The blooming desert or ‘El desierto florido’ in Spanish, is a millenarian climate pattern caused by El Niño that warms the surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and creates the conditions for rain in the Altiplano and the Atacama Desert, north of Chile. After some millimeters of abundant rain, a rich biotic community emerges, and in a matter of hours or days, the driest surface on Earth becomes an impressive colorful habitat for more than two hundred different species (...) of eye-catching flowers that host the desert biotic life. Unfortunately, this breathtaking display of colors coexists with less appealing but equally astonishing landscapes. The Atacama Desert harbors the largest accumulation of discarded clothing worldwide and the largest pools of lithium mining which require vast amounts of water for their production. Every year, approximately 56,000 tons of used clothing, predominantly consisting of fast fashion polyester products, water-intensive cotton fabrics, and equally polluting material scraps, are deposited, forming toxic mountains of waste. This article presents an interpretation of these distinct landscapes as interconnected realities of the dump that illustrate the impact of biocultural semiocides, whereby the loss of relationships and meanings with Earth materials is shaped by glocal forces. By making this argument, the article contends that the Atacama region replicates the conditions of the Earth as a global dumping and solastalgia, namely ‘the pain caused by the loss of solace and the sense of desolation connected to one´s home and territory.’. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship between the problem of dis/harmony in Jakob von Uexküll’s Umwelt theory and the inclusion of experiences of disability, disease, or trauma, in said theory. It starts with discussions of dis/harmony and dis/ability in Uexküllian studies, from Uexüll’s very own work on Umwelt theory to the contemporary commentaries and studies of said theory. It first articulates how Uexküll’s focus on harmony provided poor conditions to account for dis/ability, while commenting on points where Uexküll offered direct engagement (...) with or openness to situations of dis/harmony and dis/ability. It then forays into post-Uexküllian research on dis/ease and pathology and suggests that the work of Weizsäcker, Kurt Goldstein and Georges Canguilhem might constitute a useful step aside to allow Umwelt theory better to account for these situations. From then on, the article shows how contemporary investigations into the mutability of Umwelten in the context of the ecological crisis allows for the development of a phenomenology of Umwelt crises and trauma. Finally, the ethological dimension of Umwelt theory is taken up as a way to formulate a philosophy of intra-specific ethological diversity and ethological divergence, and the example of autism is read into the theoretical framework of Umwelt thinking. (shrink)