It could be one of many driest locations on Earth. A brutal, alien panorama the place life appears unimaginable.
However Chile’s huge Atacama desert is a novel and fragile ecosystem that specialists say is being threatened by piles of garbage dumped there from world wide.
Mountains of discarded clothes, a graveyard of footwear, and rows upon rows of scrapped tires and vehicles blight at the very least three areas of the desert in northern Chile.
“We’re not simply the native yard, however slightly the world’s yard, which is worse,” says Patricio Ferreira, mayor of the desert city of Alto Hospicio.
Chile has lengthy been a hub for secondhand and unsold clothes from Europe, Asia, and america, which is both offered all through Latin America or results in garbage dumps within the desert.
Spurred on by the world’s insatiable urge for food for quick trend, this chain final yr noticed over 46,000 tonnes of used clothes funnelled into northern Chile’s Iquique free commerce zone.
Filled with chemical substances and taking as much as 200 years to biodegrade, activists say the clothes pollutes the soil, air and underground water.
