「世界のごみ捨て場」アタカマ砂漠　生態系に危機的影響　チリ

【イキケＡＦＰ＝時事】生命が存在するとは思えないほど荒涼とした風景が広がるチリのアタカマ砂漠には独自の生態系が存在している。しかし今、世界中から集まるごみの山によって、その繊細な生態系が脅かされている。（写真はチリ・アタカマ砂漠に捨てられた廃車）
　アタカマ砂漠の少なくとも３地域は、衣料品や靴、タイヤ、廃車の墓場と化している。砂漠の町アルトオスピシオのパトリシオ・フェレイラ町長はＡＦＰの取材に対し、「もはや世界のごみ捨て場だ」と嘆く。
　環境ＮＧＯ「エンデミック・ルーツ」の代表、カルメン・セラーノ氏は、アタカマは「資源を搾取し、私腹を肥やす」には都合の良い「草木も生えない不毛の地」と思われていると批判する。

■世界的な意識の低さの犠牲に
　チリは以前から欧州、アジア、米国の古着や売れ残りの衣料が集まる拠点で、それらは南米各地へ転売されるか、砂漠に捨てられている。昨年は、世界中から４万６０００トンを超える古着がチリ北部のイキケ免税区域に流れ込んだ。
　化学物質を素材とし、生分解に２００年もかかるこうした衣類が土壌や大気、地下水を汚染していると環境活動家は指摘する。衣類の山に火が付き、有害物質を排出することもある。
　フェレイラ町長は、「世界的な意識の低さ、倫理的責任の欠如、環境保護への無関心」のせいだと嘆く。「私たちの土地は犠牲にされていると感じます」

■火星に近い地形
　広さ約１０万平方キロのアタカマ砂漠は、８００万年以上前から地球で最も乾燥した場所となっている。
　中でも最も乾燥しているのはユンガイ地区で、基本的に水がなく、太陽が激しく照り付け、栄養となるものもほぼない。しかし、この厳しい環境でも微生物の存在は確認されている。科学者たちは、こうした微生物に地球や他の惑星での進化や生存の秘密が隠されている可能性があると考えている。
　米航空宇宙局（ＮＡＳＡ）はユンガイ地区を地球上で最も火星に近い地形と見なし、探査機のテストに利用している。

■極めてもろい生態系
　アタカマ砂漠の降雨量はごくわずかだが、広い範囲が霧で覆われるため、地球上で最も生命力の強い地衣類、菌類、藻類などは育つ。また数年に一度、例年以上の雨が降ると、色鮮やかな「砂漠の花畑」現象が見られる。
　生態学や生物多様性を研究する現地ＮＰＯの研究員でサボテン専門家のパブロ・ゲレロ氏は、アタカマ砂漠の生態系は「極めてもろい」と話し、「降水量や霧のパターンの変化や減少が生物種に直ちに影響します」と説明した。
　ゲレロ氏は、汚染、気候変動、人の定住の影響で、すでに「絶滅したと思われるサボテン種もある」と言う。「残念ながら（環境は）近年、非常に大きな規模で着実に悪化しています」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/12/26-11:40）

It may be one of the driest places on Earth -- a brutal, alien landscape where life seems impossible.
But Chile's massive Atacama desert is a unique and fragile ecosystem that experts say is being threatened by piles of trash dumped there from around the world.
Mountains of discarded clothing, a graveyard of shoes, and rows upon rows of scrapped tires and cars blight at least three regions of the desert in northern Chile.
We are no longer just the local backyard, but rather the world's backyard, which is worse, Patricio Ferreira, mayor of the desert town of Alto Hospicio, told AFP.
The Atacama, with its striking otherworldly beauty and expansive salt flats, has also been transformed by intensive mining for copper and lithium.
Carmen Serrano, head of the Endemic Roots environmental NGO, said that most people see the Atacama as nothing more than bare hills where they can extract resources or fill their pockets.
- 'Lack of global awareness'-
Chile has long been a hub for secondhand and unsold clothing from Europe, Asia, and the United States, which is either sold on throughout Latin America, or ends up in rubbish dumps in the desert.
Spurred on by the world's insatiable appetite for fast fashion, this chain last year saw over 46,000 tonnes of used clothing funneled into northern Chile's Iquique free trade zone.
Full of chemicals and taking up to 200 years to biodegrade, activists say the clothing pollutes the soil, air and underground water.
The heaps of hand-me-downs are sometimes even set alight.
The material is highly flammable. The fires are toxic, said lawyer and activist Paulin Silva, 34, who has filed a complaint at the country's environmental court over the damage caused by the mountains of trash and clothing.
It seems to me we need to find those responsible, she said, standing amid the discarded items which she said were dangerous, an environmental risk, a danger to people's health.
Used cars also flood into the country from the free trade zone. Many are exported to Peru, Bolivia or Paraguay, while others end up dumped in graveyards kilometers wide in the surrounding desert.
Piles of abandoned tires are also scattered across the desert.
The mayor Ferreira lamented a lack of global awareness, a lack of ethical responsibility and environmental protection from the unscrupulous of the world.
We feel abandoned. We feel that our land has been sacrificed.
- A 'very fragile' ecosystem'-
For more than eight million years, the 100,000 square kilometer expanse of the Atacama has been the most arid desert in the world.
Rain is rare, and in some parts, non-existent.
The driest part is the Yungay district in the city of Antofagasta. Here, scientists have found extreme forms of life, microorganisms that have adapted to a practically waterless world, high levels of solar radiation, and barely any nutrients.
Scientists believe these microorganisms may harbor secrets to evolution and survival on Earth and other planets.
NASA considers the Yungay district to be Earth's most similar landscape to Mars, and uses it to test its robotic vehicles.
While it doesn't receive much rain, large banks of fog roll across the desert, allowing some plants -- and some of the world's hardiest lichens, fungi, and algae -- to grow.
Scores of brightly colored wildflower species bloom when it gets above average rain in a spectacular display that happens every five to seven years, most recently in 2021.
It is an ecosystem that is very fragile, because any change or decrease in the pattern of precipitation and fog has immediate consequences for the species that live there, said Pablo Guerrero, a researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and expert in desert cactus.
There are cactus species which are considered extinct as a result of pollution, climate change, and human settlement.
Unfortunately, it is something we are seeing on a massive scale, with systematic deterioration in recent years.