The Atacama Desert in Chile has become a tomb for the world’s trash, and the mounds of clothing, automobiles, and shoes could impede space exploration.
This is one of Earth’s driest locations, but scientists have discovered bacteria that have adapted to the nearly waterless environment, which could provide hints on how to locate life on Mars and comparable planets.
This research is in jeopardy since Atacama is a dumping ground for used and unsold clothing from the United States, Europe, and Asia; each year, more than 46,000 tonnes of clothing are thrown in the desert.
Used automobiles also flood the country from the free trade zone, only to be heaped in the desert, while abandoned tires dot the countryside.
Patricio Ferreira, mayor of the desert village of Alto Hospicio, told AFP, “We are no longer just the local backyard, but rather the global backyard, which is terrible.”
The Atacama Desert is situated between the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range, which prevents rainfall from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from penetrating the interior.
And despite being one of the driest regions on the planet, one million people call this bleak area home.
However, the vast Atacama Desert in Chile is a unique and delicate ecosystem that, according to scientists, is threatened by heaps of waste thrown there from across the world.
The fast fashion business is mostly responsible for the mountains of clothing that have accumulated on otherwise desolate slopes.
According to environmentalists, clothing containing chemicals and requiring up to 200 years to biodegrade pollutes soil, air, and groundwater.
The substance is extremely combustible. The fires are toxic,’ said Paulin Silva, a 34-year-old lawyer, and activist who has filed a lawsuit with the country’s environmental court about the damage caused by the trash and garment mountains.
It appears to me that we need to discover those guilty,” she said as she stood among the abandoned items, which she described as “hazardous, an environmental hazard, and a health hazard.
Combined with the piles of automobiles and tires, the environment is awash in the garbage.
Ferreira regretted that “the unscrupulous of the world” lacked “global knowledge, ethical duty, and environmental protection.”
We feel forsaken. She stated, “We feel that our land has been sacrificed.”
Although vegetation and animals are few in the Yungay sector of Antofagasta, scientists have discovered that microorganisms are prospering.
These microorganisms have adapted to a dearth of water, high quantities of solar radiation, and almost no nutrients through evolution.
For the normal person, their capacity to live may not be particularly interesting, but for scientists, these life forms may hold secrets regarding evolution and survival on Earth and other worlds.
NASA uses the Yungay area to test its robotic vehicles because it has the most similar terrain to Mars on Earth.
In 2017, the American space agency tested an early iteration of its Perseverance rover, which is presently looking for ancient traces of life on the Red Planet.
Because the landscape is similar to Mars, the digging capabilities of the rover were tested in the desert to guarantee they would work on the Martian planet.
In addition, the UV exposure in the Atacama closely matches what the rover is experiencing.
Large banks of fog drift across the desert, allowing some plants to flourish, as well as some of the world’s most tenacious lichens, fungi, and algae.
In a dazzling exhibition that occurs every five to seven years, most recently in 2021, dozens of kinds of colorful wildflowers bloom when there is above-average rainfall.
According to Pablo Guerrero, a researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and an expert in desert cacti, the environment is very delicate’ because any change or reduction in the pattern of precipitation and fog has immediate effects on the species that dwell there.
Due to pollution, climate change, and human settlement, there are cactus species that are deemed extinct.
