Giants of the Earth
Remembering Our Connection
Chile is home to approximately 75–80% of South America’s glaciers, vast ice masses that store the water sustaining life. In 2020, the area covered by persistent snow and glaciers reached 2.8 million hectares.
Additionally, the country contains the driest desert in the world — the scorching Atacama Desert — featuring iconic dunes such as the largest in the Valley of the Moon and the Valley of Death.
Moreover, across Chile’s territory there are approximately 2,900 volcanoes, of which 91 are active (according to SERNAGEOMIN). These natural giants are spread throughout the country and form an essential part of our landscapes, ecosystems, and culture.
These natural giants — mountains, dunes, glaciers, and volcanoes — remind us of our smallness before the Earth, but also their fragility in the face of human exploitation: mining, intensive resource extraction, monoculture agriculture, excessive consumption, fast fashion, and global warming, which accelerates glacier melting.
Everything is interconnected. However, the Great Amnesia — a term coined by our founder, Isidora J. Ramírez Garmendia — has made us forget that everything is one. It describes how we have lost awareness that we are parts of a greater whole and that everything is connected.
This amnesia prevents us from seeing that natural walls — mountains, volcanoes, glaciers, dunes — are part of our Pachamama, our home, and urgently need protection.
For example, every year, Saharan winds transport 27.7 million tons of dust, including 22,000 tons of phosphorus, to the Amazon, replenishing essential nutrients in distant ecosystems.
We are not their owners, nor should we be their enemies: we must be their guardians.
Our Response
At We Through the Wall (WTTW), committed to defending Pachamama, we propose a photography and documentary project that explores these natural walls, their threats, and their interconnection.
This is a living documentary, featuring local voices and guardians of the land: indigenous communities, environmental conservation NGOs, and government actors. A purposeful project aimed at promoting environmental protection laws in South America and raising awareness.
Key actions:
- Document glaciers, dunes, volcanoes, and the communities that inhabit them, highlighting their cultural and ecological value.
- Visit committed territories: national parks, reserves, and areas of high environmental value.
- Interview and amplify the voices of guardians of water, hills, and ancestral culture.
- Show how mining, climate change, and glacial melting affect daily life.
- Reveal invisible connections: glaciers and dunes as water reservoirs; Saharan dust as fertilizer for the Amazon; volcanoes regulating local climates.
This documentary will be an educational and artistic tool that awakens global awareness about how Chile, as a custodian of unique landscapes, can lead active conservation worldwide.
How can you help?
To make this vision a reality, we need USD 25,000 for production, logistics, fees, and outreach. Your support will fund:
- Collaboration with local communities, indigenous groups, and NGOs on the ground.
- Audiovisual production: equipment, transportation, scripting, and editing.
- Outreach campaigns promoting environmental policies and cultural sensitivity.
Training local young teams as documentary protagonists.
“Because we are the protectors of these giant guardians, and their future is our own.”