01x04 - Island of Coherence

[bunniefuu]

This series is dedicated to you,

the viewers who are watching it in 2050.

It was filmed, without using Al,

between 2014 and 2024

to try and show you who we were,

what we knew, what we were afraid of

and especially

what we were hoping to achieve.

Only you know whether we succeeded or not.

Shamans are warriors.

We are fighting entropy in all its forms.

What is entropy?

It's the law that says

everything in the universe tends to die.

In life, we face bifurcation points.

Moments when we must choose a direction,

right, straight, or left.

I don't believe in destiny or karma.

A person can change their life

through thought and intention.

The climate is changing,

it's visible to the naked eye.

And not for the better.

This is a point of bifurcation.

I've lived on Lake Baikal for 20 years

and I've never seen this condition of ice.

Flat, transparent,

like a mirror to the horizon.

I don't know how to explain it.

I don't have as much English words

as in Russian.

Siberia is definitely a gift,

especially Lake Baikal.

I'd always wanted to go there.

Ever since I was a little girl, I'd been

fascinated by its stories and legends.

The hardships, the challenges, the gulags.

It was always about human endeavour.

I'd never really heard

about its powerful nature,

its raw beauty, the surprising abundance,

the mysticism.

No wonder they say shamanism

was born there.

This lake is over 30 million years old.

It's the oldest lake in the world,

the biggest, the purest.

They say it originated from the intense

prayers of the Buryat people.

During a massive fire,

they called out to gods for salvation.

A big hole appeared

and it quickly began to fill up

with transparent icy water.

The name Baikal means "Stop the fire".

Ah, I think we're stuck.

- Yeah. There's like a crack in the ice.

- Yeah, we gotta film that!

Nature here is pretty tough.

And actually, to live here

you need some reasons, you know,

not like that's my faith, or my father

and grandfather were living here.

But you have to have your own reasons,

to live on this tough,

tough situation, tough conditions.

That's the price of the beauty.

I mean, sometimes this lake

is as quiet as a puppy

and sometimes it's trying to k*ll you.

I don't think Baikal belongs to humans.

It is the great white alone,

a transitional world,

like a sort of liminal space

to regenerate or disappear

and sometimes even come back.

It's one of those places

that can bring out the best

or the worst in humans.

For the rest of the planet lake Baikal

means the source of clean water.

The symbol of clean water.

For us it's something really gentle

and something that we take care of.

It's like a part of our home.

It's so huge and it's almost existing

forever compared with the humanity.

Amazing.

It's not only the main water source

for the planet.

It's also a great energetic resource.

And when I stay away

from the area for a long time,

I feel really empty.

And, you know, for most people

living here, it's like that.

Most of us, we define ourselves

not as much as Russians, but as Siberians.

And when I have some kind of sorrow

or some kind of huge problems,

I always come to Baikal

and actually speak to him

because it's a living creature.

I just put my hands in and say like,

"Hello father", like in this big meaning.

And it actually helps.

You have something extraordinary here.

You have the biggest

water reserve on the planet.

They say that with the water of Baikal,

you could give drinking water

to the entire planet

for at least over a year.

It's true, just because

only in the last couple of years,

we, I mean locals started to realize

what we had

because more and more you can see

in the media and news

that people are suffering without water,

water is gone.

The United Nations is warning today

of an approaching global water crisis

because of pollution, global warming

and over consumption.

2024 was the hottest year

in recorded history,

dating back almost 200 years.

All the way from Florida to California…

Heat wave is gripping parts of Europe…

But the temperatures could be deadly.

Expected to hit 45.

Western states are experiencing

the worst mega drought

in at least 1,200 years.

- Northern Greece

- Belgium, Germany, Italian cities.

Canada, U.S. and China.

In China, authorities are battling

one of the worst droughts

seen in more than 50 years.

And most of us

have turned a blind eye to it.

Year upon year science has predicted it.

Now each summer

we are living it and dying from it.

A quarter of the world's population

doesn't have enough water

to meet the demand

for drinking, agriculture, and industry.

Up to 3.5 billion people

live under conditions of water stress

at least one month a year.

With water being rationed

for agricultural and residential use,

finding water is like finding gold.

When I see foreign tourists bringing water

to Lake Baikal in the bottles,

I'm surprised because we never do this.

We just take a cup and drink water

directly from the lake.

You don't need to boil it,

it's really simple.

We are always smiling when we look at it.

But these smiles become less and less

because last year it was a huge situation.

We can't drink water from different parts

of the lake, because it's changed.

The chemical elements are different

in some parts of it

and this is because of people.

Human activity on its 636 km long shores

has increased.

And so has pollution.

Russia's Lake Baikal holds 20%

of the world's fresh water

and is home to species

unseen anywhere else.

But for how much longer?

The Siberian lake has seen

an unwelcome addition

to its roster of life in recent years,

a sticky green moose

that stretches for hectares,

a sign of increased pollution levels.

Of course I can see changes

and a lot of them are upsetting me.

If we close our eyes

to what is happening here,

more and more things like this

will happen.

The Soviet era Baikalsk Paper

and Pulp Mill

for 50 years dumped millions

of cubic meters of industrial waste

into the lake:

chlorides, phenol and sulphates.

6.2 million tons of toxic waste.

Baikalsk is an example

of ecological disaster,

because this city was built,

because of a factory,

the factory is closed

and the people just abandoned the place.

They have a huge territory,

abandoned territory that is in ruins.

And it's already covered

with forest and grass.

Scientist are concerned

about what could happen

if nothing is done

with the stocks of waste.

It could be like the second Chernobyl

or something like that.

We can lose the lake.

- Can you hear that drum?

- Yeah, it's a very cool sound!

Every, I don't know, two, five years,

different teams try to solve the problem.

But unfortunately, the project was closed.

No one was told anything.

I think that the economy is pretty tense.

The biggest issues

are for the biggest programs,

which need a lot of money.

They have the biggest influence

from the w*r.

So there are a lot of young men

from Siberia leaving for w*r?

We can see a lot of people

at the airport or rail station

going to the w*r

or coming back from the w*r.

But for our normal lives,

it's still the same.

A lot of people are volunteers.

Their families suffer because

they don't have any other work to do

except fishing, for example.

They just need to take care

of their families, it's simple.

And they have been living here

like for five, four or more generations.

I think that most of these people

think that they are victims.

The system is guilty,

the government is guilty,

the environment changes,

everything like that,

we are small people.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine,

300,000 Russian soldiers

have died or been injured,

many of them conscripts.

For soldiers from Siberia

and Russia's Far East,

which is home to many ethnic minorities,

the price has been overwhelming.

The BBC found

that six of the ten Russian regions

with the highest mortality rates

in Ukraine

are located in Siberia and the Far East,

and that men from Buryatia

are 75 times more likely

to die than men from Moscow.

Our complex world

and human constructed systems

are far from equilibrium.

We are losing our natural order

just as fast as our planet is.

Our destiny is interlocked with hers,

at least for human eternity.

Our planet is 70% water,

we are 70% water.

It has trickled down to us

from the cosmos.

Some of the water we are drinking

has been around since life started here,

4.6 billion years ago.

Water never dies and it keeps on going

through us, all of us

again and again and again.

Water is a human right

and the common development denominator

to shape a better future.

But water is in deep trouble.

Water scarcity is the next big challenge.

Experts have predicted that future wars

would be fought over water.

For years,

wars were waged for stability,

but soon, this stability

will depend on one thing,

how well the region

tackles climate change.

These kinds of stresses

can contribute to violent conflict.

Take a look at this video,

here you have the Chinese

and Indian militaries beating each other

over a barbed wire high in the Himalayas.

So disputes between India and China

have been getting worse this year.

Especially since

that deadly border clash in June.

There's a lot at stake here.

Water.

China is planning the world's

most complicated super dam.

A project this size could change

the geopolitical power balance

across South Asia.

How can something we all share

and keep on sharing become so divisive?

The fight for blue gold,

more and more militarized zones.

We see the trend rising everywhere.

It gets worse every day.

Ukraine blames Russia for blowing up

the strategic dam overnight.

It's one of six dams on the Dnieper River

and supplies vital drinking water,

power, and cooling for the nearby

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

There are no gaps, when there is

no w*r on planet Earth.

Humanity is always fighting.

Sometimes this w*r is much closer to us.

Sometimes this w*r

is not too close for us.

Kashmir is claimed

by both India and Pakistan in full

and has seen a decades-long insurgency

against Indian rule that has claimed

tens of thousands of lives.

Tensions between the two countries

are escalating

following the k*lling of 26 people.

In the aftermath of this attack,

Delhi suspended

what is known

as the Indus Water Treaty

that ensures water

for about 80% of Pakistani farms.

Pakistan says it will regard

any attempt by India

to limit its water supply

as an act of w*r.

Some rivers could swell up like this,

some could go completely dry,

which means essentially

it's endless chaos and complete

unpredictability for Pakistan,

which is what India wants.

Either our water will flow

from the Indu river

or their blood will!

Are water wars our only possible future?

Or can we treat and manage

our greatest connector,

what unites us all in a different way?

I can't be worried because

I'm drinking water from the Lake Baikal.

This is Lake Baikal's water

directly from the lake

and I want my sons to do the same.

So it's really important for me.

Do you think that we're going to be able

to resolve our real problems?

I mean, all the environmental challenges

we're going to have to face

if we keep on fighting?

No, I don't think so, I think

we will find a solution to any problems,

even for w*r problems,

if we start to communicate,

if we start to look for balance,

if we start to listen to each other

in dialogue.

I think that's the best weapon

for humanity, dialogue.

And you know this way is darker.

It's weird.

Wildfires raging near Russia's Lake Baikal

have destroyed forests

and scared away tourists

at the peak of the summer season.

When you think of Siberia

you likely don't think about wildfires,

Afterall Siberia is one

of the coldest places on the planet.

The blazes have been fuelled for months

by extreme heat,

which scientists say

is a result of climate change.

Gigantic infernos burning across Siberia

on an unprecedented scale.

A climate catastrophe.

NASA satellite imagery has shown

that smoke from the fires

has wafted from Siberia

and the Far East

all the way to Alaska

and along Canada's west coast.

The carbon emissions are nearly

as much as 36 million cars

they admit in a year.

The first time I came to Siberia

was in the summer of 2017.

The fires had just happened

and were still active in some places.

It still smells like burning, doesn't it?

The sound of silence was dark,

like the forest.

Once in a while you could hear

this eerie crackling under your feet.

It was endless.

Even the sky,

when I would lift up my head,

just seemed like a continuation

of those woody spears.

There was nothing hopeful

about that wasted land.

And that's something I can never forget.

At the time when I was here,

they were so violent

that the NASA said they actually affected

the weather pattern.

Everything was grey.

I remember the moment when it started.

I was actually here in the sandy bay

with a group

and that happens because of us.

Of course forest fire

is something very natural

and it happens just because

of a thunderstorm whatever,

but now it happens

like hundreds times more frequently.

Do you remember

the silence of this forest?

Yeah, I remember the scary silence

of the sound of insects

eating the bark of the trees.

It feels like you can sh**t

a horror movie here.

It's really a huge amount of the area

which got burned around here.

And that is one of the most famous

and one of the most beautiful places

around Baikal.

And since then, we've seen forests burn

all over the planet.

It's a growing problem.

Deadly wildfires

are sweeping through Australia.

30,000 people ordered to evacuate.

13 million acres burned.

Raging wildfires are slowly but steadily

taking over the world.

In Palermo, Italy, people made

terrifying journeys to get to safety.

All the way from Australia and the Amazon

to Siberia and Scandinavia.

The Amazon rainforest continues to burn.

The aftermath of the savage fire

which ripped through Sardinia,

there was considerable damage

to 500 beehives with 30 million bees.

Where we're standing you should

be able to see the Statue of Liberty

as long as it's not a cloudy rainy day,

but right now it's very difficult

to make out so

and you can smell it too

so all of this of course

is because of those wildfires

burning in Canada.

Wildfires in Canada are creating

dangerous air quality conditions

and officials are warning

that it could affect people

with breathing issues

who are more at risk.

Prolonged drought

set up extreme conditions

that have fuelled those devastating

Los Angeles area wildfires,

conditions compounded by climate change.

There is no doubt

we're transitioning to a new era

characterized by more frequent

catastrophic wildfires,

the so-called mega-fires.

In a way, the new age of wildfires

is actually helping us

understand the real fight,

which is global warming.

Fires actually have a way of making heat,

often an invisible threat, very real.

These mega fires carry across the world

the rage of our changing planet,

in a way that is impossible to ignore

because extraordinary fires

are definitely here to stay.

Is this the spot?

- Is that very far, Dasha, from the

- We can manage it, don't worry.

How do you manage to overcome

the feeling of catastrophe?

Because you're travelling so much

to the places that have

some environmental problems

and you're always speaking about that.

It's through you and all the other

Earth Protectors that I meet

that I feel empowered,

that I keep my spirits high,

because that's the hope.

The hope is that there will be

more and more people

in the next generation who have accepted,

who are embracing the fact

that we are going to need to adapt

to a new world and everything

that will come with it.

That's what I'm very interested in today

cause I don't think

we will make it as a species

if we don't go through

some sort of systemic change.

That's my hope.

No birds.

I love this place.

Are those people skating?

Yes. Usually,

it's from Irkutsk to Listvyanka.

Like a three or four days trip.

And they have their…

They take everything with them,

they try to make the trip like that.

I don't know anybody who skates like that…

- You mean like travelling?

- Yeah, like travelling.

I've never heard of that done.

And as Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine

once said,

when a complex system

is far from equilibrium,

small islands of coherence

in a sea of chaos

have the capacity to shift

the entire system to a higher order.

Words worth remembering, dear listeners,

especially in turbulent times.

Olkhon Island is another amazing place.

It's a unique spiritual place,

and it's the biggest island

of the Lake Baikal

and the only island where people live.

When you're coming to this place,

to Shaman Rock in the early morning,

you can easily imagine

how the world was before people.

Like you can really easily

imagine the Earth before humanity.

A bit of crackling noise.

He speaks and the crackling starts.

We should check the contacts

and fix them so they don't move.

One, two, three, four, five,

eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve,

thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.

When technology is in contact with me,

it acts up.

We should have chosen another shaman.

Once, a plane was stopped because of me.

The electronics went crazy.

We, shamans, believe

that everything has a spirit:

grass, a simple stone, trees, animals.

Shamanism is a very ecological religion.

I'm a child of ethnic Buryatia.

Before becoming a shaman,

I was deeply secular.

I stepped over others to build my career.

There was no talking about spirituality.

Then something happened.

I got shaman sickness

and ended up in a coma.

I woke up in intensive care,

rethought my entire life.

We exploit the land:

its subsoil, forests, everything.

We keep taking more,

it's a predatory approach.

There is this old saying:

"We don't live on the land

of our ancestors,

we borrow it from our children".

We revived a black

horse, set his soul free.

He became the island's guardian.

We set him free.

A wild, unbroken horse

that will keep the island safe.

Yeah, perfect.

You know, I wanted to do like an arch.

Do you see the installation?

I want to put it behind it,

like a little alcove. You know?

- Smell this one.

- I love it.

It smells like good medicine.

- Like that?

- Yeah, like that, straight facing me.

Yeah, a little bit more on the side.

Yeah perfect, slide it down.

You can put it like going down, there.

Perfect.

Humanity should strive for harmony.

It comes from within, from the soul.

If you, me, our loved ones,

all understand this,

it will be possible

to change and improve everything.

Take a little bit of the snow away.

That's on

Yeah, exactly.

You said we're

a spiritually poor generation.

I agree.

Our parents missed a lot in this sense.

Now we're trying to bring it all back.

A bit more toward the side.

This is a time of spiritual renaissance.

I wish it could spread,

like a handshake passed on.

To give us hope for a turning point

and restoration.

Love

True love never really suffers

of inflation.

It's coherent,

and we always need more of it.

Lots and lots of it.

Can small loving initiatives,

these small islands of coherence,

as scientists say,

have influence

over a much bigger system?

Could they actually help shift

the chaotic and entropic world we are in,

manage to divert us

from the doom of a Big Bang

and guide us towards systemic change?

I'm pretty sure that any nation,

any country has its own Lake Baikal.

Maybe smaller, maybe not so famous,

but its own.

And the message is to start with that.

Sometimes people

do something bad for the nature,

not because they don't care,

because they haven't thought of that.

And when you actually explain,

when you actually give the message,

you change the world,

like there's a very, very slight movement.

It's actually our contribution

to the saving of the environment

of our region

and maybe some other places too.

The connection between countries

is much more important than fighting

for the water or for the other sources.

We just need to communicate,

we just need to listen to each other.

That's why we just need

to find the balance between us,

because we're already fighting.

I hope so that the following 50 years

are going to be a peacetime.

They say that by connecting

these three simple dimensions

you can create your own island of change:

understand where you've come from,

realize where you are now,

and visualize where you want to be headed.

Your father loves you.