Year after exodus, silence fills Panama island threatened by sea
The evacuation of around 1,200 members of the Indigenous Guna community to a new life on the mainland was one of the first planned migrations in Latin America due to climate change.
The exodus from Gardi Sugdub in the Caribbean left those who remained with a sense of sadness, said Delfino Davies, who has a small museum on the island with spears, jars and animal bones.
"There are no friends left or children playing," he told AFP.
Gardi Sugdub now has the silence of a "dead island," he said.
Dusty desks and empty classrooms are all that remain of a school that once bustled with children.
Many of the island's wooden houses are padlocked.
"There's no one here. Sometimes I get sad when I'm here alone," Mayka Tejada, 47, said in the small store where she sells bananas, pumpkins, clothes, toys and notebooks.
Like Davies and about 100 others, she decided to stay.
But her mother and two children, aged 16 and 22, moved to one of the 300 houses built by the Panamanian government in a new neighborhood called Isber Yala on the mainland, a 15-minute boat ride away.
Gardi Sugdub, the size of around five football fields, is one of 49 inhabited islands in the Guna Yala archipelago -- also known as San Blas -- which scientists warn is in danger of disappearing by the end of the century.
'I'll die here'
Sitting in a hammock in her earthen-floor house filled with the aroma of medicinal herbs, 62-year-old Luciana Perez said she had no intention of leaving.
"I was born in Gardi and I'll die here. Nothing is sinking. Scientists don't know, only God," she said.
Perez said that she was not afraid because since she was a child she had seen big waves and rising waters flooding houses at times.
Steven Paton, a scientist at the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, said climate change meant that sea levels were expected to rise by up to 80 centimeters.
"Most of the Guna Yala islands are about 50 centimeters above sea level," he told AFP. "They'll be underwater."
Ana Toni, CEO of the United Nations' COP30 climate conference, told AFP that the mass evacuation "shows the reality we already have to face on the planet."
Sidewalks, water, electricity
The arrival of the rainy season has left puddles dotting the dirt roads of Gardi Sugdub.
In contrast, in the new settlement of Isber Yala -- "land of loquats" in the Guna language -- the streets are paved and have sidewalks.
The nearly 50-square-meter (500-square-feet) concrete houses have flushing toilets and there is a plot of land to grow vegetables.
On Gardi Sugdub "we lived crowded together, and I had to go fetch water from the river in a small boat," said Magdalena Martinez, a 75-year-old retired teacher.
In Isber Yala, water is available for an hour in the morning, she said.
"I can fill the buckets. And I have electricity 24 hours a day," said Martinez, who lives with her granddaughter in the new neighborhood.
Tejada's children also have no regrets about leaving the island, she said.
"I miss them, but they're happy there. They have a place to play football and walk around," Tejada said.
While the island's school relocated to Isber Yala, its dilapidated clinic remained in Gardi Sugdub.
"Before, people came on foot. Now, they have to travel by land and sea to get here. There are fewer visitors," said 46-year-old doctor John Smith.
Some of the islanders divide their time between the two communities, while others visit occasionally to check on their homes.
This week, there will be more activity than normal: seven jars of chicha -- a fermented corn drink -- are ready for Isber Yala's first anniversary.
Martinez is looking forward to the celebration, even though it will be bittersweet.
Although she may not see it herself, "the islands will disappear because the sea will reclaim its territory," she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
10 hours ago
- Euronews
Could using ChatGPT make you dumber? New study says it can
A new pre-print study from the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that using OpenAI's ChatGPT could lead to cognitive decline. Researchers with the MIT Media lab broke participants into three groups and asked them to write essays only using ChatGPT, a search engine, or using no tools. Brain scans were taken during the essay writing with an electroencephalogram (EEG) during the task. Then, the essays were evaluated by both humans and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The study showed that the ChatGPT-only group had the lowest neural activation in parts of the brain and had a hard time recalling or recognising their writing. The brain-only group that used no technology was the most engaged, showing both cognitive engagement and memory retention. The researchers then did a second session where the ChatGPT group were asked to do the task without assistance. In that session, those who used ChatGPT in the first group performed worse than their peers with writing that was 'biased and superficial'. A 'likely decrease' in learning skills The study found that repeated GPT use can come with 'cognitive debt' that reduces long-term learning performance in independent thinking. In the long run, people with cognitive debt could be more susceptible to 'diminished critical inquiry, increased vulnerability to manipulation and decreased creativity,' as well as a 'likely decrease' in learning skills. 'When participants reproduce suggestions without evaluating their accuracy or relevance, they not only forfeit ownership of the ideas but also risk internalising shallow or biased perspectives,' the study continued. The study also found higher rates of satisfaction and brain connectivity in the participants who wrote all essays with just their minds compared to the other groups. Those from the other groups felt less connected to their writing and were not able to provide a quote from their essays when asked to by the researchers. The authors recommend that more studies be done about how any AI tool impacts the brain 'before LLMs are recognised as something that is net positive for humans.'
AFP
a day ago
- AFP
Video does not show astronaut exposing 'fake' life in space
"Former Astronaut Karen Nyberg Shows How NASA Fakes Space Flights.." a June 16, 2025 post on X claimed. ideo of a woman in front of a space station-like backdrop watching a chip bag float away from her, side-by-side with the same footage being filmed in front of a green screen. A person in a green body suit is manipulating the bag. garnered thousands of interactions in posts on X, Threads, Instagram and Facebook. The clip in posts making similar claims about Nyberg in French, Spanish and Italian. Image Screenshot of an X post taken June 17, 2025 Nyberg is a retired NASA astronaut who completed two spaceflights during her career, including a 166-day stay on the ISS in 2013 (archived here). But she is not the woman in the green screen video. Comments on the post on X included links to previous debunks from USA Today and PolitiFact who named the woman in the video as Paige Windle. e clip, a person off-camera is heard calling the woman Paige. Windle is the founder of a lifestyle management company and the wife of David Weiss, known online as "Flat Earth Dave," the host of "The Flat Earth Podcast." Contacted by AFP, Weiss confirmed Windle is the one on-camera. "This video never dies. It keeps coming back," Weiss said in a June 17 email. The video was originally posted on Weiss's YouTube channel as part of a series titled "Globebusters," but made no mention of Nyberg (archived here). ook that clip and presented it as Karen Nyberg and it went viral a bunch of times and now it has started again," he said. He said he has repeatedly addressed the false use of the video, sharing with AFP the cover image of a YouTube video he posted in response to the false viral claims (archived here). Image Screenshot of a YouTube video thumbnail sent to AFP by David Weiss on June 16, 2025 Life in microgravity Astronauts onboard the ISS experience microgravity, causing them and objects to float (archived here). At the altitude of the ISS, gravity is 90 percent of the total gravity one feels on Earth, but an absence of air resistance causes all objects in the ISS to fall at the same rate, producing a weightless appearance. The ISS stays afloat because it moves at a speed that matches the curve of the Earth, causing it to "fall around" the planet while staying at roughly the same altitude. The moon's orbit works in a similar way. NASA uses the ISS in part to study how extended time periods in microgravity and impact the human body as it prepares for future long-term missions in On her website, Nyberg features a video she recorded on the ISS where she worked on a quilt (archived here). Unlike in the video filmed in front of the green screen, Nyberg's hair and necklace float throughout the clip due to the microgravity conditions. AFP reached out to Nyberg's representative for comment, but a response was not forthcoming. AFP has previously debunked claims that ISS astronauts faked a video from the station.
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
Blanketing an entire continent with forests: Why planting trees cannot make up for fossil fuel emissions
Scientists have been repeating it for years: The top priority in the fight against climate change should be to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rather than relying on methods to absorb CO 2 once it is in the atmosphere. A study published on Thursday, June 19, drives the point home, just hours after a group of climate scientists announced that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C was now out of reach. The study demonstrates "the insurmountable challenges" that fossil fuel companies would face if they had to offset their future CO 2 emissions, for instance, by planting trees. Published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, the study uses as its starting point the known coal, oil and gas reserves held by the 200 largest fossil fuel companies. According to the Fossil Free Funds database, burning these reserves would generate 673 billion metric tons of CO 2 – far more than the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5°C (130 billion metric tons). In recent years, more and more fossil fuel companies have highlighted their ambition to achieve net zero emissions through offsetting projects. The British oil company Shell, for example, plans to offset about 120 million metric tons per year by 2030. An analysis published in 2023 by the UK-based Carbon Brief website also demonstrates the extent to which the largest companies, particularly those in the energy sector, base their strategies on these methods.
