I still remember the feeling that came over me when I lay down on the ground that night and looked up. Never before had I seen a sky so thick with stars, with the Milky Way clearly crossing the entire firmament.
I could not believe that the sky was truly like that and not just the handful of stars I could make out from my city. I burst into tears and felt ridiculously small.
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is the driest desert in the world, with areas that have not seen rain for more than 500 years.
In addition to water scarcity, the climate is very harsh, with strong winds and extreme temperature swings: while daytime temperatures can easily reach around 40 degrees, nighttime temperatures can drop below 0 degrees.
This makes life in Atacama very difficult, so biodiversity is scarce. It is mainly concentrated in oases and ravines, and the life forms found here have adapted strongly to their environment, such as plants that have extended their roots to reach water that remains underground.
This has led many scientists to take an interest in the area, studying how climate change could affect us and what chances life has of finding new niches to persist and adapt in.
However, there are other areas that precisely convey what this absence of life in the Atacama means, such as the Valley of Death, which not only reflects the landscape’s aridity but is also rocky and impassable.
The desert lies at 2400 meters above sea level. This, combined with its low humidity and lack of light pollution, makes it one of the best places to witness what lies beyond Earth: a sky teeming with life and light that is difficult to find elsewhere in the world.
Atacama is the world’s great observatory and the chosen place for astronomers and scientists who continue to seek answers about what lies beyond what we currently know: the formation of stars, molecular clouds, and the early universe, in order to discover our cosmic origins.
However, while Atacama is one of the most impressive places on our planet, it has also become the world’s dumping ground.
Iquique, a town in the Atacama region, receives more than 50,000 tons of used clothing every year. This area is a major importer of second-hand clothing discarded in Europe and the U.S. However, of all the clothing that arrives, only 15% is reused.
The clothes we wear today are not biodegradable because most are made of polyester, a material that can take more than 200 years to break down. For this reason, municipal landfills do not accept them, and illegal dumpsites have sprung up, especially in Alto Hospicio Hill, one of the poorest areas of Iquique.
In this way, the Atacama Desert has become one of the world’s largest cemeteries for clothing.
When we see images of these mountains of used clothing, we might well conclude that this is the true Valley of Death in Atacama today.
However, everything can be reversible.
I remember the immensity of the Atacama sky and think about those small forms of life that survive in the driest place known to humankind, and I become aware of the strength of nature: a force so immense that it overwhelms us, yet one we so easily forget until we find ourselves in places as awe-inspiring as this.
That is why I believe that every time we visit a place that moves us deeply and reveals life’s sublime beauty, we must remind ourselves of how worthwhile it is to continue caring for the planet we inhabit.
