Deep Dive into the End of the World: Sustainability in Tierra del Fuego
By Lauren Rodriguez
“In Patagonia, those who love the earth and these mountains and oceans see the importance of protecting the environment. But those who are far away from this beauty… do not.”
Compared to the towering mountains surrounding us, the island I ambled along while having this conversation was a drop in the freezing cold ocean. Mosses so delicate they only grew a millimeter a year surrounded my feet, and the sound of sea lions singing to each other rang in my ears. The sun had only just risen above the ridges of the snow capped Andes, and yet it was on its way back down again, preparing to settle in for the (second) longest night of the year.
This is the end of the world.
Ushuaia is the southernmost city on planet Earth. Just a breath away from Antarctica, the port city in the Argentinian region of Tierra del Fuego has been the last peek of human civilization many explorers have seen before embarking south to the uninhabited frozen continent. Ushuaia is a city rooted in historical relevance and tradition, and blooms with its sense of community and breathtaking, humbling natural setting.
Before Ushuaia turned into the small city it is today, it was a prison town, the end of civilization being deemed a perfect place to send Argentinian convicts. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the environment at the bottom of the world tempted scientists and adventurers for centuries before that, from Magellen to Charles Darwin. And of course, long before European travelers touched Ushuaia, natives of the Southern Cone held the bottom of South America as their own. The brutal winters were fared by Yamana natives not with clothing, but through the consumption of sea lions. The Yamana people spent their days on canoes, searching the icy channels for their next source of survival, while the biologically rich region thrived alongside them. Various species of whales, sea lions, penguins and condors filled the ocean, land and sky, sharing a seemingly brutal space as their home.
I went into this environment not knowing what to expect, but anticipating a place unlike anything I had seen before. A big question did go in with though, was this. Ushuaia is a coastal urban hub dependent on fishing, and sandwiched in between glacier-rich Patagonia and Antarctica; and some of the most pressing environmental problems on a global scale are sea level rise, glacial melting, plastic in the oceans, and energy-hungry cities. As a city that checks all of these boxes on their list of concerns, how does one of the most unusual places in the world fare the most common and pervasive of environmental issues?
Ushuaia, and the country of Argentina, have established impressive and progressive conservation policies, nature reserves and social standards to preserve the environment. Even in the face of intense political disagreement regarding the economy, congress under President Macri was able to successfully pass conservation legislation that protects waters surrounding Tierra del Fuego. This has helped to move Argentina closer to their target of 10% of national waters protected, as pledged to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Additionally, federal and provincial governments have steadily developed legislation or guidelines on biogas development in the agricultural sector, capping emissions in the transport sector and encouraging sustainable government procurement.
In Ushuaia specifically, public parks are large and well managed, and on the private end, many local hotels and private businesses own their own natural spaces, encouraging residents or guests to explore less traveled upon ground, and dispersing human impact away from the most touched upon tourist locations.
Transportation wise, Ushuaia has a strong public transportation system given the size and relatively low population of the area. And while the bus system is centered around residents and avoids many touristy areas, hotels in the city often provide private bus services for guests and staff to cut down on inefficient travel.
Lastly, local businesses provide more than a space for cold residents and tourists alike to warm their feet. The most popular food in Ushuaia restaurants is locally caught seafood, and while it is a port town, travel in and out of the city is limited, thus resources are often sourced locally to maximize efficiency. Businesses particularly popular with tourists, such as boat or train tour companies, enforce social standards of sustainability as the default, making it the standard to pack in and pack out in the naturally rich national parks, and having stringent waste management rules aboard- different labels for plastic waste, food waste, metal waste, etc. Each material is valued. And one of the most iconic destinations in Ushuaia, “the lighthouse at the end of the world”, is ran on solar power.
Despite all of this, as in other countries, well-intended legislation and technological advances don’t always reach every corner of a designated region. While talking to a local Ushuaian about the community sense of urgency regarding climate change and environmental degradation, she divulged that unfortunately, change isn’t often prioritized if a threat isn’t seen with one’s own eyes. Thus, those who are engaging heavily with the outdoors and are invested in Ushuaia’s historical legacy of people and biodiversity fight actively for progressive moves, but many are preoccupied with their day to day commitments. Even problems that are felt by everyone, plastic in the waters being an example, can be legislated against and still have a presence, as is what happened with local legislation that was supposed to curtail single use plastics in restaurants, and hasn’t been thoroughly enforced. But there is hope, especially when engagement with other countries’ technological solutions is present. “Other countries are beginning to make plastics out of plants that biodegrade into the land,” my tour guide told me. “We could have that, too.”
