounter on Silbury Hill (Wiltshire, UK). The couple he had interviewed and filmed seemed totally trustworthy. Their body language (clearly visible on the video footage) fully confirmed their story, which - I'm sure - raised many questions in quite a few readers. A continuation...

As a crop circle researcher, I am confronted quite often with bizarre stories. The close-encounter on Silbury Hill was such a story indeed. At first, many readers might think it was just a concoction or maybe a chimera. Or perhaps that couple simply wanted to get some attention... Yet I think there's far more going on. On Bert Janssen's footage one can watch the couple for a few hours. The interview took place in their garden, in a relaxed setting, surrounded by their young children who play and run around, at times distracting their parents from their bizarre story. The entire interaction of this family, their facial expressions and gestures, the occasional silences and the way they spontaneously complement or correct each other from time to time, shows us that this close-encounter was not a fantasy. These people speak frankly and in all honesty about what has occurred to them. They tell the truth in full detail.

After having watched the footage, my first reaction was: "What on earth am I supposed to do with this?" Light beings inside balls of light inside tetrahedrons, beings just like Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, running up Silbury Hill… What has become of the world?! As I rewound the footage and watched everything once more, memories started coming back to me. Memories of things I once experienced myself.

In the course of time, I witnessed several balls of light in and near crop circles. I saw UFOs. Unfortunately I never saw light beings, nor Gollum-like creatures. As I'm thinking of Gollum, I suddenly remember another one of Tolkien's creations: the Nazgul, those creepy invisible creatures in black capes flying around on enormous birds of prey, spies of Evil. And I remember my own encounter when I was about five years old. The wingspread of the enormous bird of prey that flew through my village must have been something like 15 meters. It was flown by a small, dwarf-like creature, fully clothed and 'ready for battle'. There was destruction and evil in his eyes. I was the only one who saw them, my sister who was standing beside me didn't see a thing and thought I was playing a fantasy game. But I was terrified and decided to remember every single detail forever, knowing that one day it would turn out to be important...

My encounter was preceded by a sound that swelled as the giant bird approached. It sounded like a heavy drum, like the ones in those old movies with rowing slaves on ancient ships. There was about one full second in-between the beats of the drum in my encounter. After a while, the monstrous bird appeared in my field of vision and I froze with fear.

Tolkien had almost literally included my encounter in his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Both the bird of prey and the entity that flew it, and even the swelling sound: in the caves of Middle Earth through which Tolkien's heroes had to go in order to continue their adventureous journey, and where they lost their companion Gandalf the Grey in the battle against Evil. Suddenly and for the first time I wondered if Tolkien had only just put a fantasy on paper or whether maybe he knew more. Had he had his own encounters? Read the full article at: Circularsite.com

Shandong Province Mirage

Photograph of rare mirage off the coast of east China's Shandong Province.

Thousands of local residents and tourists witnessed a mirage of high clarity lasting for four hours off the shore of Penglai City in east China's Shandong Province Sunday. Mists rising on the shore created an image of the city, with modern high-rise buildings, broad city streets and bustling cars as well as crowds of people all clearly visible.

Penglai had been soaked by two days of rain before the rare weather phenomenon occurred. The mirage took place during the week-long Labour Day holiday. Experts said that many mirages have been recorded in Penglai, on the tip of Shandong Peninsula, which made it to be known as a dwelling place of the gods.

They explained that a mirage is formed when moisture in the air becomes warmer than the seawater temperature, refracting rays of sunlight to create reflections of the landscape in the sky. -- Xinhua (May 2006) Thoth Web

Other Dimensions
In the past few months mirages have appeared in many different areas of Mainland China. What are mirages all about? Most people believe that mirages are caused by reflections from the atmosphere. This explanation, however, is far from being completely convincing. With the advancement of modern science, scientists have come to understand that the dimension human beings inhabit is not the only one in the universe. There exist other dimensions that man can't see, which have matter and life-forms in them. A mirage is a way in which other dimensions can manifest in our dimension. That is to say the existence of other dimensions can "accidentally" display themselves in this space in the form of mirages, allowing us to see them. Pure Insight

Our Changing World

Late-night mystery:
Dozens of readers from across Israel told Ynet about unusually loud “explosions” and tremors throughout the night, but attempts to shed light on the source of the blasts has been met with uncertainty.

October 28 - Y Net

Double Mystery:
Just three weeks after dozens of readers from across Israel told Ynet about unusually loud booms and tremors throughout the night, residents again reported hearing loud boom-like sounds in different parts of the country Tuesday, mainly in coastal regions, claiming their homes shook as a result. November 22 - Y Net

During the December 26, 2004 Earthquake off Sumatra, mysterious "sky booms" were heard in Sumatra a week before the quake.

What is an ‘Earthquake Boom’?

Earthquake Boom is a very loud, deep sounding explosion, which emanates from the earth. If directly above emanation, directional determination may be difficult as sound is not from a distinct direction as it is from a wide area of earth’s surface. It is a higher frequency audio form of the traditional shaking earthquake even though current seismographs cannot ‘see’ or ‘record’ them. Scalar devices are able to clearly ‘see’ these events along with the rest of the earthquake ‘family’ of earth-generated events such as the ‘silent’ or ‘slow’ earthquake. Another relative to the ‘family’ is the earth ‘lurch’ and a ‘fast version of slow’ earthquake – these yet to be discovered by mainstream science.

These loud explosions have been witnessed by many over the years. They also accompany traditional earthquakes as these are part of the mix of seismic activity (earthquake & earthquake boom).City residents of Spokane Washington in the summer of 2001 experienced a classic series of explosions (earthquake booms) and earthquakes in a flurry of shallow earthquake swarms. Seismologists were unable to record these booming events on seismographs. Terra Research



Bandar Abbas - Iran: A powerful earthquake has hit southern Iran, killing at least 10 people, injuring dozens more and damaging several villages, officials say. The 6.1-magnitude quake struck Qeshm island, home to 120,000 people, and the city of Bandar Abbas, state media said. BBC

Mystery Booms from 2004 - A loud explosion which sent residents running for cover has been heard in Wales for the second time in less than a week. Windows and homes shook in areas of Denbighshire and Conwy at around 17.50BST on Tuesday. North Wales Police received calls from worried residents who thought there had been an earthquake.

Glenn Ford, a seismologist with the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, said they had had no signals "consistent with an earthquake in the area". The small earthquakes are very similar to effects observed by sonic booms," he said. BBC News

The Swallow & The Creator

Flying On The Edge Of Reality

The migrating birds were arriving at Lake Geneva. Flocks of Geese had already flown across the water the day before, and rare ducks were feeding along the edge of the lake. The Swallows had arrived and were gliding around the tower with ease. It was early in the morning and the day had begun without a cloud in the sky. We were talking in the kitchen overlooking the balcony and suddenly a small bird fluttered down in front of the window.

The Swallow had not hit the glass and it had not hit the balcony or it would have fallen on the other side. The bird simply arrived unable to fly and eventually unable to move. The Swallow fluttered around helplessly and then lay exhausted against the balcony wall, it looked up as though asking for help.

To be honest I thought that the small animal had no chance of recovery.

I went out expecting the Swallow to struggle, but the tiny bird did not move as I carefully picked it up in both hands. The birds heart was beating so fast its whole body shook, and yet as I sent energy through my hands into its body the small bird calmed down.

Its wings seemed to be paralysed and its feet were curled up under its body. The bird could only move its head and its eyes. I held the bird and Michael put his finger gently on its tiny head. I could feel him praying as he sent energy into the tiny Swallow. After that the bird turned its head to watch him. Wherever Michael walked the Swallow turned to look at him. The love coming from this small bird cannot be described, I could see our world though the eyes of the Swallow - our small visitor from the skies.

I did not have to close my hands on the wings, the bird lay very still and seemed to be at home with us. I simply held it in my open hands and began to send healing energy into its body. The Swallow closed its eyes. I prayed to the Creator to give the Swallow the strength to fly again, I asked the Creator to send life into the body of the bird he had created. I removed stagnant sick energy from within the Swallow and I energised the inner energy field.

After some time the Swallow was able to move its wings, and then it was able to move its feet and it stood on my fingers. I asked the mountains to send healing energy into the bird. At this point the Swallow could move and was vibrating its wings and looking around.

The tiny bird waited for Michael to come back into the room and saying "goodbye" it shot faster than the eye can move out back again into the skies above. We could not determine whether the bird would be able to fly again; but within our prayers was a deep understanding of the oneness of being humans share with the earth and all creatures upon the earth. There comes a point where your life is indivisible from the life of all creatures, and your death is indivisible from the death of all creatures.

I have always loved the Crop Circle: The Swallows. These tiny birds will keep flying in the most powerful storms. They are truly masters of the skies. When you hold one in your hands they are so light it is hardly possible that they can navigate the winds above, and yet they do. When these birds take flight they embody the power of the skies. Their wings are designed with a perfect knowledge of wind and flight. 

Who created the wind and who created the wing, and who created the flight? Religions talk about "God", and yet to understand God you have to understand the dynamics of nature, the geometry of mountains, the nature of water, wind and air. 

To touch God you have to touch the perfect balance of the feather that repels water and hovers on air. That the wing understands the nature of water and air is the key to God and the purpose of life. Swallows in the corn fields leaves us a clue to our own existence, if we care to stop and listen ...

Antarctica - The Last Refuge

Antarctica
A place of wonder and infinite possibilities.
Home to nearly 70% of the worlds freshwater.
A place that nobody owns.
It comprises 10 percent of the worlds area and has never known war.

The one place in the world that we have the opportunity to keep pristine, an entire continent that can still be protected from the negative effects of human use. Mission Antarctica

Antarctica Melting Fast

The worst fears of environmentalists are coming true:
Scientists have issued a new warning about the effects of climate change on Antarctica, saying that more than 200 glaciers are melting because of unusually high temperatures. Using aerial photos dating back to the 1940s and more recent satellite images, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered just how much these ice shelves have melted over the last 50 years, as temperatures have risen by around 3½ degrees F.

In a study published in the respected journal Science, these researchers explain that until the mid-1950s, most of the glaciers got bigger. During the decade after that, most of them were stable, but since then, they've been shrinking. During the past five years, the pace of this shrinkage has accelerated. But climate change may not be the only cause of this mass meltdown, which healted during the 1980s, despite continuing warming. Other important reasons for the melt could include warming ocean temperatures, which may also be caused by global warming, but scientists haven't yet figured out exactly how this works. Unknown Country

NOVA: Warnings From The Ice
Originally broadcast on April 21, 1998. Over the last half-century, the coastal ice on the Antarctic Peninsula has been gradually disappearing. Scientists are beginning to wonder if we are on the verge of a great flood that may consume the world's coastlines. In the program, a group of scientists heads south to Antarctica in the race to answer questions and heed the warnings from the ice.

Mission Antartica

Florida USA
If West sheet melted (17 foot rise)

Warnings From The Ice: Water World What would happen to the world's coastlines if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet melted, raising global sea levels by as much as 20 feet? Some scientists say a collapse is inevitable, possibly even imminent.

While you're at it, check out the same stretch of coast 20,000 years ago. It was the height of the Ice Age, when sea levels were 400 feet lower than today, and there was a lot more land to go around.

Finally, have a look at what would be lost if the East Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt. No one believes this monstrous dome will disintegrate anytime soon. But if it did, it would raise seas around the world by as much as 200 feet. (To play it safe, these images depict a conservative rise of 170 feet.)

For The Swallows

It is now the 2nd of May 2005, and I can suggest that you observe carefully how the weather "feels" in your body and not simply how you feel about the weather. Because, the same thing is happening in 2005 as of today. The sky was clear in Southern Germany, the sun was incredibly hot. As the sun was setting the same "heat trap" effect began as in 2003. The heat increases and the body begins to sweat. As the sun moves below the horizon the heat density increases. It is bizzare!

Once more the number of Swallows seems to have decreased. By May there was always a good flock of Swallows in the sky. This year I have two Swallows who have appeared. These small signs signal big changes in our climate. Today the Swallows, tomorrow mankind!


A First-Hand Glimpse of Hell in Europe -- 13-Aug-2003

Let me share with you my observations of what is happening here in Europe, at least in middle Germany. The media reports lower temperatures than we have here every day, so you can add 5 degrees to anything you read. I think they have their official weather stations underground or inside caves. There is a very dry hot wind blowing, similar to what one would experience in the Sahara. Late at night and in the early hours of the morning the air remains incredibly warm. The walls of our houses are like ovens at night, and in the morning, the sun is burning hot. There is hardly any temperature change over a 24 hour period. It is simply hot all the time.

The leaves on trees and plants are dark brown. The wheat was half its usual height. The parks are empty. There are swallows that I watch each year, and when they arrived this spring, their numbers were half of what they were in previous years. Every year I've watched them flying in circles until late evening, but for many days there hasn't been a single swallow in the sky. I hope they haven't died. It just occurred to me that in England there was a large "swallow" crop circle recently. These are all small changes that seem like nothing to most people, but I know they are bad signs.

It's almost as though something is talking to us—the Sun? the Planet? Nature? I'm not sure. But people are very quiet. We are all behaving in the same way, as if whatever we need to survive this has been denied us. We're sitting right in the middle of the battlefield without protection.
In the past, we enjoyed a long period of stable weather that allowed excessive abundance and growth. In the background, there is a strange feeling that we haven't used this abundance well. In mid-June, when I already thought it was hot here, I went for a walk in the evening. For the first time in my life I became aware that all the trees were radiating sound. In fact everything in nature was creating this sound, which felt like a harmonic. I felt utterly ashamed of who we are as a species. Behind this harmonic I could feel an intense love, and also a sadness, because somehow we have failed.

If we don't get rain soon, how will animals make it through the coming winter? All types of grass are completely dried out, even in the surrounding woodlands. It must be incredibly hard for the deer. I read yesterday that the French Government deny this is a serious crisis, and yet they are allowing the nuclear power stations to pour water into rivers at higher temperatures than is usually allowed, which will kill all the fish. The Swiss have decided it's better to cut the output of the power plants than put hotter water into their rivers.

Where I live, they spray a lot of what look like chemtrails across the sky. In past years, it did seem to get cooler when the sky was filled with these spreading thin white clouds, but this is no longer the case. The sun seems to sit up there as the rightful ruler of the skies and those trails are not spreading the way they used to, as if there’s a total lack of moisture or water vapor. From here, it looks like the long trails are drying up as soon as they are sprayed.

Today the unrelenting, burning sun still beats down, almost as if there is a hole in the sky and some vital protection has vanished. The strangest thing of all happens late at night, when the sun goes down and the night becomes dark. The air almost begins to cool, but then the intense heat reappears. This heat is just as intense as the hottest part of the day, but it's in the middle of the night. This has become worse since the beginning of August.

I think if humans want to play a game of tennis against nature they are about to lose.

Who Will Save The Albatross?

Massacred by commercial fishing, our most magical and magnificent birds now face extinction. As Ellen McArthur launches a campaign to save them, Michael McCarthy explains what makes the glorious albatross the king of the skies.

Ed Caesar - 28 April 2005 - It stirs the imagination more than any other bird. Eagles may be majestic, falcons may be dashing and kingfishers may be exquisite, but nothing quite sparks our sense of wonder like the albatross.

Even for those of us who have never seen one, and that's most of us, the great long-winged ocean wanderer floats through our subconscious as an icon of wildness and freedom. There is more: an air of deep mystery about it, as it emerges from nowhere, in the remotest corner of the sea, effortlessly follows your ship for hour upon hour, and disappears once again like a phantom. Where's it gone, when there isn't anywhere to go to?

Sailors used to think albatrosses were the souls of drowned men. Samuel Taylor Coleridge chiselled that superstitious awe into literary stone two hundred years ago in The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, the poem which fixed forever the mysterious, semi-magical nature of the bird in the British mind. Shoot an albatross like the mariner did, you read, and there will be terrible consequences.

No doubt about it, albatrosses are wondrous, albatrosses are utterly charismatic, albatrosses are very special creatures indeed. And they are being slaughtered. In a massacre of immense proportions, the birds are being killed in tens of thousands all across the Southern Ocean where most of them make their home. In less than 20 years, 19 of the 21 albatross species have gone from healthy populations to facing extinction.

The cause is a fishing method which has been used for centuries by native peoples, such as the Inuit of Greenland, without wrecking the environment, but which is suddenly being employed on a vast industrial scale, with catastrophic results.

Long-lining involves trailing out a line behind the fishing boat, set with many baited hooks. The lines can be eighty miles long, and on some lines the hooks can number ten thousand; and thousands of boats are doing it. It is now believed that across the oceans of the world, no less than a billion long-line hooks are baited every year. One billion tempting traps for seabirds, which swoop down to the pieces of squid or other bait still showing on or near the surface, are caught by the hook in the beak or throat, dragged under, and drowned.

There are simple and inexpensive measures that can be taken, with remarkably successful results. They include streamers attached to the long-line to scare the birds away, weighting the lines to make them sink faster, and setting the baits at night when the birds will not see them. The conservationists think such a task force is necessary because although an international treaty to protect the albatross was signed last year (ACAP - the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels), and some countries such as Britain have already ratified it, many other fishing nations have not. And action is needed now.

"If we fail to save the albatross, it means that we will have failed to manage the oceans, and these are our greatest global commons," Euan Dunn said.

"They are now becoming an increasing source of food security around the world - people are more and more turning to the oceans to find the protein they need. Unless we can manage them and steward them in a sustainable way, our own worth as a species is greatly diminished."

The albatross: a lesson from literature?

Coleridge, as everyone knows, was one of the great Romantic poets; but what they may not know is that he was also an environmental visionary. In his best known work, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, published in its present form in 1817, we are told the story of an albatross, which follows a ship sent off course in bad weather, only to be shot by the ancient mariner of the title with a crossbow.

It becomes clear that the mariner's random act has brought a terrible evil upon the ship. The vessel is stuck in the doldrums, and the men start to thirst. When a ship is seen, sailing towards them even though there is not a breath of wind, it turns out to be a ghost ship. Death silently takes every sailor on the ancient mariner's ship, except the mariner himself. He alone will live on, to expiate his sin against Mother Nature.

Now consider the plight of the albatross in 2005.
More than 100,000 of these massive birds are killed every year by long-line fishing in the Southern Ocean, and environmentalists fear that some of the 21 types of albatross will become extinct soon if this practice continues unabated. The long-lines, up to 80 miles of hooks, are designed to catch swordfish and tuna, but the albatross, swooping to catch fish near the ocean surface, has become their unintended victim.

Consider, too, the simultaneous discovery that Swedish fishermen in the Baltic are suffering from low sperm counts and sperm motility, due to anxiety, depression, and the large numbers of fatty fish they eat. It would be foolish to directly attribute a decline in fishermen's ability to reproduce with the concurrent decline in albatross numbers, but there are some unnerving parallels between the plight of Coleridge's doomed ship and the plight of today's Swedish sailors.

Just as the ancient mariner's ship languishes, it is, pointedly, a lack of motility which is affecting our Baltic seafarers. The mariner's encounter with the female figure of 'Life in Death', too, carries heavily sexual Gothic overtones. His wish, in particular, that 'I too could die' carries the Shakespearian resonances of 'death' as 'orgasm' with it. And the less said about the Freudian resonances of the mariner killing the virginal white bird with his crossbow the better.

Spurious? Possibly. But, environmental visionary or not, Coleridge understood the balance that must be struck with the world around us. And the Ancient Mariner warns us - meddle with nature, and pretty soon it will meddle with you. The Independent

Mystery Of The Silver Rings

The young dolphin gives a quick flip of her head, and an undulating silver ring appears--as if by magic--in front of her. The ring is a solid, toroidal bubble two feet across--and yet it does not rise to the surface! It stands erect in the water like the rim of a magic mirror, or the doorway to an unseen dimension. For long seconds the dolphin regards its creation, from varying aspects and angles, with its vision and sonar. Seemingly making a judgement, the dolphin then quickly pulls a small silver donut from the larger structure, which collapses into small bubbles. She then "pushes" the donut, which stays just inches ahead of her rostrum, perhaps 20 feet over a period of up to 10 seconds. Then, stopping again, she regards the twisting ring for a last time and bites it--causing it to collapse into a thousand tiny bubbles which head--as they should--for the water's surface. After a few moments of reflection, she creates another.

This isn't fantasy, it's real. And it isn't magic, just marvelous. It is a rare dolphin behavior, and we first saw it in the play of two baby dolphins. It gives us a little more insight into the superb level of control dolphins can exercise on their water environment, and underscores the fact that we can still discover things about dolphins by simply watching them.

I first saw this behavior on one of my relatively rare trips out to the Delphis lab; the project's principle scientist Ken Marten said that "the two babies, Tinkerbell and Maui" had been doing it for a little while. My reaction: "Wow, neato. How the heck do they DO that? Try to get some photo and video shots of it. It sure is cool". Ken, along with Suchi Psarakos, Research Assistant and computer programmer, did indeed document the silver rings (although video and photos don't do the rings justice), and this has made it possible to both analyze the physics behind the phenomenon and to watch the dolphins do this trick in slow-motion.

As it turned out, small silver rings weren't the only toys the dolphins were making for themselves: some of the creations were as large as a basketball rim. And Tinkerbell proved able to create a silver helix, spiraling perhaps 20 feet long, that would spring into life in a fraction of a second and remain stable in the water as she swam past, observing it with sonar and vision. then--presto! she would grab a small silver ring from the helix to play with, while the rest of the helix degraded into bubbles which would belatedly "remember" to rise to the surface.

Creation of these rings by dolphins isn't new. (far from it--dolphins were probably blowing magnificent silver rings while our anscestors were hanging off tree limbs). It does seem to be a relatively rare behavior, though: it has been seen before only in a specific group of dolphins documented by Diana Reiss and Jan Ostman at Marine World. "The fact that ring-blowing is rare and that we have two babies doing it suggests that one baby learned it from the other", comments Ken Marten. "Whether it was a case of observational learning, or one "taught" the other, we don't know... but it'd sure be interesting to know."

The social situation also seems to affect ring-blowing: " The babies made them most intensely when they were the only two dolphins in the tank and when there was only one adult. The behavior stopped entirely when they were outnumbered by adults, " observed Suchi. "During one intense session with Tinkerbell there were often two or three rings visible in the tank at one time. She frequently swam over to me in an excited state, then went and made some more."

The reaction to our documentation of these rings has been universal--people are fascinated by them. Dr. Ken Norris, the world's leading expert on dolphins, had never seen it before. Robert Wolff of Apple Computer's Advanced Design Group made a "quicktime" movie of ring-blowing for display on Mac computers. Arthur C. Clarke, Earthtrust Advisory Board member, thought they were wonderful--but debated my offered contention that they might be the first "extraterrestrial art", pointing to interesting "artistic" achievements by other nonhuman animals.

For myself, I do consider these rings to be "art": the creation and observation of artifacts by a nonhuman mind, with no use other than entertainment and aesthetics. One must be constantly wary not to anthropomorphize the actions of other species--to treat them as though they were human. But after watching a dolphin create one of these kinetic sculptures--observe it from many angles--and then destroy it with a bite--it seems a long leap of logic to ascribe any other motive.

This can, and will, be debated... but the beauty of the rings is beyond debate. As evidence mounts for "self awareness" and other "intelligent" qualities in dolphins, I think that it must cause us again to ask the question: what are these creatures, that they spin silver lariats for the sheer joy of creation? And what sort of creatures are we, if we cannot appreciate and protect them?

This Magic Moment

It was like many Maui mornings, the sun rising over Haleakala as we greeted our divers for the day's charter. As my captain and I explained the dive procedures, I noticed the wind line moving into Molokini, a small, crescent-shaped island that harbors a large reef. I slid through the briefing, then prompted my divers to gear up, careful to do everything right so the divers would feel confident with me, the dive leader.

The dive went pretty close to how I had described it: The garden eels performed their underwater ballet, the parrot fish grazed on the coral, and the ever-elusive male flame wrasse flared their colors to defend their territory. Near the last level of the dive, two couples in my group signaled they were going to ascend. As luck would have it, the remaining divers were two European brothers, who were obviously troubled by the idea of a "woman" dive master and had ignored me for the entire dive.

The three of us caught the current and drifted along the outside of the reef, slowly beginning our ascent until, far below, something caught my eye. After a few moments, I made out the white shoulder patches of a manta ray in about one hundred and twenty feet of water.

Manta rays are one of my greatest loves, but very little is known about them. They feed on plankton, which makes them more delicate than an aquarium can handle. They travel the oceans and are therefore a mystery.

Mantas can be identified by the distinctive pattern on their belly, with no two rays alike. In 1992, I had been identifying the manta rays that were seen at Molokini and found that some were known, but many more were sighted only once, and then gone.

So there I was... a beautiful, very large ray beneath me and my skeptical divers behind. I reminded myself that I was still trying to win their confidence, and a bounce to see this manta wouldn't help my case. So I started calling through my regulator, "Hey, come up and see me!" I had tried this before to attract the attention of whales and dolphins, who are very chatty underwater and will come sometimes just to see what the noise is about. My divers were just as puzzled by my actions, but continued to try to ignore me.

There was another dive group ahead of us. The leader, who was a friend of mine and knew me to be fairly sane, stopped to see what I was doing. I kept calling to the ray, and when she shifted in the water column, I took that as a sign that she was curious. So I started waving my arms, calling her up to me.

After a minute, she lifted away from where she had been riding the current and began to make a wide circular glide until she was closer to me. I kept watching as she slowly moved back and forth, rising higher, until she was directly beneath the two Europeans and me. I looked at them and was pleased to see them smiling. Now they liked me. After all, I could call up a manta ray!

Looking back to the ray, I realized she was much bigger than what we were used to around Molokini - a good fifteen feet from wing tip to wing tip, and not a familiar-looking ray. I had not seen this animal before. There was something else odd about her. I just couldn't figure out what it was.

Once my brain clicked in and I was able to concentrate, I saw deep V-shaped marks of her flesh missing from her backside. Other marks ran up and down her body. At first I thought a boat had hit her. As she came closer, now with only ten feet separating us, I realized what was wrong.

She had fishing hooks embedded in her head by her eye, with very thick fishing line running to her tail. She had rolled with the line and was wrapped head to tail about five or six times. The line had torn into her body at the back, and those were the V-shaped chunks that were missing.

I felt sick and, for a moment, paralyzed. I knew wild animals in pain would never tolerate a human to inflict more pain. But I had to do something.

Forgetting about my air, my divers and where I was, I went to the manta. I moved very slowly and talked to her the whole time, like she was one of the horses I had grown up with. When I touched her, her whole body quivered, like my horse would. I put both of my hands on her, then my entire body, talking to her the whole time. I knew that she could knock me off at any time with one flick of her great wing.

When she had steadied, I took out the knife that I carry on my inflator hose and lifted one of the lines. It was tight and difficult to get my finger under, almost like a guitar string. She shook, which told me to be gentle. It was obvious that the slightest pressure was painful.

As I cut through the first line, it pulled into her wounds. With one beat of her mighty wings, she dumped me and bolted away. I figured that she was gone and was amazed when she turned and came right back to me, gliding under my body. I went to work. She seemed to know it would hurt, and somehow, she also knew that I could help. Imagine the intelligence of that creature, to come for help and to trust!

I cut through one line and into the next until she had all she could take of me and would move away, only to return in a moment or two. I never chased her. I would never chase any animal. I never grabbed her. I allowed her to be in charge, and she always came back.

When all the lines were cut on top, on her next pass, I went under her to pull the lines through the wounds at the back of her body. The tissue had started to grow around them, and they were difficult to get loose. I held myself against her body, with my hand on her lower jaw. She held as motionless as she could. When it was all-loose, I let her go and watched her swim in a circle. She could have gone then, and it would have all fallen away. She came back, and I went back on top of her.

The fishing hooks were still in her. One was barely hanging on, which I removed easily. The other was buried by her eye at least two inches past the barb. Carefully, I began to take it out, hoping I wasn't damaging anything. She did open and close her eye while I worked on her, and finally, it was out. I held the hooks in one hand, while I gathered the fishing line in the other hand, my weight on the manta.

I could have stayed there forever! I was totally oblivious to everything but that moment. I loved this manta. I was so moved that she would allow me to do this to her. But reality came screaming down on me. With my air running out, I reluctantly came to my senses and pushed myself away.

At first, she stayed below me. And then, when she realized that she was free, she came to life like I never would have imagined she could. I thought she was sick and weak, since her mouth had been tied closed, and she hadn't been able to feed for however long the lines had been on her. I thought wrong! With two beats of those powerful wings, she rocketed along the wall of Molokini and then directly out to sea!

I lost view of her and, remembering my divers, turned to look for them. Remarkably, we hadn't traveled very far. My divers were right above me and had witnessed the whole event, thankfully! No one would have believed me alone. It seemed too amazing to have really happened. But as I looked at the hooks and line in my hands and felt the torn calluses from her rough skin, I knew that, yes, it really had happened.

I kicked in the direction of my divers, whose eyes were still wide from the encounter, only to have them signal me to stop and turn around. Until this moment, the whole experience had been phenomenal, but I could explain it. Now, the moment turned magical. I turned and saw her slowly gliding toward me. With barely an effort, she approached me and stopped, her wing just touching my head. I looked into her round, dark eye, and she looked deeply into me. I felt a rush of something that so overpowered me; I have yet to find the words to describe it, except a warm and loving flow of energy from her into me.

She stayed with me for a moment. I don't know if it was a second or an hour. Then, as sweetly as she came back, she lifted her wing over my head and was gone. A manta thank-you.

I hung in midwater, using the safety-stop excuse, and tried to make sense of what I had experienced. Eventually, collecting myself, I surfaced and was greeted by an ecstatic group of divers and a curious captain. They all gave me time to get my heart started and to begin to breathe.

Sadly, I have not seen her since that day, and I am still looking. For the longest time, though my wetsuit was tattered and torn, I would not change it because I thought she wouldn't recognize me. I call to every manta I see, and they almost always acknowledge me in some way. One day, though, it will be her. She'll hear me and pause, remembering the giant cleaner that she trusted to relieve her pain, and she'll come.

-- At least that is how it happens in my dreams.

This Magic Moment