The secret of the Veeries

Words cannot express how tragic is the lost loss of life, nature, and infrastructure in natural disasters.

At the beginning of the year 2023, humanity witnessed another devastating earthquake wreak havoc not only in one country - Turkey but also in Syria.

A tweet from a Dutch researcher two days prior to the devastating natural disaster accurately warned about it shocking many observers and scientists alike. The researcher’s explanation echoed theories shared by scholars from all ancient civilisations including the scholars during the Islamic civilisation, which is that universal cosmic events follow rules that impact earth and continue to impact our lives.

So, the question that resurfaced again today, does the universe know somethings that we do not know?

Here are three examples that show that we have partners in this universe who could help answer this question.

Birds

I believe that a small bird in North America has a secret that could save thousands of lives, and billions of riyals in reconstruction. These birds, called Veeries, were subject to an extensive scientific study for the past few years to learn about their migration patterns around the hurricane season in North America.

The results of this study, that were made popular in a docuseries by Netflix called ‘Connected’, proved that Veeries is not only able to predict hurricane season but also how intense the hurricanes are going to be, beating Artificial Intelligence models developed by scientists for over 20 years.

Each one of us knows that watching birds can be fun, but perhaps we do more now for birds because we know that we are all connected pieces of a puzzle that can make our atmosphere safer and more predictable.

Sardines

Every few years, in my home Governorate of Dhofar, Sultanate of Oman, schools of Sardines flock to the beach in abundance, in the tens of thousands. This phenomenon is well known because it’s immortalised in the local folklore and heritage with songs and stories.

Fishermen and farmers benefit from this blessing because Sardines are used to feed valuable animal farms and in other agricultural uses.

Nowadays, the recurrence of such phenomenon could be a sign of something less benevolent; overfishing and ocean pollution causing Sardines to congregate in such small spaces could be a message to us, just as an Veeries’ migration could be a message that a hurricane will be more intense.

Camels

Many lives have been lost on the road due to untimely animal crossings. Camels should be blamed when roads have encroached on their natural habitats where they lived and crossed for years.

Every tragedy has lessons for us to learn. The secrets that Veeries, sardines and Camels carry are a tiny piece of an infinite universal knowledge that we should dedicate our lives and resources to uncover and share.