Tabacalera Promoción del Arte Embajadores, 51. Madrid Chantal Maillard From ecology to ecosophy 03 Exhibition Organised by Eva Lootz Subdirección General de Promoción de las Bellas Artes Ministerio de Educación Cultura y Deporte

Curator Isabel Tejeda

Coordination Raúl Alonso Sáez Coordination Assistant Ruth Castaño

Exhibition design Aurora Herrera Raquel Gutiérrez Camera Operator Francisco José Gómez

Video editing Adolf Alcañiz

Photographic copies Cloro!la Digital Exhibition set-up Artec Exposiciones

Power point Eva Lootz Marta Alcalde

Graphic production Vintec Audio-visual materials salt 10 Salas Audiovisual Lighting copper 16 Intervento water 22 Transport DobelArt electricity 32 Insurance Martínez y Tríbez

Communication José María Parreño The Salt Poem 10; Water Sutra 24 Conchita Sánchez Isaías Griñolo Cancer 42 Juan Cobos Wilkins Culture against Contamination Manifesto 43 Catalogue Texts Eva Lootz Questions to José Manuel Naredo 44 Juan Cobos Wilkins Isaías Griñolo Isabel Tejeda And beyond, on the other side of the Earth: Eva Lootz Chantall Maillard the language of water 60 José Manuel Naredo José María Parreño Isabel Tejeda

Coordination Raúl Alonso

Layout grá!ca futura

Photographs in Tabacalera Andrés Arranz Manuel Blanco

Communication Conchita Sánchez Paloma Ballesteros

MINISTERIO DE EDUCACIÓN, CULTURA Y DEPORTE

Published by © SECRETARÍA GENERAL TÉCNICA Subdirección General de Documentación y Publicaciones

© Eva Lootz, VEGAP, Madrid, 2016 © de los textos, sus autores © de las imágenes, sus autores

NIPO: 030-16-380-9 Depósito legal: M-11790-2016

2 The song of the earth Chantal Maillard

There is no need to mention justice where injustice doesn’t exist, nor tolerance where there is mutual respect. Nor would it be necessary to speak of ecology if it weren’t for the need to defend an eco-system in peril. Yet, is ecology the answer to the problem? Whether we like it or not, the term «ecology» de!nes us. It is the result of an anthropocentric concept that distinguishes between human beings and sets us apart from the rest of the planet. Kitarô Nishida’s critical re"ection on the ethics of human rights could be extrapolated to ecology: such ethics, he said, are incapable of de!nitively solving the problems of the world because they form part of a dichotomic understanding whereas the problems between human beings must be resolved through vacuity, that makes it possible to understand each other from the same. The protection of nature, children and animals is the paternalistic expression of a tradition rooted in the control and domination of the environment, based on the Biblical idea that the earth is at the service of «man». Taking a leaf out of Raimundo Panikkar’s book we should speak not of eco-logy but of eco-sophy. Rather than dominating and protecting, we should return to feeling, hearing, smelling and even understanding by smelling, knowing by feeling. Smell the grass and walk on it the way a temple is walked on in the East: barefoot. Return to oikos: the house, the most common. Oiko- sophy: wisdom about the house, the habitat, which is not what we possess but what we form part of. So!a instead of logos: wisdom rather than learning, integration rather than discourse. Intuitive wisdom from the common root, in which others, the other, is understood in likeness. Conscious wisdom, not understanding; from the moist depths, not from the dryness of the mind. Wisdom of oikos: ecosophy.

From ecology to ecosophy Chantall Maillard 3 4

Acknowledgements Archivo Provincial Histórico de Huelva; Colección fotográ!ca Compañía Río Tinto Marta Alcalde; Adolf Alcañiz; Raúl Alonso; Kanako – Manuel Agujetas; Joaquín Burghalter; Juan Cobos Wilkins; Pepe Gómez; Isaías Griñolo; Raquel Gutiérrez; Fernando López García; Chantal Maillard; Carlos Martínez Frías; Juan Carlos Melero; José Luis Montero; José Manuel Naredo; Tony Ortiz; José María Parreño; José María Ródenas; Ramón Salazar; José Sierra; Francisco de la Vega This exhibition was possible thanks to the collaboration of Iberinox 88 and RGH Mayoristas de hierros y metales

Eva Lootz «... wasn’t it rather an escape route

The Song of the Earth is a Hannah Darboven, whom that was being glance at the current state herself confessed that instead of of the planet; recounted reading novels, she developed created to get away through copper, salt, water a penchant for maths books, in “our” own way to and electricity. Elena Asins for algorithms The echo of a music composed before anyone else and Esther undertake a line of slightly over a century ago Ferrer for the freedom of reverberates in the title, the poking fun at the traditional art complicity with the symphony of the same name offered to her by Zaj. by Gustav Mahler, for which In my case, it was those “other”?» the composer was inspired by “other” cultures studied a series of works by Chinese in anthropology that poets such as Li Tai-Po or have fascinated me since Wang Wei, all masters of what adolescence. Ever since that current-day, young sociologists conference on pygmies that would term “luxurious my mother took me to, my poverty”. enthusiastic reaction to which This exhibition is intrinsically led her to register me with the linked to an early intuition, Friends of Ethnology Society; that more or less coincides I was thirteen or fourteen with my early years in Spain back then… in which a first trip to Riotinto From that moment on I played a central role as it never missed a single one reaffirmed my suspicion that of the conferences given by the earth’s elements and their ethnologists returning from properties precede ideas as their exploration trips in the the orchestrators of human splendid hall of the Imperial destinies, that is, it is the Palace given over to the materials that “make up the Museum of Ethnology where, world” and prefigure the history by the way, Moctezuma’s of mankind, as the earth always headdress is kept, resting comes first and humans second; discreetly in one of the display we are a late species that needs cases back then, whereas to adapt and indeed does adapt nowadays it has its very own to what it finds on earth. sort of chapel, a place of Over time I’ve come to pilgrimage for all Mexicans understand that the world passing through Vienna. view, as conveyed by history is It could be said that plagued with blind spots and anthropology (and the the fact that some parts are ethnology museums bear never seen as they lack words witness to this) was invented to has always caught my attention. create a dividing line between I believe that the female the civilised, what is “ours” and artists of my generation, by the “other”, the “primitive”, to rejecting the models society thus highlight the fact that it is had prepared for us to identify “us” who handle the discourse, with, have been pushed relegating the others to passive towards atypical and marginal objects; but for the women territories, like for instance who were, to put it one way,

Mines of Riotinto, Corta Corta Atalaya, undated. Atalaya, partial view Archivo Histórico (undated). Photographic Provincial de Huelva collection Compañía Río Tinto > Detail of Corta Atalaya, Riotinto (Huelva). May 2014. © Foto E.L.

6 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 7 “second-class citizens” and only Hence, my first work reflects marginally formed part of that an attention to the processes, “us” wasn’t it rather an escape the works are the result of route that was being created to rudimentary manipulations, a get away in “our” own way and catalogue of verbs that denote undertake a route of complicity “making” prevails: to cut, to with the “other”? fold, to stick, to wet, to tie, Cases like that of Margaret to crease, to pull, to melt, to Mead the great anthropologist assemble. who married a tribal chief Naturally, this converged with provide food for thought. a certain art trend at the end In any case, as an adolescent of the sixties, that of recording I was more interested in fox the traces left, the indexing hunting in the Mongolian of art, along with the glorious grassland, in how Eskimo liberation thanks to John Cage, canoes were built or the songs Mauricio Kagel or Marcel of the Nambikwara than Duchamp of being able to the adult conversations that make art out of anything, of not surrounded me or the society having to be able to draw apples dances I was obliged to attend. or nudes. So why didn’t I go on to become But that was in the early an anthropologist? Because of seventies and a long time has an innate wish to make. gone by since then. But to make in a way that had In this exhibition, three decisive nothing to do with the demands matters and one invention that to produce. is the consequence of them are at play: And above all: I didn’t want to acquire academic knowledge or become an expert in the Copper, salt, water classifications of the so-called and electricity “savages”, but rather I wanted Nobody currently questions to make in a “savage” way and the fact that fossil fuels are there was a certain element the strategic resource par of violence and rejection of excellence, and that the purpose tradition in it. of modern-day wars is to ensure To make each thing’s potential access to and ownership of oil blossom, which required as a limited resource that is meticulous observation, exactly running out … as the so-called “primitives” But water and copper are hot did, so at a given point I must on its heels in terms of future have decided that I was my very strategic importance. own “savage”… And salt, the beauty of its In my case, given how dubious crystals aside, reveals relevant and tangled the subjectivity aspects of the past, showing of the day was and how up certain pillars of what problematic the governing continues to constitute us as a metaphysics, I grabbed onto the society even today. properties of matter: that salt attracts water, that heat melts wax, that mercury amalgamates gold are unquestionable facts independent of any interpretation.

Detail of copper cables > Mundo, Seco, Benamor, Amarga, Sala Verónicas, Murcia, 2009. © Foto Javier Salinas

8 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 9 Salt, that !re in the wound In subsistence economies this with that taste Salt not only provides the division of labour categories does not exist. it should be red origin of the word salary, the with that colour beginnings of remunerated Might this be why the pressure employment, the creation currently brought to bear on the it should be dull of monopolies, the payment few native communities, also of taxes, but also changes as known as indigenous, governed yet radical as those caused by the by a subsistence economy in white and ardent harmony with the earth is so French Revolution or Indian is salt Independence process, in which brutal and implacable? protests against the salt tax were But let’s have a look at a different the one a triggering and fundamental aspect. factor. as much as the other At one point or another, we have Additionally, the invention of the almost all enjoyed the splendour is salt salary had a considerable effect of the Venetian palaces, the on women’s lives. Titians, the Tintorettos, the that is: As Silvia Federici indicates in Tiepolos and we have paused to pure 1 her book Caliban and the witch , admire the mysterious patina of contradiction the introduction of paid work their mirrors, but few know the gave rise to the sexual division origin of the power and wealth pure of employment while at the of the Most Serene Republic of contravention same time, to a certain extent, Venice, Queen of the Adriatic. and always laying the foundations for the Salt is the origin. pure development of capitalism. At the end of the day, it came From that point on, those men down to a handful of terrified delirious synaesthesia not in possession of lands sold people who took refuge from the de!ance of the predictable their physical strength to work Barbarian invasion in a lagoon and women were dedicated to and a string of islands along the procreation. coast. Surrounded by seawater that is: Thus work was distributed on all sides, they decided to take reality between production and re- advantage of the salt. They used production. There was the to trade it with their neighbours salary and the no-salary. Women on dry land and over time it were left on the side of no- became a prosperous business, The salt poem remuneration and later on, with they eliminated any possible José María Parreño capitalism at its peak, apart rivals and took over the Veneto from the profits generated by region and the entire Po Valley. slavery in the colonies, wives They soon realised that to put worked for free and the rest of a stop to the competition and the women, whether as servants maintain their monopoly they or prostitutes, were forced to would need a militant branch. remain in the cheap labour And so little by little they sector, thus increasing the became a military power, going employer’s, the boss’s profit, as so far as to control the entire he was the owner of the means spice trade and dominate the of production. Eastern Mediterranean.

1— Silvia Federici: Calibán y Salario, installation in Sa > las brujas. Mujeres, cuerpos Nostra, Formentera, 2004. Salario, installation y acumulación originaria. © Foto Pins Formentera in Tabacalera, 2016. Tra!cantes de sueños. 2004 © Foto M.B.

>> Salario, installation in Sa Nostra, Formentera, 2004. © Foto Pins Formentera

10 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 11 12 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 13 The Venetians were the ones It is equally important to to make salt exploitation and remember in this place the trade an economic model, and famous “salt march” undertaken with the invention of the salt by Gandhi, when surrounded by tax or duty, they created an his followers and undertaking adopted model for the rest of a 400 km march on foot, he the European countries, where walked up to the sea’s edge to it became a Royal monopoly, pick up a handful of salt, product from the XIII century on. As of the seawater evaporation, Pierre Lászlo2 says: the salt thus breaching the prohibition trade was the model on which imposed by the English that the economic history of Europe condemned the population would be built over the next to buy salt from them at an three or four centuries. Hence, exorbitant price, finally leading, the salt duty provides the after much give and take, predecessor for both our direct to the declaration of India’s and indirect taxes. independence in 1947. And, as I have already Salt is present in the mentioned, the corruption and exhibition in a series of inequalities of the tax collection photos taken in 1984 in the system in the former French salt lakes of Torrevieja and regime, this hated levy, was one through the piece “Salario”. of the triggers of the French Revolution and was the first to be abolished on its triumph.

«... the salt trade was the model on which the economic history of Europe would be built over the next three or four centuries »

2—Pierre Lázslo: Salt: grain Salt lakes of Torrevieja, > of life. 2002 Alicante, 1984. Mechanism for removing © Foto E.L. piled up salt, salt lakes of Torrevieja, Alicante, 1984. © Foto E.L.

>> Corta Atalaya, Riotinto (Huelva). May 2014. © Foto E.L.

14 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 15 16 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 17 Riotinto, the mute Cyclops? German capital, and reached One of the most important sites its peak at the start of the XX of copper mineral is located century. on the Iberian Peninsula: the In 1876, a train line was opened Iberian Pyrite Belt in the SW of to transport the mineral to the the province of Huelva that also port of Huelva and around 1889 extends far into Portugal. Río Tinto became the biggest Mineral has been extracted open air mine in the world and and metal smelted around the biggest mineral exporter Riotinto since the times in Europe. Corta Atalaya was of the Tartessians and the created, a vast crater with a Phoenicians. It is a place in maximum diameter of 1200 which archaeometallurgy has metres and a depth of 350 succeeded in studying the metres. An overwhelming development of mining from hole that is nowadays partially pre-history to the present day. inundated, bearing visible This extraordinary site has not witness to the initial magnitude only provided copper but also of the Second Industrial silver, gold and even platinum Revolution, a “negative 3 in its different exploitation monument” par excellence . phases. They say that it was Towards 1908, it employed from here that King Salomon around 16,465 workers from took full loads of precious all over the country, but owing metals in vessels that, to take to the dire working conditions full advantage of the trip, had and the health risk in Riotinto, anchors of silver. strikes were common though In Roman times, metal harshly repressed by the extraction was remarkable as the English directors with the numerous waste dumps found help of the Guardia Civil, the show, the mines were worked by bloodiest of which was in 1888, the slaves and better techniques the famous “year of the shots”, were introduced, such as the use though those of 1907 and 1913, of the Archimedes screw and the year that marked the start the construction of waterwheels of the union struggles, and 1920 to evacuate the subterranean were no less important. waters. With this history, Huelva Following a long stop during deserves a place of honour in the years of Muslim dominion, the history of social struggles, in which these lands were it was the first site of a used only for the manufacture massive protest that we would of dyes, the mines were currently term “ecological”, “rediscovered” during the because at the root of those reign of Philip II, but did not strikes were the “teleras”, actually become operative the open-air calcination of again until after the War of the copper mineral which is Independence, largely due to so highly contaminating and the difficulty of transporting harmful for health. the mineral to the sea. Nonetheless, we would be In the XIX century, exploitation wrong to think that almost became more intense with the 100 years after these strikes creation of an international the social issues and protests consortium, the Rio Tinto against pollution have been Company Ltd., a British definitively resolved in the initiative financed with largely Huelva region. The fact is

3—Eva Lootz. Escultura Discovery of the remains > negativa. La O!cina de Arte y of a Roman waterwheel. El valor del cobre (detail), Ediciones y Fundación Arte y Photo: Wikipedia Tabacalera, 2016. Mecenazgo, Madrid, 2014 © Foto: A.A. Corta Atalaya, partial view, undated. Colección fotográ!ca Compañía Río Tinto

18 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 19 that on top of the unconfessed have is their bodies, their anger toxic dumps in the old mines, and will to live protected from unexploited since 2001, there the radioactivity, the nitrates, is also the pollution caused by the lead, the cobalt, the mercury the chemical pole of Huelva, and who knows how many installed in 1964 close to the other harmful substances in Odiel estuary with a view to the air that they inhale and the “developing” an economically water they drink4. depressed area. Yet it has been Copper, a warm-looking metal, strongly opposed, particularly can be infinitely recycled. in recent years, by a population that has experienced a It is the best known electricity significant increase in the conductor and 65% of its number of cancer cases in the production is used for area as well as a generalised electricity. decline in health due to the 20 million tonnes are produced environmental pollution. worldwide per year. Chile is Recently, the company Emed the world’s biggest copper Tartessos has re-started the producer. mining exploitation of the Cerro In the Huelva region, in the Colorado, Atlantic Copper metallurgic complex on the continues with its large-scale banks of the Odiel estuary, one copper refining production, million tonnes of concentrated and in the Nerva area a project mineral are transformed into to increase the capacity of the 300,000 tonnes of refined toxic waste dump operated copper; this means around by Befesa has been approved, 700,000 tonnes of slag giving while Fertiberia, responsible rise to the problem of waste for the phosphogypsum stack storage. beside the Odiel estuary, has But copper is not the only been sentenced to stop the thing produced here. On its spillage and clean up the area website, Freeport-Mc MoRan, by the Spanish High Court. the American shareholder of This is a sadly classic issue: the Atlantic Copper claims to be power of capital against life. the second producer of copper Those operating in the area in the world, the number one are the major multinational producer of molybdenum and corporations which strictly an important cobalt producer, follow the rules of advanced yet it also produces gold, oil and capitalism, that is, their priority natural gas. is to increase profits however In the exhibition, copper much they might finance is present both in the research projects, use images of shape of large copper bales flying pink flamingos on their compressed into blocks websites and publish a Yearly while waiting to be smelted Environmental Declaration. again, through the current All of the power is photos of Corta Atalaya, concentrated in their hands, Cerro Colorado and the they are pampered by the waste grounds of Befesa, the Administration managers as installation La Mina and the their economic results affect power point on the history of the national statistics and the Riotinto mines. comparatively the only defence the inhabitants of the place

4—The !ght for El valor del cobre, > decontamination is Tabacalera, 2016. Detail of Cerro Colorado, represented by di"erent © Foto M.B. Riotinto (Huelva). groups, among which the May 2014. © Foto E.L. Mesa de la ría de Huelva is one Cerro Colorado, Riotinto of the most active, its members (Huelva). May 2014. >> have been !ghting against © Foto E.L. Still from the video of the the current state of things, piece Tajo, Tajuña, Alagón, have repeatedly reported the Jarama, 2016 multinationals, from Atlantic Cooper to Fertiberia to the EC, with little or no results and hardly any repercussion in the country’s general conscience.

20 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 21 22 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 23 The “apprentice” river In this time, I’ve discovered blood of the world that the hydraulic policy data is Madrid’s river, the modest often contradictory, unreliable green mother and occasionally scorned and difficult to gain access to. lying with the sun Manzanares, forms part of the Tagus River basin, the longest Something that should be as in the alcoves of the trunks river on the Iberian Peninsula. “transparent as water” actually and your son is the air that we breathe It is part of an extensive system isn’t when it comes to water with a thousand tributaries itself. midwife of the bones in both Spain and Portugal. Obviously, the underlying of all fruit trees It forms a gigantic basin and question behind all of this is transparent muscle its waters quench the thirst the debate on the privatisation of both Madrid and Lisbon’s of water. In cities such as Paris, that raises up the wood inhabitants. Lyon, Potsdam first and then and softens the mountains Those of us who live in the Berlin, like in so many other with age-old caresses Madrid region, have the sad cities, the citizen movement has privilege of coexisting with the succeeded in re-municipalising quivering re"ection that turns to steam two most polluted rivers in the the use of water and returning country: the Manzanares and competence over the same to steam that ultimately turns the Jarama, followed by the public control. to the marble of the clouds Henares and the Guadarrama5. carved by the light Water is present in the exhibition through the to be spun together then names of the most significant to weave the seasons and !nally tributaries of the Tagus be rocked wide awake in a hand in the piece “Tajo, Tajuña, Alagón, Jarama”, using a map water that of the hydrographic basin, a quenches and cleanses all waterfall filmed in the area forever seeking the deepest depths where the rivers Cifuentes water willing and Tagus meet, but also in the names of the over to stop being water two-hundred dams in the to be something else basin and the years of their construction, reservoirs that guide me give me use the water for irrigation, your detachment from shapes to generate electricity and to cool nuclear plants, rendering your diligence your discretion your force a series of data normally listen to me beyond the reach of the when I pray to a drop majority visible. My work has revolved around the rivers and water roughly Water Sutra since the year 2005, translating José María Parreño this data into sculpture, honing in on a new visibility made possible thanks to the use of computer technology. water 5—The Spanish Hydrological us to deduce the number of Video recording of the > >> Plan considers the waters rivers that fail to meet the 2015 piece Tajo, Tajuña, Alagón, Partial view of the Video still of the piece of the Manzanares and the period required by the WFD Jarama, 2016. © Foto: installation Mundo, Seco, Tajo, Tajuña, Alagón, Jarama rivers “unsuitable for (Water Framework Directive) Fernando López García Benamor, Amarga, Sala Jarama, 2016 any use”, in spite of which of the EU for an acceptable Verónicas, Murcia, 2009. they continue to be used for river condition, as well as the © Foto E.L. Partial views of the the irrigation of agricultural reports on the waters of the installation Tajo, Tajuña, consumer products. For more Madrid Region written by Alagón, Jarama, 2016. details on the state of the Ecologistas en Acción. © Foto M.B. waters in the Hydrographic Basin of the Tagus, please >>> see the latest Hydrological Partial view of the Plan for the CHT, approved in installation Tajo, Tajuña, January 2016, which allows Alagón, Jarama, 2016. © Foto M.B.

24 The song of the earth water

The song of the earth Eva Lootz 25 26 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 27 28 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 29 HYDROELECTRIC ENERGY AMOUNT OF WATER Data from the REE (Red Eléctrica Española, operator of the electric system and the Confederación PRODUCED IN THE USED TO COOL THE NUCLEAR Hidrográ!ca del Tagus.) RESERVOIRS OF THE POWER PLANTS HYDROGRAPHIC BASIN OF THE The nuclear power plants of RIVER TAGUS Almaraz and Trillo are located From the point of view of the in the Tagus. The latter uses a electric system, the Tagus closed cooling circuit, meaning basin forms a unit with Júcar the net water consumption is and Segura, although the net low. Almaraz, however, is cooled production could be considered using an open circuit through to be largely concentrated in the the Arrocampo reservoir and has 40 basin of the former. Measured a resource speci!cally for this MILLION M3 in GWH (Giggawatt Hours) per purpose of 40 million m3/year. It year, it is a very variable !gure must be remembered that only OF WÁTER that depends on the annual a small fraction is lost through rainfall. The years 2013 and evaporation (approximately 3%), USED IN THE 2014 were good in this respect, and the rest is reintegrated into but 2015 was bad due to the the river (logically, at a higher lack of rain. The 2015 data temperature). NUCLEAR is not yet de!nitive, but the In short, the water used would be provisional !gures indicate a 40 million m3/year even though PLANTS HE production of around 3800 consumption (evaporation) is of GWh, considerably lower than 120 000 m3/year. OF ALMARAZ the 2014 production (5600 GWh). If we use the mean !gure of the last decade as a point of HECTARES OF ARABLE AND TRILLO reference, the !gure would be LAND RECOVERED THROUGH around 4200 GWh. THE RESERVOIRS IN THE DAMS, RESERVOIRS COURSE OF THE XX CENTURY AND DIKES IN THE HYDROGRAPHIC By comparison, the mean annual Around 240,000 Ha in the BASIN OF THE TAGUS production of the Almaraz Tagus, the majority following AND THE YEARS IN WHICH Nuclear Plant, which is the most the Civil War. Approximately THEY WERE COMPLETED potent in this basin, is almost 50% are public and the rest four times higher than the Acebo, 1997 private. Apart from the above, Acehuche, 1977 hydraulic production. In other it is important to remember La Aceña, 1989 words, hydroelectric production Ahigal, 1986 that “11 million” people drink the Albufera San Jorge, 1577 in the basin would be equivalent waters of the Tagus basin: eight Alcántara 1, 1946 to approximately 25% of the Alcorlo, 1978 in Spain (seven in the basin itself Alcuescar, 1977 nuclear electricity generation. and one in the southeast of the Aldea del Cano, 1988 Aldeanueva, 1992 peninsula) and another three Aliseda, 1978 million in Portugal. Almoguera, 1947 Alpotrel, 1991 Araya de Arriba, 1958 Araya de Arriba (Dique del Collado), 1958 Arce de Arriba, 1755 Arce de Abajo, 1755 4200 Arenas de San Pedro, 1975 Armiñán, 1912 Arroyo de la Luz, 1992 GWH. Arroyo de la Puebla, 1999 Arroyo de la Venta, 1958 Los Arroyos, 1967 PRODUCED Atalaya, 1983 El Atance, 1997 El Atazar, 1972 Aulencia, 1945 IN THE CHT Ayuela, 1980 Azután, 1969 Baños, 1992 El Batán, 1963 Becedas (Hoyo de Pinares), 1956 Becedas II (Hoyo de Pinares), 1974 MILLION Béjar (Navamuño), 1969 8 Beleña, 1982 Bolarque, 1910 El Boquerón, 1983 PEOPLE DRINK Borbollón, 1954 Borbollón / Arago, 1954 El Boyeril II, 1965 FROM THE Bremudo, 1974 Bremudo (Dique del Collado), 1974 El Bronco, 1977 Brozas II, 1959 TAGUS Buenameson, 1960 Buendía, 1958 La Bujeda, 1976 La Bujeda II (Dique del Collado), 1976

30 The song of the earth El Burguillo, 1913 El Pajarero, 1989 Referendum on the privatisation of the Canal Isabel II Calzadilla, 1961 Los Palancares, 1981 Camino Morisco, 1985 Palomero, 1977 Cañaveral, 1981 El Pardo, 1970 Los Carbajales, 1978 Pedrezuela, 1967 Carrascalejo, 1980 Peguerinos, 1991 Casar de Cáceres, 1991 Los Peñascales, 1962 Casares de las Hurdes, 1997 Peraleda de San Román, 1993 Casavieja, 1987 Pescueza, 1980 Casillas 1, 1870 La Pesga, 1997 Castrejón, 1967 Petit 1, 1850 Castrejón / Cañares, 1967 Petit 2, 1836 Castrejón / El Carpio, 1967 Picadas, 1952 El Castro, 1974 Piedralaves, 1999 Cazalegas, 1949 Piélago, 1993 Ceclavin, 1966 La Pinilla, 1967 Cedillo, 1978 Pino Franqueado, 1997 Cedillo (Comunidad), 1965 El Piornal, 1983 La Cerquilla, 1962 Pizarroso, 1983 Cerro Alarcón, 1970 Portaje, 1986 Charca Arroyo de la Luz, 1558 Portaje (Dique del Collado), 1986 Charca de la Generala, 1795 La Portiña, 1947 Charca del Lugar, 1735 Pozo de los Ramos (Azud), 1976 Charco del Cura, 1931 Puentes Viejas, 1940 Ciudad Ducal, 1957 Pusa, 1991 El Corono, 1971 Quebrada de Tiendas, 1850 Cueto, 1850 Del Rey, 1971 La Cumbre, 1970 Ribera de Mula, 1920 Dique de Pareja, s/d Riosequillo, 1956 La Elipa, 1981 Rivera de Gata (Azud conexión), 1990 El Embocador, 1530 Rivera de Gata (Diques 1, 2, 3), 1990 La Encinilla, 1964 Rivera de Gata (Dique del Collado 1), 1990 Entrepeñas, 1956 Rivera de Gata (Dique del Collado 2), 1990 La Ermita, 1985 Rivera de Gata (Dique F2), 1990 Estremera, 1950 Rivera de Gata (Principal), 1990 Finisterre, 1977 Robledo (Toma), 1983 Las Fraguas, 1988 Robledo de Chavela, 1968 Fresneda, 1977 El Romeral, 1928 Fresno 1/2/3, 1977 Los Rosales, 1968 Fuente Guijarro, 1977 Rosarito, 1958 Gabriel y Galán, 1961 Rosarito (Dique del Collado), 1958 García, 1794 Salor, 1964 Garciaz, 1994 San Juan, 1955 Garganta de la Oliva, 1977 San Juan (Dique del Collado), 1955 Garganta del Obispo, 1995 San Marcos, 1997 Garganta de Eliza, 1963 Santa Cruz de Pinares, 1995 Garguera, 1911 Santa Marta de Magasca, 1997 «In cities such Granjilla 1, 1660 Serradilla, 1995 Granjilla 2, 1560 Serrejón, 1978 as Paris, Lyon, La Greña, 1795 La Solana, 1955 Guadiloba, 1971 La Tajera, 1993 Guajaraz, 1971 Talaván, 1977 Potsdam !rst and Guatel, 1992 Tenebroso (Contraembalse), 1931 Guijo de Granadilla, 1982 El Tobar, 1959 Helechal, 1965 El Torcón 2, 1991 then Berlin, like Hervás, 1991 El Torcón, 1948 Hervás / Azud, 1969 Torreherrera, 1977 La Hinchona, 1946 Torrejón el Rubio, 1977 in so many other Ibahernando, 1960 Torrejón Tajo, 1966 Jaraíz de la Vera, 1996 Torrejón Tiétar, 1967 La Jarallana, 1980 Torrejoncillo, 1992 cities, the citizen La Jarilla, 1964 Torremenga, 1985 La Jarosa, 1968 Torremocha, 1979 Jarosa (Dique de Collado), 1968 La Tosca, 1964 movement has Jerte, 1985 Tozo, 1962 Jetrero, 1977 Tres Torres, 1973 succeeded in re José M.ª de Oriol, 1969 Trujillo, 1997 Labros, 1980 El Vado, 1954 Las Machucas, 1979 El Vado (Dique del Collado), 1954 -municipalising Madroñeras, 1973 Valdajos, 1530 Madroñeras III, 1997 Valdecabras / Arroyo, 1965 Malpartida de Plasencia 1, 1972 Valdecañas, 1964 water use Malpartida de Plasencia 2, 1977 Valdefuentes, 1981 Malpartida de Plasencia 3, 1981 Valdeobispo, 1965 Manufacturas Béjar, 1940 Valdesimón, 1979 and returning Manzanares el Real, 1969 El Valle de los Caídos, 1972 Mascalinas, 1978 Valmayor, 1975 La Maside, 1908 Valtravies / Arroyo, 1972 competence over Mata de Alcántara, 1990 Vegas Altas, 1800 Membrío 1/2, 1978 La Vid 1, 1953 the same to public Mira$ores de la Sierra, 1975 La Vid 3, 1959 Molino de Cabra, 1850 Villanueva de la Vera, 1988 Molino de Chincha, 1947 Villar de Plasencia, 1988 control.» Molino de la Hoz, 1973 El Villar, 1882 Montehermoso, 1970 Zamores, 1850 Los Morales, 1988 Zarra la Mayor, 1992 Navacerrada, 1968 Zorita, 1947 Navalagamella, 1972 Navalcan, 1977 Navalmedio, 1968 Navalmoral de la Mata, 1992 Navalperal de Pinares, 1980 Navarredondo, 1997 Navas del Madroño, 1974 Navas del Marqués, s/d Las Navas, 1928 Las Nieves, 1977 Nuñomoral 1, 1981 Nuñomoral 2, 1997

The song of the earth Eva Lootz 31 32 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 33 A !eld of (little) lights This field of batteries is a We are constantly turning warning signal, a wake-up lights, heating, fridges and call about the urgent need to microwaves on and off, not to rethink our way of life. mention the mobile phones It strikes a nerve and equally that have become our external denounces both the lie behind brain, but how many people the “sustainable economy” and really know how electricity the reassuring voices that tell us is generated? We make an we are emerging from the crisis, unconscious use of electricity, after which everything can we use energy as if we had return to “normal”. endless resources, as if it Nothing will ever be the same weren’t necessary to generate again. electricity, to get it from somewhere. Just consider for a moment that “8 fossil fuel calories are needed As Jeffrey Dukes6 makes very to produce each food calorie.” clear in his book Burning Buried Sunshine: human Consider that “inequality in consumption of ancient solar the use of energy is horrifying: energy: “every year of burnt even back in 1900 in the city of oil is equivalent to 400 years New York they were already of photosynthetic prehistoric consuming as much electricity plant production, including as the entire Sub-Saharan «Just consider phytoplankton”. Africa, excluding South Africa”7. for a moment For my part, years ago I At the present moment in time, modestly alluded to the same which could be considered “that 8 calories fact in the title of an exhibition the end of the remunerated called “Our Best Machines are mechanical working world of fossil fuels Made of Sunshine”… -machines and computers have replaced that workforce and are needed to A field of homemade batteries we are witnessing a constant give a rudimentary and decline in the number of jobs-, produce each somewhat rough demonstration which constitutes a major of the process and materials food calorie.”» problem for a large segment of needed to produce electricity: the population that has become copper, magnesium and an “superfluous” for advanced electrolyte, in this case, water capitalism, it is well worth with salt. subjecting the very concept of These batteries offer a metaphor work, of value, of consumption that aims to make the visitor and of merchandise to stop and notice the fact that the examination. Salario may Earth is just one big biomass provide the pretext for doing so. battery charged through photosynthesis over millions of years. It is our biological capital, which over the last 200 years we have been frantically unloading even though there is no replacement or reserve tank anywhere in sight.

6—Je"rey Dukes: Burning << Essay for the piece Mesa > Buried Sunshine: human Mesa de baterías, 2016. de baterías, 2016. Essay for the piece Mesa consumption of ancient solar © Foto: A.A. © Foto: E.L. de baterías, 2016. energy. Climatic Change 61, © Foto: E.L. 2003

7—Emilio Santiago Muiño: No es una estafa, es una crisis de civilización. Enclave de libros. Madrid 2015

34 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 35 Humanity is currently at the The fireflies again! I thought planet’s biophysical limits when I heard my friend, the and has been dealing with an ones I will never forget from unprecedentedly vast crisis that that house I stayed in on Via is not only economic but also a Laura, just a stone’s throw from crisis of civilisation. the Duomo in Florence. There is little doubt that the In the face of the despair issue of an anthropological expressed in the last Pasolini, mutation is on the cards. And who saw the death of in this difficult situation, a desire and innocence in the renewed consideration of disappearance of the fireflies, matter, the earth, living beings in the face of the completely and the coexistence of mankind justified pessimism of Giorgio must be considered. Agamben, who reflected on the de-subjectivation of the But I have called this section “a contemporary individual and field of little lights”. the destruction of experience, When I was about to finish in the face of the disheartening these notes, a friend to whom panorama of a Europe that is I had explained the field of becoming morally bankrupt, homemade batteries that emit Didi-Huberman turns to the dots of lights exclaimed: Ah, the minimal, intermittent lights fireflies of Didi-Huberman! And of resistance and underlines that was how she suggested a the value of the lesser lights of text that is both beautiful and those of us who imagine, who meaningful to me as it lays the write, who film, who dance, ground for spaces of hope in the who make music and, appealing midst of this dark, dark night. to the will of each, puts forward In her book Survival of the a theory of survival. Fireflies Georges Di-di- Huberman8 compares the “little light” of the fireflies that occasionally lights up the summer nights to the “big light” of our everyday lives. The ferocious light of power, of merchandise, of control, of overexposure to the lights of screens, of stadiums, of television sets, of the giant show that, in short, we are constantly exposed to.

8—Georges Didi- Huberman: > Supervivencia de las Detail of Campo de luciérnagas. Abada Editores, baterías, 2016. 2012 © Foto: A. A. >> La mina, 2016. © Foto: M.B. >>> La mina, 2016. © Foto: M.B. >>>> Details of La mina, 2016. © Fotos: M.B.

36 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 37 38 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 39 40 The song of the earth The song of the earth Eva Lootz 41 Cancer On one occasion, when visiting the phosphogypsum pond, I came across a piece of gra%ti signposting the direction to cancer. The author of the gra%ti had considered it important to leave his mark on the sign showing the way out of the new housing development, which had been built about 350 metres from the pond. It was also paradoxical that the new buildings stood on land called “Las Marismas del Polvorín” (Gunpowder Marshes). I had the sensation of being trapped between two words: cancer and gunpowder. I remember the impression I had the !rst time that I saw the “Atlas de mortalidad en áreas pequeñas de España” (Atlas of mortality in small areas of Spain) and the words of its author, the professor/researcher Joan Benach: The words of the CSIC study are very disturbing. “At the end of last year, almost at the same time that the data from the CSIC report were made known, the Atlas de mortalidad en areas pequeñas de España was published, graphically corroborating the problem of the high incidence of some serious diseases in the area of Huelva, Seville and Cadiz. The author of the work, Joan Benach, a specialist researcher in occupational health and professor at Barcelona’s Universidad Pompeu Fabra, studied the causes of death in 2,218 small areas which form a high-de!nition health map, in an attempt to establish possible links between these diseases and the social and environmental characteristics of the area. Benach explains that only 8% of the Spanish population live in Huelva, Seville and Cadiz, yet the provinces contain 33% of the areas at greatest risk. Fifty percent of the areas in the province of Cadiz are high risk. In Huelva, there is a 40% risk for men. This data highlights the risk of su"ering lung cancer, ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes and cirrhosis in the three provinces. “Medical atlases are a useful tool for decision-making on public health policy based on hypotheses, even before all possible knowledge has been gained. However, there is no sign of any political initiatives being taken. More pressure needs to be brought to bear on politicians”, according to Joan Benach, and he notes that the same applies to the CSIC report – “the content of the report is extremely alarming”; Benach does not understand how all of Pollutants vs thyroid this can be disregarded. He observes that “the politicians are going around in circles when it The case of atypical thyroiditis in Huelva: needs to be con!rmed that a particular disease is caused by a particular pollutant, and when experience in epidemiology demonstrates that it is not appropriate to focus on the impact of 725 cases of atypical thyroiditis were recorded in Huelva in 1995. Doctor Francisco López one particular pollutant on health: the focus should be on the interaction of risk factors. Often Rueda, one of the city’s leading endocrinologists, who studied this epidemic in depth and who the speci!c consequences are not known scienti!cally, yet we do know that they must occur. ever since has continued to research and treat these patients, explains that the symptoms In Huelva, for example, the incidence of lung cancer cannot be explained by di"erences in the presented were an increase in thyroid antibodies, acute, painful in$ammation of the gland consumption of tobacco, there must be other risk factors. “ (2) and marked general fatigue. Furthermore, the disease only attacked women of child-bearing age. López Rueda reported the epidemic to the Andalusian Health Service Delegation and When I think of the number of times that I have talked to my mother about cancer, I cannot a few o%cial investigations were made which did not reach any conclusion. Disagreement help but remember her words, time and again: as to the causes and the appropriateness of continuing further research resulted in López “My boy, here on our street a lot of people die from cancer, from one day to the next, they get Rueda being sidelined and discredited by the Government. Nevertheless, the doctor and something bad, and shortly afterwards they die. Don’t you remember ….?” some of his collaborators continued making enquiries and contacted international experts. Finally, an Israeli epidemiologist, John Goldsmith, came up with a clue that Dr López Rueda The list of people from my street and streets nearby, who have died, people my mother considered to be the answer: a similar syndrome had been described in Slovakia and had been can name like a litany, is so long, that I cannot help but believe Joan Benach and, like him, I caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The endocrinologist claimed that PCBs, other wonder: how can all of this be disregarded? organochlorine pollutants, such as dioxins and some pesticides with the help of heavy metals, had to be responsible. According to López Rueda, the drought of 1995 might have increased the 1—Francisco L Rueda, Julia M. Palomares, Ignacio V Rico “Atypical Thyroiditis in Huelva” Endocrine Practice, vol. 5 mayo/junio 1999 concentration of pollutants in drinking water and a"ected sensitive individuals. Although the 2—M Nuñez, C Navarra “Huelva bajo los efectos de la contaminación”: Integral No 267, marzo 2002. disease received hardly any mention in the health media in Spain, Dr López Rueda was listened to by the prestigious scienti!c journal of the American College of Endocrinology, Endocrine Practice. After thorough monitoring, the journal published López Rueda and his collaborators’ description of the epidemic in 1999 under the title “Atypical Thyroiditis in Huelva”. (1) “Ecologists claim that Huelva is a city surrounded by pollutants in the land, sea and air. To describe all of these pollutants would be an encyclopaedic task. In short, the most problematic have been included along with those that have been highlighted in the CSIC report. However, there are many more that even in small doses are signi!cant if the combined e"ect is taken into account, these include organochlorine pesticides, dioxins and furans, mercaptans, PCBs and hexachlorobenzene… Arsenic: A heavy metal 9ng/m3 in the air, with maximums of 96ng/m3, the future European regulation is 6ng/m3 (some countries have set a maximum level of 5ncg/g). Cancer of the stomach, bronchus, trachea and lung, bladder, prostate, liver and kidney and it may cause reproductive alterations. Atlantic Copper, Fertiberia and Foret. Uranium: Radioactive mineral. Found in river water and embankments and in phosphogypsum ponds. Cancer and malformations. Fertiberia and Foret Radon: radioactive gas, emitted from phosphogypsum ponds. Lung cancer. Fertiberia and Foret. Cadmium: Heavy metal, found in seafood such as clams (0.16 mcg/gl), in signi!cant doses but lower than the legal limit. It is suspected to cause cancer of the stomach, liver, trachea, bronchus and lung, prostate, kidney, and to cause reproductive disorders. Fertiberia, Foret, Atlantic Copper PM10: thoracic particles of a diameter less than 10mc. Found in the air. The average level (40mcg/m3) is double the limit set by the forthcoming directive on respiratory tract diseases. Cancer of the lung, bronchus and trachea. They are emitted to a greater or lesser extent by all of the “Chemical Pole” industries. NOx and SO2: Nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide. These are formed when fossil fuels are burnt. They cause acid rain, point-source emissions have been detected at high levels. Respiratory diseases. They increase immediate all-cause mortality. Cepsa, Fertiberia and Foret. DDT and DDE: Forbidden organochlorine pesticide, cumulative in the natural environment and the body. It has been detected in recent, extensive use in crop land next to the city. It has been found in soil, strawberries and seafood. Carcinogenic, neurological and reproductive e"ects. Used on open-air strawberry crops in the area of La Fábida. Endosulfan: Permitted organochlorine pesticide. It has been found in samples, which indicates that marketing takes place before it degrades. Carcinogenic, neurological and reproductive e"ects. It is one of the most widespread endocrine disruptors. Crops in the area of the Huelva delta. The incidence of diseases in Huelva according to the CSIC report. In women: 40% more stomach cancers, 27% kidney cancers, 16% trachea, bronchus and lung cancers and 20% lung cancer. In men: 27% more cancer of the kidney, 19% of the liver, 11% of the trachea, bronchus and lung, 2% of the bladder, 18% of the stomach and 14% of the prostate. The citizen movement, Colectivo Ciudadano por la Descontaminación de Huelva, reports a greater incidence of sterility, miscarriage, birth defects, asthma and other respiratory conditions and endocrine disorders” (2) There is no mention in the CSIC report that further research studies should be undertaken on the phosphogypsum pond, which the members of the Mesa de la Ría Association (Delta roundtable) are not willing to accept. For this reason, they repeatedly demand new epidemiological studies - especially when the key word in this issue is: CANCER Isaías Griñolo Cancer is one of the chapters of Las fatigas de la muerte (la lógica cultural del capitalismo), a book published for the exhibition of the same name by Isaías Griñolo in Caja San Fernando (Cajasol), Seville, on 2 March 2006. Due to pressure from the AIQB (Association of Chemical and Basic Industries of Huelva), the exhibition was closed on its opening day and the book con!scated.

42 The song of the earth Good evening to those committed to life. Good evening to those hopeful for the future. Creators from Huelva are people of the sea, of the mountains, of the country, of the mine… and we are people of peace. Our heritage has always been, still is and we fervently hope will continue to be, to work enthusiastically for a legacy with a profound history in a beautiful land, and we wish to do so respecting the past, conscious of the present and with hope for the future. But the traders of our heritage, with their sanctimoniousness, are trying our patience, a word synonymous of su#erance and waiting. Those of us who live for creation and love it refuse to be orphaned by the signs of our identity. We do not want to be disinherited of a unique nature and so, against those who wish to bury, we shall exhume? Once again we disinter the Word as a weapon loaded with future, and we say: No to Huelva as a sewer and dump for industrial waste. We say: No to the fetid air, that should reach us smelling of the sea. And we say: No to the fact of our Atlantic waters, on which so many dreams have "oated, becoming a nightmare for life, sad dead waters. Because we must not consent to our landscape losing its identity nor to the adulteration and perversion of its nature. Because our city must embrace its rivers and kiss the sea. Because this open land of light must not be a concentration camp of shadows. Nor the pollution a toxic belt that squeezes, su#ocates and darkens our future. We do not want a phosphoric agony, we do not want black or grey, the colours of Huelva are the clean white and blue of the horizon. We do not want to be raggedly interred. Long live the living earth!

Juan Cobos Wilkins

Read by the author to the protesters in the Plaza de las Monjas (Huelva), on the night of December 3rd, 2015.

Culture against contamination Manifesto Juan Cobos Wilkins 43

Salt will be present for its Eva Lootz anthropological importance as proven by the word salary and the existence

of cities that are formed and prosper You are the author of two books that thanks to the salt trade, such as are fundamental to put the dogmas of Salzburg for instance. Copper, because the governing economic ideology into one of the most extraordinary deposits historic context and to overcome the is located in Spain, the pyrite belt in divorce between economy and ecology: the Southwest of the peninsula, one La economía en evolución and Raíces of the first to be exploited with a huge económicas del deterioro ecológico effect on the landscape, outstanding y social, both reprinted in 2015. You witness to the Second Industrial were responsible for introducing Revolution and which since the Nicolás Georgescu-Roegen into Spain, eighties has particularly interested publishing his key work The Entropy me. I won’t touch on the question of oil Law and the Economic Process in that currently represents the strategic Spanish for the first time and writing material par excellence, but I will the prologue in 1996 (in the collection talk about water, which is possibly an “Economía y Naturaleza” by the former even more important resource for the Fundación Argentaria, currently future of humanity. accessible in the publications section of As an advocate of an art that is not the Fundacion César Manrique: http:// confined to formal enjoyment, but rather www.fcmanri-que.org/publiDetalle. moves in an expanded field and can be php?idPublica-cion=107). You are, in seen as a multi-faceted practice that short, a pioneer of ecological thinking questions the limits of the disciplines, the whom I constantly hear quoted by the traditional artistic and scientific genres, young people worried about the crisis I’d like to ask you some questions about of civilization and the change of model, social and ecological deterioration, which and that’s why I’d like to ask you some on first glance might seem far removed questions. from art. In my exhibition The Song of the Earth In your books you show how the in Tabacalera (Madrid), I will deal unfeasibility of our economic system with the subject of certain essential in the light of the natural sciences materials such as copper, salt and water, -it persists regardless of the limits which in the case of copper and water imposed by the earth’s resources- is are also of enormous strategic value. covered up by the omnipresent talk of progress and development, accepted without protest by the bulk of society. My questions are as follows, here’s the first:

44 The song of the earth Eva Lootz—What tools can be employed quo and, as a result, a society that prevents on the current overdose of information to raise people’s awareness and the majority from thinking freely and pollution -which has proven to be more decrease the general blindness, bearing calmly about how to drive society towards effective at drowning out new critical in mind that the media is largely made healthier ecological, social and individual ideas than the obsolete censorship of the up of hostages of corporate interests? horizons. Franco era- while at the same time acting José Manuel Naredo—I’d like to answer E.L.—And what tools might be as a sound box for its established powers that question on two fronts, that show conceived of to fight this conformist and their ideological spokespeople. the magnitude of the problem. On the situation? In the prologue of the 2015 updated one hand, that “generalised blindness” J.M.N.—Ultimately, the system itself has edition of my book La economía en you mention is largely voluntary meaning generated a social context that is more evolución. Historia y perspectivas de that it is pointless to come up with open to criticism. The severe economic las categorías básicas del pensamiento tools if nobody wants to see or accept crisis caused by the speculation boom económico, I gave examples of these them. And on the other, these tools need has given rise to a profound social, concerns when I pointed out that the to either be, or depend on, ideas and political and institutional crisis that has new edition made me feel conflicting words that go beyond the magma of the perturbed conformism, spurring on social emotions: on the one hand, I felt pleased dominant ideology, which will attempt mobilisation and critical thinking. But in that the resurgence of critical thinking to digest or ignore them with a view to order for these to be true instruments of caused it to gain contemporaneity, “but on sustaining the status quo as something change, they must question the current the other I was saddened that a quarter universal and inevitable, or even governed dogmas and institutions and truly turn of a century after the first edition of this by (democratic political or mercantile the spotlight on the deteriorations and book had reported the deceptions of the economic) systems that are considered the regressions avoided by the prevalent ruling economic ideology, this continues to least bad of all those possible. ideology, to alleviate or correct them in enjoy good health and is still presented to Thus, apart from the “voluntary blindness” the future. us with the same scientific reasons that I there are also “blind spots” that trigger raised questions about so many years ago, The biggest issue is that, to date, the these prevailing notions of a “system” to freely justify institutions, policies and majority of the theoretically emancipative when, for instance, the production behaviours, not only through the powers movements ended up sheltering new metaphor covers up the destruction that be, but also to a large extent through despotisms and reproducing the and deterioration implicit in the mere critical thinking”. status quo that they claimed to decry, process of acquisition or extraction (use embracing, with slight variations, the E.L.—Could you tell me a bit more and deterioration) of wealth, which are same ontologies and ideas on human about the peak of the fossil fuels those truly at stake. On the one hand, we nature, the political system, the economic -which is perhaps less generally well- are talking about an ideology that covers system, etc., on which the current known- and how you think the State up or manipulates everything that goes industrial civilisation is built. The novelty should deal with it? against it, that generates numerous “blind spots”… and, on the other, a society that lies in that now, theoretically at least, J.M.N.—Maybe I should first explain bows to patriarchal institutions, that there is more knowledge with which to what is meant by “oil peak” or that of is tamed by the dependent “work” and question the intended universality of other fossil fuels. To do so, it’s necessary to bread and circuses type “leisure” replete the reigning ideology in far more depth explain the “Hubbert Peak” which is what with inventions that eat up people’s and to prevent a repetition of the bitter the peak in question is referring to. This time, abduct their minds and draw their experiences of the past. peak, formulated by King Hubbert in 19561, attention and their passion towards Let’s hope that the well-reasoned solvency represents under its bell-shaped curve the entertainments compatible with the status of this knowledge ends up making its mark reserves of a resource (e.g. oil) available

1—In its communication substitute of fossil fuels, entitled «Nuclear energy ignoring the renewable and the fossil fuels» to the energies necessarily trigger meeting of the Division of a sudden collapse as it is Production of the American possible to turn to other Petroleum Industry, held on sources and production March 7th, 8th and 9th 1956 in processes which, however, San Antonio, Texas. Hubbert being more costly and was a pioneer in his use of the polluting, will signal the end of peak that nowadays bears his the cheap oil era. name and has been so broadly used by the environmentalist movement, in a text in which paradoxically he advocated nuclear energy as a natural

Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 45 in a given area. This curve is drawn on an saving and a reconversion to renewable the earth’s crust, there is no likelihood of axis of abscissas, that records time and an sources. To avoid confusion, it’s important major discoveries that will significantly axis of ordinates that records the tonnes to bear in mind that this “peak” is still alter the estimated reserves, as occurred of the resource in question extracted each just theoretical, and will not necessarily in the middle of the last century with the year. The bell shape of the curve implies cause any immediate scare, as half of the detection of the major quality oil deposits that extraction first grows exponentially, resource remains to be extracted. The in the Middle East. but that its growth rhythm drops as the problem is that the “peak” coincided with However, it should be noted that stock is consumed, until it reaches the the start of the major economic crisis conventional oil depletion in the earth’s upper part of the bell, in which extraction and from 2008 on, oil extraction (and crust does not necessarily imply an oil starts to decrease from the moment in consumption) dropped with the economic shortage, as it can be obtained from other which over half the initially available stock situation. But far from observing signs sources (e.g. slate or bituminous sands) has been extracted. of scarcity, this led to a drop in oil prices and manufactured from coal, natural gas driven by the slow demand and by the oil Most estimates indicate that around the and biomass. And there’s nothing new obtained via fracking from unconventional year 2008 half of the conventional oil about this given that in the last World War, sources. Which once again demonstrates on the earth’s crust had already been Germany and Japan were supplied largely that the prices do not reflect the absolute extracted, reaching the upper part of with artificially manufactured oil from coal, scarcity of a resource in the earth’s the bell curve in the aforementioned through the direct (Pott-Broche process) crust, but rather that they depend on representation -this is why we talk about or indirect liquefaction, first obtaining circumstantial situations. Hence, there the “oil peak”- from which point said gas (Fischer- Tropsch process). It is to be may be less oil in the earth’s crust than representation indicates that extraction expected that these processes will begin ten or fifteen years ago and yet the price has entered into the decline phase. to function in order to supplement the has plummeted. This already happened shortage of conventional oil once it starts Remember that last century, in the after the “oil crisis” in the seventies last to run out, as they are more expensive and decade of the seventies, the problem of century: when the Gulf emirates broke polluting than the mere extraction and oil depletion was a general concern. The away from the OPEP cohesion, the price refinement of the same. So, I believe the “oil crises” of 1973 and 1979, triggered by took a nosedive, even if like we said there progressive depletion of the conventional the increased costs of crude oil promoted was less oil in the earth’s crust than before oil deposits will not by the OPEP countries, fostered this type the hikes that triggered the “crises”. This situation may also possibly force the of reflection that led to the conclusion The apparent contradiction of a drop in transition to the use of renewable energies that industrial civilisation would collapse the oil prices just when the “oil peak” is and hydrogen as a fuel. But the renewable due, above all, to the scarcity of resources. reminding us of its scarcity, induces me energies, like the energy crops require Nonetheless, thirty years on, when at the to underline two aspects. Firstly, that soils that compete with other crops, uses height of the economic boom global energy the absolute scarcity of a resource in the and exploitations. This very demand for consumption had increased by 70% and earth’s crust and the geological times soil makes it impossible to continue to there was far less extractable oil in the that mark its possible depletion, however supply the vast energy consumption of the earth’s crust than back then, its scarcity peremptory they might be, bear little majority of rich countries with renewable was less of a concern than the “climate relationship to the times of the economic energy sources alone. For instance, in change” resulting from the excess waste. and political situation, marked by an its day I calculated that in Spain, even if In this context, the “oil peak” has been extremely short-term vision. Secondly, the entire useful farming surface were brandished and popularised by the that the “oil peak” reminds us of the dedicated to energy crops, it would still be environmentalist movement as a reminder obvious limitation of the same, as since insufficient to supply the current energy of the end of the oil era and to urge energy it is one of the best known resources in needs of the farming sector.

46 The song of the earth It is therefore clear that this heavenly E.L.—Can we also apply the “peak” in by one of the most internationally kingdom of cheap and abundant energy these terms and the danger of depleting prestigious publishing houses4. This provided by the fossil fuels era will fade, other mineral substances? approach begins by considering the and the technological slip-up made by the mineral deposits under exploitation J.M.N.—Yes, but new clarifications need industrial civilisation when it decided to rarities of the earth’s crust, in which to be added as conventional oil is quite a base administration of the human race on certain substances are concentrated at well-defined substance found in specific extractions from the earth’s crust rather far higher levels than the average of said deposits that are poorly distributed along than photosynthesis and other renewable crust, and which industrial civilization the earth’s crust. It is not possible to speak by-products of solar energy, will have to extracts, uses and degrades at a furious only of the depletion or “peak” of iron, be reviewed. The human race with its pace. And so if, as they say, life was born as it is a very abundant and widespread massive extractions currently mobilises and evolved on Earth from a biological substance on the earth’s crust, associated a far higher tonnage than any geological soup, the human race is now driving it with very diverse soils and minerals. Also force, leading to the conclusion that we towards a sort of posthumous consommé because when iron is used and abandoned have entered a new geological period or state of maximum entropy that we’ve it does not change its state, like oil does or era: Anthropocene2. This powerful called Thanatia, the chemical composition when burned, but rather it usually rusts extraction activity uses the minerals that of which is described in detail in the book and deteriorates, but continues to exist as the earth’s crust had concentrated in the of the same name that we have just spoken such, even if it does mutate towards more form of unique deposits which, after use, about. entropic compositions. Therefore, to speak are dispersed, generally giving rise to of depletion we would have to refer, not to The methodology proposed makes it problems of depletion and pollution. iron, but to certain minerals with certain possible to calculate, in energy units, Given that the earth is a closed minerals iron content levels, the choice of which what it would cost to replace the mineral system, with the exception of the would be quite arbitrary as it would always concentration and structure of the fortunately rare fall of meteorites, but be possible to continue to obtain iron deposits from that “dead state” that we open to the solar energy it receives from minerals or residues less rich in this call Thanatia. And, on the contrary, the daily, Georgescu-Roegen believed that substance. methodology proposed also allows for ultimately the scarcity of resources a quantification of the quality energy, E.L.—How can this problem be tackled? would boil down to the materials, even or exergy, concentrated in the Earth’s if these can be obtained at the desired J.M.N.—At present, this problem is mineral resources and which modern-day concentration and structural level by resolved by the methodology I promoted civilisation is now using up and dispersing expending energy in the processes of together with Antonio Valero, the first at such a rapid pace. A more graphic improving and concentrating the same. version of which is described in the example of this would be to compare the The underlying problem lies in the lack book entitled Desarrollo económico y energy contained in the Earth to the water of convergence observed between the deterioro ecológico, published in 1999 in stock accumulated in a reservoir, and the geological and the political and economic the Col. Economía y Naturaleza by the change we could make by pumping the times… or between what would be former Fundación Argentaria3. Since water faster or slower. Hence, we could sustainable and desirable for the majority then, following four doctoral theses and overcome the heterogeneous nature of and the extraction interests of certain numerous publications on the subject, minerals and contents by representing the lobbies that put pressure on the States, the research has culminated with the stock (measured in energy units) of iron or making it difficult for these to plan an book by Alicia and Antonio Valero (2014) any of the other substances in the earth’s orderly transition towards renewable titled Thanatia: The Destiny of the Earth’s crust on the Hubbert peak and calculating sources that would be desirable for the Mineral Resources: A Thermodynamic its corresponding “peaks”, as seen in the whole planet in general. Cradle-to-Cradle Assessment, published abovementioned book, Thanatia.

2—Bonneuil, C., y Fressoz, 3—Naredo, J. M., y 4—Valero, A. y A. (2014): J. B. (2013): L’évenement Valero, A. (dirs.) (1999): Thanatia. The Destiny of the antrhropocène, Paris, Eds. Desarrollo económico y Earth’s Mineral Resources. Du Seuil. deterioro ecológico, Fund. A Thermodynamic Cradle-to- Argentaria&Visor Distrib., Cradle Assessment, London, currently available in World Scienti!c. the publications section of the Fundación César Manrique: http://www. fcmanrique.org/publiDetalle. php?idPublicacion=113.

Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 47 In addition, to quantify the loss of energy electricity industries) blatantly showing nuclear investments, which we have potential suffered by the Earth’s mineral that the “sector’s” lobby was still in charge been duly paying for on our bills up until resources as the human impact pushes when it came to energy policy. The reason last year. The irrefutable proof that the it towards Thanatia, gives a clearly plans were drawn up in this way was to indirect business of building the nuclear quantitative dimension to the current defend growing investments subsidised, plants was what truly drove the nuclear concerns about “(un)sustainability” that supported or guaranteed by the State, the lobby, was that after discontinuation of the banal environmentalism of the day is need for which was justified by projecting the plant construction had been agreed, so accustomed to side-stepping. I would inflated predictions of demand hikes, the nuclear plant of Valdecaballeros also emphasise the fact that this research mechanically associated with theoretical continued to be built and billed at inflated has allowed us to build a broader and more population and income increases. This prices for almost a year, even though it integrating vision of the energy it covers, has constituted the general framework was common knowledge that it wasn’t not only of the so-called “energy products” in which the most powerful elites have ever going to be operational, leaving the (oil, coal, gas, electricity, …) but also the been taking their cuts with more and town of Valdecaballeros a mute witness of materials existing in the earth’s crust, more power and information within the such abuse: a sinister hulk of cement now the hydrosphere and the atmosphere as a “sector”, as I extensively illustrated with awaiting a more reasonable use. In one whole. For instance, Antonio Valero has examples in the case of nuclear energy. interview I suggested that, as occurred calculated the cost of replacing the ice in In fact, when the intention was to fill with the Nazi concentration camps left the Antarctic at about nine thousand times the country with nuclear plants “if we standing as witnesses of a horror never to the fossil fuel reserves, proving that the didn’t want to return to candlelight”, I be repeated, the remains of this lucrative liquefaction of the same would constitute made it very clear that the nuclear lobby’s simulacrum of nuclear plant construction a major step of the Earth towards higher intention was not to obtain energy via a should be opened up to visitors, so that as levels of entropy: the temperature gradient process proving to be both expensive and a museum this space could illustrate and would decrease, the power of engines problematic, but rather to bill construction recount what should never have been done would drop, etc. Thus, we see that in the of said nuclear plants at astronomical in the first place. Anthropocene we can no longer even figures, thus obtaining rich pickings in this Once salvaged and rationalised by the consider the climate a separate entity to phase of the process, and later the State, State, the nuclear indigestion “sector” the extractions and deteriorations of the the users, or the dispersed shareholders most recently returned to its old ways earth’s crust, and there is even less room of the electric companies, would all pay with an overdose of combined-cycle for concerns about waste without taking for these extra costs5. As a result, the power plants construction, making money into account the use made of resources. beneficiaries of such a disproportional off an excess capacity that is hard to E.L.—What is your opinion of Spain’s building craze ruined the electricity sector digest given the impetus gained by the energy policy over the last 40 years? companies, particularly Fecsa, which renewable sources. All of this together J.M.N.—In our country, the energy having overextended itself in nuclear with a liberalisation-privatisation- policy has been dictated by the lobbies of investments defaulted on payments as it commodification process, has led to even businesses with interests in the matter. was dragged down by its colossal debts. more abuse of the users and the State. This occurred during the Franco years and The State, as guarantor of the sector’s Following a market simulacrum, an has continued to happen in the democracy. mammoth nuclear debt had to salvage institutional framework was created to As an old friend who was a minister and refloat it with public money and, make such gigantic rate hikes possible, during the transition period said to me, after ordering a stop to the construction the user repercussions of which the State the National Energy Plan draft reached of new nuclear plants, agreed to include attempted to alleviate by taking on the so- the Ministry of Industry on paper bearing an indemnification in the charges so that called “electricity debt”. In this situation the letterhead of Unesa (the association of the companies could recover their inflated we find that Spain went from providing

5—I believe I categorically demonstrated this fact in the Cuaderno triple de Ruedo Ibérico, n.º 63-66, entitled, «Energía, política e información», from May- December 1979 (there is a facsimile edition of the Cuadernos de Ruedo Ibérico in Faximil Edicions Digitals: www.faximil.com).

48 The song of the earth cheap electricity to being one of the justify the growing operations aimed at European countries in which electricity is water collection, pumping, conduction, most expensive, while at the same time the purification and or/ desalination, thus State was underwriting an astronomical feeding the business that these operations “electricity debt” with the oligopoly of the create. This context has given rise to sector. As there isn’t room for full details critical voices coming out in an attempt here, I would refer the reader to a recent to cut off the spiral of water extraction, book by José Luis Velasco on the “tragic production and waste, of private history of the Spanish electricity sector”6. business and public deterioration, giving precedence to the water economy rather E.L.—What is your opinion of the than the business of hydraulic supplies hydraulic policy of the last 20 years and works. Voices that our government in Spain, seen from the current-day continues to turn a deaf ear to, as it is perspective? (10. 01. 2016) comfortably trapped in the conglomerate J.M.N.—My assessment, as a critical of interests that protect the hydraulic researcher who has fought for a change works promotion policy that our country from the current state of hydraulic works The monetary has been supporting for over a century promotion to one in which the correct now. Forever? management of water as a resource is reductionism There’s no need to be so negative, you promoted, with its associated ecosystems might say to me. At the end of the day, and landscapes, is frankly disappointing. of the current the Spanish National Hydrological Plan Both the PP and the PSOE political parties 2000 (PHN 2000) by Matas, was already have only been critical of the wrongdoings System of National resigned to diverting less than half the of the hydraulic works promotion policy water specified in the draft bill of the while in opposition. But as soon as they Accounts means National Hydrological Plan of 1993 (PHN were elected to government they did the that its normal 1993) by Borrell, which fortunately never opposite: bowing to the wishes of the managed to be passed. And, to crown it water power lobby to continue billing representation all, its star project, the great Diversion of hydraulic works that proved to be more the River Ebro, was repealed. In fact, we and more costly and inefficient. And in of the economic could say that the mind-set has gradually their zeal to erase any shadow of shortage system does not tilted in our favour and facilitated the through constant works, these new projects massive protest against this megaproject, generated more water demands that re"ect either the although it also encouraged the “water overwhelmed the possibilities of supply, natural resources for everyone” demagogy and the so-called thus feeding a spiral of scarcity and waste. “water wars”. But it was not our pitiful Our country is a good example of that prior to evaluation democracy that softened the government spiral in which the divorce, driven from in this instance (remember the PP above in the name of progress, between and use, or the Minister for Agriculture saying the Ebro the uses and resources of the territories, diversion would happen “whether we along with the mismanagement of water, arti!cial waste liked it or not”), but rather the battle was lead to ever-increasing environmental products, which largely won in Brussels when the grants damage and water “deficits”, that serve to requested to finance the construction by de!nition also 6—Velasco, J. L. (2015): Crónicas eléctricas. Breve y trágica historia del sector lack value, thus eléctrico español, Madrid, Foca&Akal. generating an «environment» unstudied by the system.

Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 49 of this mega-project were deferred sine diversion (the blithe financing of this below, is that the Tagus-La Mancha die due to the irrationality and amount diversion, by the way, constituted one diversion project went ahead, with the of the same. As I argued in a letter to the of the ruinous operations triggering determination to promote and make Directorate General for the Environment the collapse of the Caja de Ahorros del money from hydraulic works of little of the European Commission7 Mediterráneo) which made no sense if technical-economic-environmental logic regardless of the “environmental the Ebro diversion had been eliminated, gaining the upper hand, to the detriment damage” the operation would cause, as it was dependent on it, and the Tagus- of good management of the hydro three requirements that could justify La Mancha diversion, which made no resources available. a diversion project were missing: that sense either as the project to divert 850 In fact, the project of diverting water at the offtake there should be quantity, Hm3(!) from the Duero to the headwaters from the Tagus river to La Mancha using quality and height enough to transport of the Tagus, included in the PHN of 1993, the Tagus-Segura diversion channel, through gravity the programmed had already been abandoned in the PHN remained in place in 1993, applying to amount of water, with good quality. But 2000. Brussels for financing under the heading all three requirements failed, as I took But apart from maintaining works of “environmental investment”, though the time to demonstrate, among other lacking any technical, economic or unsuccessfully. forums, in a monographic edition that I environmental rationale, it more than A “committee of experts” was created coordinated of the magazine Archipiélago made up for the diversion of the Ebro with to speed up this decision, of which I (n.º 57) entitled “El agua: un despilfarro new and disproportionate investments was made a member on the initiative interesado”. The impasse in Brussels for in desalination throughout the of Brussels. A request was sent to the subsidisation of the “environmental Mediterranean arc, to meet the demands Brussels for a decision on this project investment” requested for the diversion of a hydraulic lobby now reconverted into that promised to save the towns and gave enough time for the PP to lose the builders of desalination plants which, as provinces of La Mancha from the absurd elections, for the first term of Zapatero they are underused, exponentially increase scenario of “dying of thirst” in the midst and for the repeal of the Ebro diversion to the price of their product. And as if the of a sea of inefficient irrigation systems. be included in the investiture pact signed situation were not clear enough, the public An agreement between the committee with IU and other parties, to obtain the company responsible for promoting and members proposed by the Ministry for support necessary to govern. Moreover, contracting the overambitious programme the Environment, who were openly and the repeal of the project appeared to offer of investments in desalination plants along unanimously in favour of the megaproject, a reasonable way out given that both the Mediterranean coast, ACUAMED, is and those proposed by Brussels, who had the Minister for the Environment of the currently being prosecuted along with its an independent point of view, proved time, Cristina Narbona and the PSOE directors for corruption. impossible. As a result, different reports presidents of Aragon and Catalonia had Thus, in its context, the cancellation of ended up being released. In the report previously opposed the Ebro diversion. the Ebro diversion has been only a relative drawn up by me, together with José María However, the investiture pact was triumph of the movement towards a Gascó and Gregorio López Sanz, and exclusively limited to abolishing this new water culture (organised under the supported by Francisco Díaz Pineda, the project and nothing else. Meaning it foundation of the same name Una Nueva project was disqualified as, once again, removed the very visible and conflictive Cultura del Agua) and the environmental it failed on the three requirements that thorn of the Ebro diversion from its movement in general, has not succeeded might justify a diversion: the project aimed side, but left the rest of the indigestible in changing the inertia of the traditional to supply the municipalities scattered over hotchpotch of hydraulic works intact, hydraulic works policy, nor the spiral of the vast plain of La Mancha, bringing them including the PHN 2000 as an annex. squandering that it generates. Further water from another basin that was neither These included the Júcar-Vinalopó proof of this, as I will go on to describe abundant nor offered better quality than

7—Accessible on the Vertidos de material following link on the Website tóxico gestionados por la of the Fundación Nueva empresa Befesa, Nerva Cultura del Agua: http://www. (Huelva), Mayo de 2014. fnca.eu/ fnca/docu/docu28. © Foto E.L. pdf. Toxic waste dumps managed by the company Befesa, Nerva (Huelva), May 2014. © Foto E.L.

50 The song of the earth Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 51 the average found in La Mancha8 by means public money and/ or the financial help Geológico Nacional…, or the Instituto of a single system requiring a headwaters of local and regional despotism embodied de Edafología del CSIC and the Mapa pump of three hundred metres. Our big over the years by the Savings Banks. Edafo-lógico Nacional, on top of the success was preventing the megaproject The increase in company profits and the well-known construction of reservoirs from receiving EU financing, but the economic growth observed during the for hydroelectric and irrigation purposes, feeble opposition put up in La Mancha boom years have not, however, resulted in and the irrigation plans associated with was incapable of stopping the regional generalised quality of life improvements the INC and the subsequent IRYDA and national governments of PSOE from for the majority of the population, (National Institute for Agrarian Reforms satisfying the hydraulic lobby with this destined at the end of the day to pay for and Development). All in connection dream package of works and ended the banquet of profits, capital gains and with the powerful conglomerate of public up financing this absurd project with commissions gained in this way, and companies in the INI (National Institute of taxpayers’ money. It must be remembered guzzled down by some over the years 11. Industry). that part of the water diverted was to E.L.—Which errors and successes -if As a civil servant and economic analyst, supply the installations of the mega real there were any- would you highlight in rather than reorientation, what I have estate project “Reino de Don Quijote”, now Spain’s raw materials policy of the last 20 witnessed is the mere liquidation or bankrupt, in Ciudad Real (with its empty, to 30 years? extreme reduction of this conglomeration 1.3 billion-euro private airport), that of entities and companies which in its day dragged the savings bank, Caja Castilla-La J.M.N.—I don’t believe there is any had tried to foster knowledge and guide Mancha, down with it in its fall, as it had veritable State policy in the matter of financed the project. And to top it all off, raw materials. Perhaps a more structured the management of the country’s natural in spite, or perhaps because, of feeding a policy may have existed in the “autarchy” resources to promote self-sufficiency. hydraulic and real estate demagogue of of the post-war years, driven by shortages This dismantling is rife with gaps in such dimensions, the PSOE government and the difficulties with supplies, and knowledge along with a lack of reflection that had promoted it lost the second last because of similar worries and the and consensus that give rise to blithe and elections in La Mancha. autarchic solutions employed in Nazi self-interested decisions on megaprojects as deplorable as installing a major gas The interested reader can find a summary Germany (such as the manufacture of deposit in front of the coasts of Tarragona of my views on water management in artificial oil, mentioned above). and Castellón: the so-called Castor Spain, intrinsically associated with those It is no surprise that in the early Franco Project, that led to earthquakes and was of Antonio Estevan, in the book we wrote years, to cover the shortage of fuels, abandoned, though not before paying jointly to guide the hydraulic policy of a considerable fleet of cars running a compensation of 1.351 billion euro Zapatero’s9 first government from the on producer gas (obtained in the gas to the construction company, partially perspective of a new water culture, as producers incorporated into these owned by ACS, awarded the project, for well as in my introduction to the highly vehicles) was in operation along with abandonment of the same. All of this in recommendable book by Antonio Estevan German technology, electric vehicles times of severe budgetary restrictions, (2008) entitled Herencias y problemas de la (that worked on batteries charged with 10 such as those of November 2014. política hidráulica española . electricity from hydraulic and coal-fired E.L.—How has the matter of natural In short, all of this forms part of the power stations) and that there was an new capitalist accumulation phase we attempt to obtain oil from the bituminous resources inclusion in the national are experiencing, in which the most slates of Puerto-llano. In this context, accounts progressed? powerful companies promote speculative the Instituto Geológico Nacional and J.M.N.— The monetary reductionism operations and lucrative megaprojects the national company ADARO were of the current System of National of dubious social interest, oiled with promoted, with projects such as the Mapa Accounts (in turn, accredited by the

8—Our report, which is far 10—Antonio Estevan (2008). 11—See: Aguilera, F. y Naredo more than a simple verdict, is Herencias y problemas de la J. M. (Eds.) (2009) Economía, available on the Webpage of política hidráulica española, poder y megaproyectos, the Fundación Nueva Cultura Bilbao Bakeaz. It is also Lanzarote, Fundación César FNCA) del Agua: http://www. worth referring the reader Manrique, Col. «Economía & fnca.eu/ fnca/docu/docu85. interested in my opinions Naturaleza». pdf) on the paradoxes involved in the traditional opposition 9—Estevan, A. y Naredo, J. between public and private, M. (2008) Ideas y propuestas and between planning and para una nueva política del water markets to the following agua en España, Bilbao, text available on the Website Bakeaz. of FNCA: http://www.fnca.eu/ fnca/docu/docu243.pdf.

52 The song of the earth «... The increase in company pro!ts and the economic growth observed during the boom

United Nations and the EU) means have not, however, decisions. that its normal representation of the resulted in general At the same time, some countries have economic system does not reflect either developed specific accounts systems the natural resources prior to evaluation quality of life adapted to their own resources and and use, or the artificial waste products, territories, that are useful for a management which by definition also lack value, thus improvements for of the same based on knowledgeable generating an «environment» unstudied the majority of guidance and agreement, in which not only by the system. The national accountants, are the physical and territorial dimensions aware of the limitations inherent to this the population, of the natural resources associated with the reductionism, have opened the door of territory and the extraction, transportation the system to relevant physical and social destined at the and usage flows recorded, but so also are information through the so-called “Satellite the monetary flows linked to them. This Accounts”. Satellite accounts may appear end of the day is what I was trying to promote in Spain in education (that include the number to pay for the with the creation in 1987 of an Inter- of teachers, students, etc.), in healthcare ministerial Commission for the Natural (with the number of patients, hospital banquet of pro!ts, Heritage Accounts, aimed at filling this beds, etc.) and the environment (with gap in our country. After over two years resources in the territory, soils, lithology, capital gains and of work, elaborating and agreeing the flora, fauna, ecosystems, landscapes… the methodology and priority projects with the flows of resources used and the waste commissions Governmental departments most involved generated, etc.) all in connection with gained in this way in the area, it was halted in its tracks due the monetary flows assigned to these to a lack of political support: as I did not areas. Nonetheless, the National System and guzzled down obtain the budgets and means necessary to of (monetary) Accounts continues to move it forward, I preferred to make the govern the management, displacing the by some over the issue very clear by abandoning my duties as rest to the category of “satellite accounts”. years.» secretary of the Commission and even my I remember an international meeting on job as a civil servant, taking my research national accounts at which I gave a talk on interests to other fields. Unfortunately, the subject and concluded by expressing over thirty years later, the majority of my hope that in the future some of the the information deficits underlined in “satellite accounts” would end up becoming the Commission’s final Report are still true planets. But for that to happen, we practically uncorrected at a time when the would need to overcome the current economic scenario and the technical means monetary reductionism, making way for would have made it perfectly possible. multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary The ANNEX 1: Brief history of the Inter- economic approaches, for approaches ministerial Commission on the Natural that prioritise the principle of knowledge Heritage National Accounts (CICNPN) in integration as opposed to the current the Autobiographical section of my website 12 dominion of sectorial and partition-based El rincón de Naredo , documents this sorry approaches that nurture the current tale. Tower of Babel of scientific specialities E.L.—In what part of the Spanish and institutions responsible for making economic policy do you detect obstacles

12—http://www. elrincondenaredo.org/ autobiogra!a.html

Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 53 from the Franco regime that have not In general, the elites or castes have infrastructures policy in our country, been eradicated and continue to drag continued to plunder the public sector, guided by its eagerness to invoice “public” down the country’s functioning? tending to camouflage their despotic works and not correctly manage the J.M.N.—The democratic metamorphosis behaviour by flying liberal and democratic territory, transportation or water, with from the Franco regime in the transition banners as a decoy to divert criticisms its ecosystems and landscapes. This is period gave rise to an oligarchical towards theoretical market dictates and why Spain has undoubtedly inflated its reorganisation of power, in which certain the competitiveness that they themselves investments in public works, as a leader in elites continued to make the big decisions trample on a daily basis, to stealthily airports, motorways… or high-speed rail and nurtured the big businesses turning impose and assign á la carte privatisations, per capita… as well as the percentage of their backs on the majority. The same operations, capital gains, contracts and geographic surface covered in reservoirs. public administrations continue to gifts in favour of their very individual And that is why the State administration bow to the dominant business or party interests, and to the detriment of the and the public or semi-public companies interests in each given sector… or in each majority. have always been manipulated by municipality, meaning it is normal for Let us review two premises of the power and used to shelter politicians or them to work towards these interests and dominant ideology that is accustomed to technicians loyal to the same, acting as that corruption generally tends to prosper camouflaging and/ or justifying operations procurers at the service of company and/ under a legal umbrella. In urban planning, of this type: one is the theoretical lack of or political party interests, showing up legalisation exalted the “urban planning connection between public and private, the osmosis between economic power agent” which, in coexistence with the and the other the hypothetical benefits of and political management. Occasionally, local politicians, freely used the land private management as opposed to public, this management has bled the public reclassifications tool “to make big bucks or the market versus planning. companies to the point of bankruptcy, to then sell them at cut price claiming that out of urban planning”. As a result, urban The first is that the usual discourse they constitute a burden for the State. The operations and megaprojects that would confronts the public and the private as if example of how the savings banks have have been considered a scandal during the they were different entities, giving rise been acting as the financial arm of the Franco years multiplied afterwards under to the confrontation between a (neo) local and regional despotism, to the point the mantle of legal impunity and good liberalism claiming to be in favour of the of ruination, to then be refloated with political and entrepreneurial know-how. private and a left-wing that defends the public money and sold at enormous losses The novelty compared to the Franco public. This latter tends to assume that to the State clearly demonstrates this years lay in the fact that manipulation the public is independent of the private behaviour. of public assets for private interests and that it is managed for the common and the innate corruption this implies good, or bearing in mind the general Having identified private management cannot persist if it is clearly visible in (not individual) interests. However, with a free, competitive, transparent theoretically democratic regimes. Which the problem lies in the fact that this market and perfect information, and is why there is an attempt to cover up the independence has been remarkable for its attributed it the beneficial qualities that manipulation and/ or misappropriation absence in the majority of cases, although appear in the economy manuals, the of public assets, concluded in the every effort is made to make it seem a conclusion is that private management shadows or justified with tall tales and given by dressing private interests up as is better or more efficient than public misunderstandings aimed at confusing public. Thus by declaring the majority and the convenience of privatising such the people. And that is why the well- of the works of “public interest”, they management is promoted. The prevalent documented reporting of this plundering get around the fact that the lobby of confusion arises from the unrelenting is essential to deflate these tall tales and the major construction companies is spread of the idea of the market as so-called misunderstandings. the entity truly governing the general panacea, with its theoretically ideal

54 The song of the earth beneficial functions, when at the same rather than (neo)liberalism to describe “productive forces” as the driving force. time the word market is also used to the despotic power regime that has been The result of all this seems quite clear indiscriminately designate all exchanges organising the plunder of public assets today: these systems could not give rise to in which price comes into play, whereas during the democracy years. Indeed, the truly alternative societies. these are simply termed business practices reported very clearly illustrate E.L.—Let’s talk about the theoretical the “evil politician of despotism, whose exchanges. But the exchanges do not Green Economy, the basic idea is the goal -claimed Macías Picavea in his classic tend to be free, competitive, transparent commercialisation of the biosphere’s book on the subject entitled El problema or perfect, particularly in the case of regulatory functions via payment for water, land, money or other asset-related nacional (Madrid, 1899)— is defined in environmental services, PES. elements that are not produced, like two inferior aspirations: to dominate, not tomatoes, for consumption. In addition, govern; to plunder, not administer”. Let J.M.N.—It all begins with a conflict the businessman’s goal is not to compete us conclude by saying that the economic between economy and ecology that in a free market, but rather to rise as a restructuring required by the current crisis confronts different objects of study and monopolist, meaning that any result of the should go hand in hand with a political reasoning systems: while the former public-private struggle does not confront restructuring to prevent the people reasons on the monetary aggregates of planning and market, but rather planning from becoming victims of abuse like that people, companies and countries, the latter for the people versus planning for the suffered in recent years yet again in the does so on the biosphere, the territory and profit of some. future, illustrated by the abundance of the ecosystems at different aggregation corruption cases being tried in the courts. levels and it is clear that the first can grow No, the blame for the larceny committed by depleting the second. An “environment” in our country cannot be laid at the door of E.L.—What do you think of the unstudied by the system also appears, the market’s free will or a malignant (neo) statement made by André Gorz (author riddled with social and ecological damages liberalism, but rather the exertion of a of Crítica de la razón económica in 1989 that the economic process generates (and despotic power more characteristic of the and Ecológica in 2008): “Catastrophe ignores) in its desire to increase certain Old Regime. Indeed, it is the hand of this cannot be avoided without leaving monetary aggregates. An environment power that continues in its wish to award behind the economic logic of the last that would not exist as such for open and privileges, concessions or monopolies to 150 years”? trans-disciplinary economic approaches whomsoever it pleases. It is this freedom J.M.N.—I agree, as in my opinion that prioritise the principle of knowledge of the powerful, more typical of an this economic logic constitutes a key integration as opposed to the normal absolute power regime, that now claims element in the prevalent ideology. But it partition-based approaches. to be setting real estate “operations”, is important to take into account that this privatizations and various contracts in economic logic goes far beyond what has In my book Raíces económicas del dete- motion, not the egalitarian freedom for been called capitalism. In fact, this is the rioro económico y social I spell out the all that the liberal utopia calls for. We logic that has also generally impregnated rules of the economic game that drive must realise that the so-called capitalist the experiences of “real socialism” the human race’s predator behaviour, society is not the embodiment of liberal presented as alternatives to capitalism. degrading this unstudied environment. utopia, but rather the fruit of a complex In line with the economic theories of And when the analytical network of one historic evolution conditioned by previous Marxism, they accepted the idea of an approach fails to include an unstudied hierarchical societies which in our country economic system conceived by the classic “environment” there are two possible laid the foundations for a despotism that economists, even further magnifying the approaches. One, is to attempt to extend rides again nowadays in a liberal guise. metaphor of production and the myth of and cast out that same analytical network To unmask this character, I believe it is growth as unequivocal sources of progress, again in order to capture certain elements necessary to use the term neo(despotism) on presenting the development of the of that “environment”. And the other

Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 55 «... implicitly debated problem lies in clarifying whether the economic world is to turn to other analytical networks should continue The second is that applied by the so- considered more suited to this purpose. to revolve around called “ecological economy” which adopts Both possibilities are currently under a trans-disciplinary approach which, development. the nucleus of without discarding the monetary reasoning, The first uses the so-called “green pecuniary values or, turns to elaborations by disciplines economy”, by which it extends the such as ecology, thermodynamics…, or yardstick of money to evaluate elements of on the contrary, we hydrology, for which the aforementioned this “environment” with a view to bringing unstudied “environment” does not exist them back into the fold of the ordinary should displace the as the elements and systems it is made economy by applying a cost-benefit up of form part of their normal object of study. But the imperialism of the ordinary analysis and the so-called “market-based re"ection towards economic approach is so powerful that it conservation”. To do so, it attempts to the physical and has succeeded in imposing its views and its extend property and exchange or allocate language the world over, without any real monetary value to the different elements, institutional consciousness of it. systems and processes that make up this environment”, to subsequently impose universes that Let us imagine that the “ecological charges and payments based on two economy” or as I call it “eco-integrational principles: who pollutes pays (for the surround it, to approach” goes beyond the normal “environmental damage” caused” and who o#er a satisfactory disassociation between human and nature, conserves charges (for the “environmental economy and ecology, or economy and services” or “ecosystems” supplied by a response to the environment, by reasoning with broader hypothetical nature removed from the approaches and objects of study than those human species, maintaining the old mind- ecological or of the ordinary economy, which considers body Cartesian Dualism, and ignoring the human species an inherent part of the the fact that the nature in question is so “environmental” biosphere and the economy an ecosystem profoundly interfered with that there is issues that concern to analyse with all of its pieces (physical, no possibility of considering it separately socio-political… and monetary). Rather from the human species which, moreover, us.» than siding with the Cartesian Dualism obtains the majority of services from and continuing to confront the human the agricultural, industrial… or urban, species with nature, this approach aims ecosystems). This is why we are witnessing to create an enriching symbiosis between the curious tenacity of a discipline that, the two. Nor does it deem nature an erratic without changing approaches, attempts and uncontrolled “environment”, but to study the unstudied environment that rather considers it subject to the laws and it itself has segregated. The big problem systems of operation that must be taken lies in the fact that the imperialism of the seriously into account when it comes to prevalent economy is so strong that it management. renders the people incapable of seeing that In all, the reliable application of the this current desire to make an economy of monetary evaluation techniques that environment that was previously not require good physical knowledge of the even studied, is as surreal as it would be to “environmental” assets or impacts to be make the metaphysical physical. valued, necessitating information on the

56 The song of the earth resources and behaviour of the physical ecological or “environmental” issues has laid the ground for the fraudulent processes and resources analysed by that concern us. The result of all this is use of language we witness daily. other disciplines. Hence, when analysed coexistence, and the implicit struggle If deconstructivism calls for the in depth, the extension of the object between two economic approaches that aim evasiveness of meaning, the endless of study to encompass “environmental to broach the natural physical environment task of hermeneutics, the infinite externalities” leads to a connection from two different perspectives of nature: interpretation in which full meaning between economic reasoning and both one, the idea of the “environment” (that is never attained, then the doors are the discourse and modelling of disciplines maintains the Cartesian Dualism and the opened a chink to the mendacious which, like ecology and thermodynamics, human species-nature divorce) and another and fraudulent use of language, and already included these “externalities” in based on the notion of the “biosphere”, nothing, on the other hand, could be their usual field of reflection. And with which the human species participates further from the authors described as it arises the need to change the statute in, with all of its ecosystems (including deconstructivists. But the fact is that at of the standard economy itself that the clearly manipulated industrial, urban… or present we coexist on every front with aforementioned evaluation approaches agrarian ecosystems). I believe that a clear this deceptive and twisted language, discarded right from the beginning. plurality of approaches would contribute to which is why Public Works are suddenly called Infrastructures (God These and other paradoxes implicit in dissipating the ambiguous current situation. forbid anyone should associate them the objective of creating an “economy of E.L.—Might the indigenous peoples with the public good…), genocides are the environment” are fruit of the desire that inhabit sensitive areas of the called collateral damages, asbestos is to transfer the economic reflection to the biosphere such as tropical forests or called crysotile (because nobody knows physical world within the framework of a coastal marshes be positively affected if what crysotile is) and the search for the mental and academic compartmentalisation they are paid to conserve them? maximum benefit is called sustainable that are unsuitable for this purpose. And as J.M.N.—Yes they could, but the benefit, etc. usually occurs when new problems that are experience in Ecuador of saving the difficult to fit into former conceptual and There’s certainly nothing better than Amazonian rain forest and the indigenous administrative structures arise, situations reading your book Raíces económicas peoples, paying to conserve them, did not rich in ambiguities that are anything but del deterioro ecológico y social to prove to be a very successful use of this enlightening are generated. This is what understand the tangle that sustains type of tool. The experience never came to happened when the eclectic Tycho Brahe the alleged “sustainable development”. fruition and my friend, the economist and system (that admitted that the planets But, what’s the remedy for that? Apart minister, Alberto Acosta, who proposed revolve around the Sun, but still maintained from the fact that a good diagnosis it had to resign when the extraction and that the Sun revolved around the earth) constitutes half the cure. exploitation interests in the government replaced the Ptolemaic model, as an J.M.N.—It’s true that in that book I do itself and even among the indigenous intermediate step towards acceptance of provide some of the key aspects governing people affected prevailed, as they were the new cosmology of Copernicus, Kepler self-interested management which is the offered gifts and promises. and Galileo. Now the implicitly debated whole point of using language to side- problem lies in clarifying whether the E.L.—Now let’s move on to the myth step problems or defuse conflicts. One economic world should continue to revolve of development and delve a bit deeper very widespread procedure consists of around the nucleus of pecuniary values into the subject of language. I was combining the opposites of a conflict in or, on the contrary, we should displace particularly interested in you drawing a new word, or making an adjective out the reflection towards the physical and attention to the fact that -to put it of another, to imply that this conflict has institutional universes that surround it, briefly- deconstruction, afterwards been resolved or is in the process of being to offer a satisfactory response to the commonly called post-modernism, resolved. That’s the case of the term

Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 57 sustainable development, used to build a sustainability, stability or viability of ecology13. Proposals that range from the virtual bridge between developmentalists the systems, we realise that this is what subject of information on territory and and conservationists through language ecology had been doing all along and it natural resources and the metabolism of thereby defusing the traditional conflict. is what triggered the original unsolved the systems, such as that developed by The term sustainable development has the conflict between developmentalists and the former Inter-ministerial Commission benefit of pleasing both developmentalists conservationists. And we see that at the for the Natural Heritage Accounts…, to and conservationists at the same time, heart of all this lie the conflicts between the aforementioned book Thanatia. Or resulting in a gift for politicians and the economy and ecology, consubstantial also proposals relating to the institutional businessmen, as by flying this flag they with the Western notion of human nature framework, such as those developed in the succeed in attracting everybody. and the dominant economic ideology case of water… or urbanism, that I’ve just To answer your question, my first which, as I have already indicated, would referred to. recommendation is to distrust the language benefit from a revision. E.L.—What do you think of the Free of power and to use the new adjectives E.L.—You advocate an eco- Trade Agreement with the USA, the ascribed as possible detectors of gaps or integrationist approach, the need for TTIP? unsolved issues. For instance, if the goal the economic system to co-evolve, J.M.N.—I take a critical stance because of sustainable development is invented, adapting to the ecological demands. deep down, the intention of the TTIP is to it’s because there is an implicit admission What measures could be taken to drive prepare the ground for the transnational that ordinary development was by nature this process? companies from the USA to run amok unsustainable. The same would be true J.M.N.—Precisely, compared to Cartesian in Ecología y ciudad, Barcelona, El viejo if, in the Escuela Técnica Superior de topo, for my participation in more official Arquitectura, of which I am professor Dualism and partitioned knowledge, I believe the principle of knowledge documents such as the territories of other ad honorem, a masters in bioclimatic countries, granting freedom of exploitation architecture were created, it would be integration needs to be prioritised, which is why I advocate the eco-integrational to the powerful. Nonetheless, I believe because the architecture taught in the that once again it has triggered deceptive approach. ordinary curriculum of the Escuela paid controversies. As the word Free appears no attention to the climate, orientation… An approach that in one sole eco root in the agreement title, all that seems to be or the materials of the environment, brings together the oikos of the economy missing is for the words trade prohibition thus implicitly highlighting this gap. Or and the ecology, preventing the current or contingentation to come before it, if mention is made of the quantitative divorce between the two. Unlike the confirming the rules that currently govern economy, it’s to cover up the fact that the monetary reductionism inherent to the the evaluation on which this trade rests. economy works with pseudo-measures of usual economic approach, this approach As I already warned in the book Raíces…, pseudo-magnitudes that fail to meet the will have to be multi-dimensional unless corrective institutional frameworks requirements of metrology when it comes and trans-disciplinary. It posits that are put in place, what I call the “notary to real quantitative science (for instance, humankind forms part of nature and that rule” will determine an evaluation it makes no sense to speak of quantitative the economic system, with its urban, hierarchy that benefits the countries, physics when -unlike the economy- physics industrial or agrarian offshoots, is an companies and people responsible for is the quantitative science, par excellence). ecosystem and as such needs to be studied, the final phases of management and My second recommendation consists of along the lines described above. Regarding commercialisation, causing the growing approaching the meaning of the adjectives the means and measures, they are the international specialisation to make the or suffixes independently. For instance, same ones we’ve been proposing from the “North-South”, “city-country” or “rich” setting aside the oxymoron of sustainable perspective of the ecological economy, and “poor” imbalance more pronounced development, to hone in on the future agro-ecology, industrial ecology…, or urban on every level. Indeed, in the trade case at

1 3—For instance, in the case of el Planeamiento Urbanístico water, see the aforementioned Español (2010), for the former book I wrote with Antonio Housing Ministry, that I Estevan (2008) Ideas y directed with José Fariña propuestas para una nueva or the extensive chapter I cultura del agua en España. jointly wrote with Salvador In the case of urbanism, see Rueda, applying the eco- the chapter «Instrumentos integrationist approach to para paliar la insostenibilidad the urban issue, in the Libro de los sistemas urbanos» Verde de Sostenibilidad that I penned in the book Urbana y Local en la Era coordinated by Teresa de la Información (2012). Arenillas (2003) the Libro In the case of Agriculture, Blanco de la Sostenibilidad en among my numerous works,

58 The song of the earth hand, the valuation of goods based solely was fruit of their commonly self-interested which is sometimes tremendously on the cost of obtaining them, that is, arbitrariness. In the trade case at hand, impressive and should be preserved and ignoring their “ecological deterioration I would insist that the valuation of goods occasionally, should even be open to baggage”, along with the growing based solely on the cost of obtaining them, visitors, presenting it as a reflection of specialisation, is also a source of ecological that is, ignoring their implicit “ecological a system that has promoted extraction deterioration and social and territorial deterioration baggage”, combined with the as opposed to recovery and recycling, polarization. And on top of the actual growing specialisation, is also a source of distancing itself from the biosphere’s rate of monetary valuation governed by ecological deterioration and both social innate functioning model (accustomed to these asymmetries, there is also a financial and territorial polarization. Remember closing cycles of materials, reconverting system that increasingly contributes to that in the book Raíces… and in the waste into resources) to make way for reinforcing the economic power of the rich more specialised volume THANATIA, Anthropocene. countries and their “economic agents”, the criteria needed to evaluate the For example, the landscape of Las apart from what the merely commercial complete physical cost of obtaining Médulas, generated by the Roman gold equilibriums would permit. products is established as a first step mining, is extremely interesting, as is that Like the WTO in its ongoing crusade for towards alleviating the current imbalance of Riotinto. They are unusual constructed free trade, the TTIP aims to extend the between physical cost and monetary landscapes worth seeing, in which neither “notary rule” to an international scale. value described in the “Notary Rule” by the cost nor the aesthetic result would This determination tends to ignore the laying down suitable rules. We believe the justify the desire to return them to their fact that the broad exercise of freedom establishment of this type of rules will original state. However, what should is fostered by the establishment of rules enable the spread of freedom of trade on not be allowed to happen is for them of play that are so unequivocally clear healthier ecological and social bases than to be left by the wayside, continuing to that, at the same time, they allow for the at present. pose pollution issues and for there to be conflicts, arbitrariness and inequalities to However, these matters continue to be populations who suffer from their toxicity. be reduced in the way they are handled. ignored in the discussion of “free trade agreements”. Since the French Revolution it has been common knowledge that laissez faire E.L.—And, finally, a question requires rules and “social networks” that about the Riotinto region and the help spread the exercise of freedom to the phosphogypsum in the estuary of Odiel: entire social body which in the former What is your diagnosis of the social Regime appeared to be monopolised by and ecological situation of the mining just a few. I would like to refer to the area of Huelva and the toxic material implementation of the Decimal Metric deposits, repeatedly reported by the System in 1791 in post-revolutionary local inhabitants? France, for instance, which unified and J.M.N.—As my knowledge of the simplified the existing system of weights subject is so precarious, I couldn’t and measures, thus facilitating trade make the diagnosis you’re asking me and that very same year made it possible for. My opinion is that I distrust the to suppress the specialised juries who mining restoration as a general, ideal had to notarize the exactitude of the solution. Rather, I believe that there measurements and intervene in the should be a balance between some endless trials and complaints generated by restoration and the maintenance of the issue, juries whose lack of popularity the landscape generated by mining,

the book I co-wrote with José López Gálvez (1996) Sistemas de producción e incidencia ambiental del cultivo enarenado y en sustratos, Fund. Argentaria y Visor Distrib., Col. «Economía y Naturaleza» is worth mentioning (currently accessible in the publications section of the afrementioned Fundación César Manrique).

Questions to José Manuel Naredo Eva Lootz 59 AND Isabel Tejeda BEYOND, Before the wig and the coat were the rivers, the arterial rivers; the mountain ranges, in whose weary wave ON THE the condor or the snow appeared, unstirring: the thickness of the humidity, the yet unnamed thunderclap, the planetary pampas. Man was earth, a vessel, the eyelid OTHER of the quivering clay, a form from the mud of the earth, a Carib pitcher, a chibcha stone, an imperial chalice or an Araucanian silica. Tender and bleeding he was, but on the hilt of SIDE OF his moist crystal weapon, the earth’s initials were inscribed. Nobody could remember them later: the wind forgot them, the language of water was interred, the keys THE EARTH, were lost or drowned in silence or blood2. THE Pablo Neruda LANGUAGE OF WATER1

1—This text would not have been possible Local children learn about mycelium in the Liverworts, moss and bromelia store water without the collaboration of Adela Chacín, dead leaves of the woods © Fotos: Matías Estévez-Chacín Tomás Estévez, Rafael Robles Cuéllar and Natalia Cardona. Thanks to each and every one of you for your generosity when sharing knowledge. And to Matías Estévez-Chacín for his excellent photos.

2—Fragment by Pablo Neruda, “Amor América (1400). La lámpara de la Tierra”, en Canto General (1950).

60 The song of the earth A year ago, when I was with Eva Lootz starting on her project imagination turns to a search for what we were, a longing The Song of the Earth, we came across three core elements of imbued with the category of the sublime that places us at the the first stages of the peninsula’s history: copper, salt and water, brink of a precipice over which we are lured to leap. I believe the latter being of cardinal importance in the economic growth this is why, in highly anthropised regions, like some areas of of Spain in recent decades. Lootz had been pondering all increasing desertification in the south east of the peninsula, three for years. In the mid-eighties she photographed the salt people feel the need to stain their roads and roundabouts green; marshes of Torrevieja in Alicante, immense open-air containers a scenography of plastic and paint which is soothing to the eyes. of raw material formed by the neo-quaternary basins. Salt, now piled in mounds next to the coast, was once currency, The Earth preserves relicts of primeval nature; one European an instrument of commercial exchange and Salario, Salary, example of this is the Białowieza forest (Poland), and, of an installation of salt, wood and olive leaves in paraffin, that course mention should also be made of the coldest and most tells a metaphorical story. Copper had caught Lootz’ interest inaccessible areas of the planet. The Amazon rainforest, the throughout those years, particularly the copper on which planet’s major biological reservoir is undergoing unstoppable the history and landscape of the Rio Tinto mines in Huelva destruction by deforestation, under attack by speculation from were constructed and, although she had not yet completed a the rubber, wood, oil and farming industries. The fact that specific project on the material, she included it in her latest reserves which preserve areas of primary forest exist only a few book Escultura negativa. We worked together on water in kilometres from areas of overpopulation, is surprising. Such Hidrografías, in Murcia’s Sala Verónicas: an asset that is now is the case of Passiflora, a mountain gorge which has a strip the subject of territorial disputes but over which, in a dystopian of primary forest, as well as secondary forest.4 The gorge is in future, wars might be fought. A few weeks ago, in the last phase Tabio (Colombia), in the eastern range of the northern Andes, of the project, Eva Lootz put together the music of Mahler with specifically the Cundinamarca region, and only fifty kilometres a “martinete” sung by Manuel el Agujetas, while I contemplated from the city of Bogota with its nine million inhabitants. It is a her peculiar history of the planet told through water, copper natural reserve of 20 hectares, its highest point is 3100 metres, and salt. And that was when I was reminded of a Columbian and it is private – there is a very limited public structure in mountain steeped in tales, displaying common protagonists in Colombia. It was purchased years ago by the museologist and admirable form. As Eva Lootz suspects, the gorge I visited a visual artist Adela Chacín and biologist Tomás Estévez. Tabio year ago on the other side of the ocean demonstrated that “the lies in an area in the midst of real estate speculation. With its elements of the earth and their properties come before ideas spectacular beauty and proximity to the economic and political as guides to human destiny. In other words, materials make centre of the country, Bogotans find the area very attractive the world and prefigure the history of humankind, because the for both main residences and second homes. Therefore, the Earth always comes first and human beings afterwards”.3 Passiflora reserve is in permanent danger, but is being healed and cherished, so that not only will it continue to speak the Europe is anthropic almost in its entirety. Those of us born language of water, as Neruda would say, but will reveal to us in this area find the concept of a region where nature has not what we are and what we were. been transformed by human activity difficult to grasp. These mutations are those designed by our ancestors and which we The main contributory of the Chicú flows from a mountain continue to develop, in a slow and secular distancing from spring, the river Tincé; its water streams purified through the origins. The fact that we have transformed nature into a mountain’s sandstone soil, lichens and minerals. This water landscape is intimately related to the imagination. And from has no need for further purification because the mountain this an estrangement is born, as occurred with the aesthetic regulates and filters it, ensuring its quality. Passiflora lies on category of the exotic in the eighteenth century, which fashions a Cretaceous sandstone formation that was seabed 65 million our current attraction for things wild and indomitable. Our years ago and whose rocks form aquifers. In this region,

3—Eva Lootz, “The Song of the Earth”, 4—The secondary forest is generated from the in this same publication. remains of lost primary forest.

Y más allá, a otro lado de la tierra: la lengua del agua Isabel Tejeda 61 Chacín and Estévez coordinate environmental knowledge, of water, which was considered idolatry. Rituals of gratitude archaeology of the landscape and its social use and convey to were forbidden. their guests, friends and strangers alike that: “depending on the cycle of the aquifers and the mean retention time of the The Muisca temples were destroyed. Drunk on the notion water’s journey to the subterranean world, visitors have the of El Dorado, some of the colonists desecrated the lakes in opportunity to try different tastes at the side of the springs, search of the precious gifts of gold that had been thrown to knowing that they are drinking waters which rained down the waters. From a mythical element and basis of the Muisca’s decades or even millennia ago, according to the depth of each farming tradition, water became a possession of the State. The spring. Thus visitors can experience the water’s memory”.5 Muisca’s other economic base was trade: emeralds, copper For the Muisca, the pre-Columbian culture that inhabited this and, above all, salt. The same fate as water also befell salt, as a strip of the Columbian Savannah, Tincé, named for knowledge highly important raw material: the Muisca used it not so much and use, meant “hidden waters”; the mountain from which as a condiment but as currency for trade with neighbouring it flowed was thought sacred, a sanctuary. The Muisca tribes. They formed it into cakes for ease of transport. Muisca worshipped water, considering it a supreme being. Even the land was rich in salt, with countless deposits throughout number 1, in the Chibcha language – the family of languages the region.9 The Muisca also lost their monopoly over to which these native languages belonged - was pronounced copper, which was essential firstly, for their fine gold work in the same way as water: ata. In Muisca culture, which was and secondly, to trade for gold, plentiful in the southern very anthropologically sophisticated and maintained crossed populations, that they used in their offerings to the lake. The matrilineal filiation, Bachué was the great goddess, the exploitation of the salt, emeralds and copper of the area which original figure, the great mother, and was again identified with had already been baptised New Granada fell into the hands water6. According to the late eighteenth century chronicles of the Spanish Crown. This change of name erased part of of José Domingo Duquesne, a priest who wrote a dissertation the memory of the region in a process of appropriation and based on his field studies of the Muisca calendar, water syncretism which, over time, resulted in symbolic meanings signified the beginning, it was a sign when it fell from the becoming superimposed and hybridised. mountains in the first winter, in January, that the crop should 7 be planned. Aware of the dangers of uncontrollable nature, The indigenous farmers have kept the culture of water alive. such as river floods with their furious waters inundating They believe in the existence of the Mohan, a mythical being harvests and dragging lives along with them, the Muisca that is a mixture of hermit and creatures of fable. Fierce and formed a homeostatic relationship with nature: they cared elusive with skin of moss and long hair trailing the ground, the for it and were cared for by it, they received and they gave8. Mohan lives in creeks, streams and gorges, wherever there is Life protected life, it generated the conditions to make life water. It is possible that the creature originates from the figure possible. Offerings to the gods were buried under hundred- of the shaman and indigenous doctor.10 According to native year-old trees and votive objects, often of gold, thrown into farmers these beings very occasionally contact them and people the waters; this happened ceremonially in the sacred lake of from outside or “from the dry”; they are both venerated and Guatavita. feared.11 According to popular culture, the Mohan continue After the arrival of the “wigs and coats” under the leadership to care for the water sources and are angered when they are of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada in 1536, the Spanish Empire contaminated or the course of streams altered. This is why, commandeered enormous amounts from both the material following the Muisca tradition, some farmers protect these and the symbolic culture of the Muisca. Acculturation was resources and take care not to defile mountain springs such as brought about in the name of evangelism, and steadily and those of Tabio. They continue to throw offerings to the water in mercilessly a damnatio memoriae declared on the language the form of cigarettes and alcohol.12

5—Adela Chacín and Tomás Estévez, “Un 7—José Domingo Duquesne, Disertación 9—The monumental mines of Zipaquirá 11—María Alicia Uribe et alii., Historias de encuentro con el agua y la biodiversidad de sobre el calendario de los muyscas, indios are now famous and have become a site of ofrendas muiscas, Bogota, Museo del Oro, los altos Andes en Colombia”. Unpublished naturales de este Nuevo Reino de Granada, religious pilgrimage and a tourist spectacle of UCL Institute of Archaeology, 2013, p. 82. paper sent to the author. 1795. Last entry 12/3/2016. http://www questionable taste. accefyn.org.co/proyecto/Documentos/ 12—Ibíd., p. 83. 6—According to Muisca mythology, Bachué Duques ne/Calendario.pdf. 10—Roberto Arturo Restrepo Arcila, “Los was a woman who came out of the lake cacicazgos del Área Intermedia. Entender el accompanied by a boy child. When the child 8—We have allowed ourselves to translate the antes para construir el ahora y proyectar el became a man, Bachué married him and concept of homeostasis of live organisms and después” In Sabiduría, poder y comprensión. their children were the Muisca. The mother their capacity to maintain an inner balance América se repiensa desde sus orígenes goddess taught the Muisca to cultivate the to an exemplary relationship between nature (Roberto Arturo Restrepo Arcila ed.), Bogotá, land, to hunt and to respect the gods. She and culture. Siglo del Hombre Editores, UNESCO, 2002, transformed into a snake and returned to the p. 160. lake with her husband.

62 The song of the earth Passiflora is an example nowadays of sustainability and thanks to the chambers that Estévez and his team have created conservation of natural and cultural heritage and serves to in the water springs visited by the animals of the region. illustrate that alternative energy policies are possible and can be supported by documents which, like the Unesco Charter of Chacín and Estévez have preserved a micro-habitat which 2000, demand a change of mentality towards the environment causes these species no stress, while keeping popular culture in order to find ways of harmonising “diversity with unity”. alive with the sensitive and empirical knowledge of the use of Unfortunately, these documents enable some of our political plants in indigenous medicine; for example, the plants used in representatives to appear on the front pages of the international Muisca tradition for their sedative and healing properties. This press one day, yet the next are no longer worth the paper they is biodiversity in connection with human beings, a balance to were written on. As I mentioned, Passiflora could serve as an enable co-existence. example. It was constructed on the principles of permaculture: a system theorised by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in 1978 Although now an AICA area, an Important Conservation Area which imitates the formulae of balance and energy exchange for the Birds of Colombia and the World, Passiflora’s existence of natural ecosystems. The water resources of Passiflora has been threatened on several occasions by an aggressive maintain their role as a vital source as they are collected in a process of land capitalisation. This capitalisation is new and, as tank which supplies 100 families in the area. Connections are suggested by Boltanski and Chaiapello, is deploying strategies also made with other relicts of the area, also created by civil to justify that this process is for the common good, in order to 15 society, forming corridors which are essential for the survival pre-empt any possible local objection. In 2009, the Colombian of endemic fauna, ensuring that these species, many in danger State, through the public company Ecopetrol, planned the of extinction, do not disappear through inbreeding or lack of construction of a poliduct, the Mansilla Tocancipá, to cross genetic mobility.13 mountains and reservoirs (the problem was that the existing oil pipeline had suffered numerous leaks and theft, hence the The mountain has become a museum: it has been interpreted, plan to modify its route). Five municipal offices of other small it has a route that holds a dialogue with those who travel it, communities which were affected, artists, universities and translating the language of water and the codes of nature the civil population in general united to protest against the familiar to our ancestors which we as urbanites have lost – from project, and held many peaceful activities including musical telling the time of day from the sun to understanding what a and theatre performances, creating posters, etc.; the poliduct footprint means or how a particular plant can be used. It is, project was halted. At the moment, and since 2014, the Empresa therefore, not only a natural but a cultural relict, a school for de Energía de Bogotá has plans to lay electrical cable in the the region’s homeostatic knowledge. area: to be specific, a high voltage tower of 12 x 12 m on the edge of Passiflora in order to bring power to the valley. The A visit to this gorge means entering the Gaia hypothesis mountain would undergo considerable trauma and injury in the materialised: the Earth as a self-regulating organism.14 The construction of the tower in the transportation of machinery mountain is both one and multiple organisms: under the newly and materials to its summit. fallen leaves lies a continuous mesh of organic material created by mycelia, which covers kilometres of the mountain’s surface In Colombia, as in the rest of Latin America, a healing approach to ensure that when it rains not a drop of water nor an ounce is taken rather than that of curator, which is more usual in of soil is lost. Passiflora contains sustainable human habitation, Spain. Chacín and Estévez along with their two children Elisa while serving as a reservoir of endemic species, some and Matías have learned the native language of the gorge and considered extinct and others thought to have fled the region – understand it as a common heritage that must be interpreted such as the mountain ocelot or the white-tailed Olalla. We now and made known, protected and preserved as they heal its know that these species remain in their original environment, wounds, while ethically easing the pain of the Earth.

13—Adela Chacín and Tomás Estévez, op. cit. 15—Luc Boltanski and Ève Chaipello, El nuevo espíritu del capitalismo, Madrid, Akal, 14—James Lovelock proposed the hypothesis 2002, p. 56. of Gaia, in 1969. Nowadays, this theory has many detractors, even internally. Lynn Margulis, a follower of Lovelock’s theories, has shunned the metaphysical readings which, from areas outside science, have been created from the Gaia hypothesis.

Y más allá, a otro lado de la tierra: la lengua del agua Isabel Tejeda 63 Tabacalera Promoción del Arte C/ Embajadores, 51, Madrid April 22nd to June 19th 2016 Tuesday to Friday from 12pm to 8pm. Saturday, Sunday and holidays from 11am to 8pm. http:/www.mcu.es/promoArte/index.html