MY EARTH IS BEATING: A photo-collection for climate by LuisaViaRoma, a photojournalistic documentation project created by LuisaViaRoma following EXTREME E, the first electric SUV racing circuit designed to raise awareness of the planet on issues of ecological transition.
Coordinated and shot by World Press Photo winner for environmental issues and National Geographic contributor Luca Locatelli, World Press Photo winner in the Portraits category and National Geographic contributor Gabriele Galimberti and journalist, writer and curator Raffaele Panizza, #myEIB is a project that reinforces LuisaViaRoma’s environmental commitment.
Follow the stories and journeys with us.
ALULA, Saudi Arabia- 3/4 April 2021 – Completed
LAC ROSE, Senegal – 29/30 May 2021 – Completed
KANGERLUSSUAQ, Greenland – 28/29 August 2021 – Completed
NORA and ORISTANO, SARDINIA, Italy – 23/24 October 2021 – Completed
DORSET, Great Britain – December 18/19, 2021
SARDINIA EDITION: THE NATURAL BRICKS OF THE WORLD
Don’t invent, replant. Don’t build, sew. Not expensive technologies available only to a few, but nature – aided by the hand of humanity- which medicates itself USING ITS OWN HOMEOPATHY OF ROOTS, LEAVES AND OXYGEN.
After the reportages on desertification in Saudi Arabia, on the Climate Superheroes in Greenland and after documenting the massive reforestation of mangroves in Central Senegal – emblematic stories of human beings saving the planet using its own natural building blocks of the planet itself – My Earth Is Beating #myEIB lands in Sardinia, between Nora and Oristano, to recount the events of forest fires as well as the commitment of NGOs and local institutions such as the MadSea Foundation and Area Marina Protetta di Capo Carbonara in protecting an ecosystem regarded as the “Amazon” of the seabed: the prairies of Posidonia Oceanica.
The Mediterranean is rich in biodiversity and the Italian islands as well. But the damage inflicted is constant and the causes are many: the phenomena of acidification of the seas, the indiscriminate work of recreational boats that drop anchors and dredge the seabed and the scars left by fishing nets endanger the survival of its ecosystem. Not only the fire on the surface, but also the underwater claws of carelessness and economic greed risk depriving our world of its biodiversity, both onshore and underwater.
“Fifty-ton fishing boats violate the regulations and cast their nets dangerously,” says Piero Congiu, a fisherman from Calaverde, “so the Posidonia Preteria plant dies, the fish no longer find shelter to grow or to lay their eggs, and our whole world slowly disappears.”
It’s not an algae, as most assume, but an underwater plant that proliferates near the coast, not deeper than 40 meters. It goes through chlorophyll photosynthesis and captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, responsible for global warming. In turn, it produces flowers and fruits. It produces twice as much oxygen as terrestrial plants. Its roots stabilize the seabed. The Posidonia Preteria plant acts as a shield and nursery for many marine species. During sea storms, when the leaves torn by the waves cover the beaches, it forms a soft carpet that acts as a barrier capable of protecting the coast from erosion.
«People need to understand that a white beach, as the Caribbean vision would have it, is not necessarily a healthy beach,” says Alessio Satta, environmental engineer and president of MadSea Foundation, “instead, we promote the concept of an ‘ecological beach’ where every natural phenomenon is left intact to constitutes the landscape’s beauty».
Where the Posidonia Preteria has been uprooted there are underwater replanting projects, at sites such as at Capo Carbonara, Nora and the Maldiventre Island. Along the desert strips left by nets and anchors, divers and biologists dig small holes in which they lovingly deposit posidonia cuttings, which over the years will flourish to create a new meadow.
The images captured by Luca Locatelli, like those shot in the Senegalese mangrove reforestation, recount the work and story of loving ecological tailoring, a planetary strategy of NATURAL RESILIENCE.
Sardinia, reforestation, blue oxygen, green carbon, the future… US. This is the fourth in a long series of stories of crisis and environmental advocacy documented by MYEIB.
The Photojournal from Sardinia
THIS DREAM IS NOT A DREAM
“Don’t be afraid, brush it with your fingers, let its autumn leaves give your skin the chills”.
Valeria, the last mermaid of Capo Carbonara (southern Sardinia), teaches human beings not to be afraid of the dark shadow of the Posidonia oceanica meadows, an underwater reserve of oxygen threatened by trawling, acidification of the water and the anchors of boats.
In the last 50 years, the meadows have regressed by 34% in the Mediterranean Sea and by 25% along the Italian coasts. Reforestation initiatives are already underway which will allow fish to find refuge again. And for Valeria, not to leave her home.
NATURE IS SAVED WITH NATURE
MILLENIA IN SMOKE
Under its open-air “reanimation tent”, a symbol of the fires that have devastated Sardinia and Montiferru, the thousand-year-old olive tree of Cuglieri is now fighting for its survival.
Until three months ago people came to its presence to touch its branches and take in the eternity it embodies. Nowadays many leave notes of stubborn hope: “You are a living soul, please recover”.
“The fires are not an isolated case but a signal for the Mediterranean,” explains Valentina Bocciu, a researcher at the CNR, “the crops are backward, the forest areas are growing as well as the aridity: the flames find fuel and the burning season has lengthened by a month”.
Meanwhile, botanists Ignazio Camarda and Gianluigi Bacchetta have devised a structure to retain moisture and try to save the plant. “It won’t come back the way it was, but The Patriarch will live.”
OXYGEN FOR OXYGEN
Under the seabed of Nora (southern Sardinia), marine biologist Francesca Frau of MedSea Foundation plants posidonia oceanica cuttings in a stretch of sea where everything has been ripped up by anchors and trawling nets.
Oxygen for oxygen. Every square meter of meadow will give 20 liters of H20 every day. A job of patience, working root by root, for an ecosystem that cannot wait.
Considered the “Amazonian forest” of the Mediterranean, this underwater plant captures CO2 from the atmosphere, regulates the acidity of the water, gives shelter to marine species and filters microplastics. Moreover, when its leaves are deposited on the beach, it protects the coasts from erosion.
Between Capo Carbonara and Chia, advocates such as Extreme E and Luna Rossa Challenge will finance intense replanting projects. A natural resilience for the future of the planet.
A THIN LINE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH
Along the main road 15 towards Santu Lussurgiu (Western Sardinia) the line that divides life from death is not that clear anymore. On one side stand the carbonized cork oaks, which, in their touching resilience, still manage to grow leaves. On the other side are the almost intact woods, protected by the yellowed leaves, discolored by heat of the flames.
Never before seen levels of heat fueled the fires that took place on the western Sardinia last summer, burning to ashes 20 thousand hectares of woods and olive groves. 30 million bees and 500 beehives were too vaporized in that hell. And they won’t be able to contribute to the place’s rebirth ever again.
AN ITALIAN DEATH VALLEY
«The Azores anticyclone retreat has determined a change in the winds and now fires are fueled by the hot African air» explains Daniela Pani, director of the Italian Civil Protection, «our valleys face the South: due to this unfortunate coincidence, the flames find no obstructions”. In the fires that devastated Sardinia from July to October 2021, many warehouses have released a carcinogenic substance: asbestos, never cleaned, used in construction. The consequences caused by ecological neglect are endless.
GOD WILLING
Amongst the ancient, heat-smoldered olive trees, only the white walls of a small church on top of the Cuglieri hill survived the fires that struck the Sardinian Montiferru region.
In the village, the flames engulfed homes and invaded the piazza. During the month of July many families had to be evacuated.
“From the top of the Basilica di Santa Maria ad Nives one can see the catastrophic damage produced by this apocalyptic fire,” said local parish priest Don Mario Piras, “It is a devastatingly spectral scene.”
IF THE HILL CRUMBLES
After a bend in the road, the carbonized forest of holm oaks suddenly opens, as we head up towards Scano Montiferro.
Walking between the stripped tree trunks and stones, our boots sink into the soft layers of fresh ash, which have yet to be compacted into a more solid surface: “When it rains, without the roots that held the land together, the entire hillside risks sliding into the valley,” warns forest technician Carlo Poddi, who is in charge of charting the damage caused by the fires which broke out in Sardinia during the summer of 2021.
Amongst the web of tree branches, however, there is hope: the Pistacia lentiscus, a Mediterranean evergreen shrub, lives on alongside blackberry bushes, asparagus plants, and broom trees. Even the gnarled cork oaks seem not to have given up.
Credits:
Coordinated and shot by World Press Photo winner and National Geographic contributor Luca Locatelli.
Shot by World Press Photo winner and National Geographic contributor Gabriele Galimberti.
Coordinated and narrated by the journalist, writer and curator Raffaele Panizza.
