GEAB 198

TERRA COGNITA 2089

We don’t know about you, but we love the Mediterranean infinitely—a crossroads of civilizations that have succeeded one another, met, exploited, challenged, fought, and loved each other across its blue waters and golden shores. All of European culture springs from this place, from this crucible of diversity, inquiry, transcendence, and intellect. A visit to Sardinia—now seemingly at the edge of the world—is enough to grasp how this sea, arguably the most beautiful on Earth, was once truly the ‘centre of the earth’[1].

It is therefore with great affection that we have considered its future. Yet it is with sadness that we emerge from our exploration: the eternal clichés about the friendship that must inevitably unite the peoples of the Mediterranean region sound increasingly hollow. Worse still, we can discern contempt and hatred on both sides. Worse still, they no longer sound true at all.

What vision emerges from our exploration? In 2050, the Mediterranean will be a dumping ground for all the world’s pollution (plastics, sewage, pipelines, cables, gas extraction sites, etc.), a gigantic sewer surrounded by concrete tourist complexes, a technical transit corridor between the major European, African and Asian hubs, a space that pits the cultural areas bordering it against each other, etc. And on reflection, this is only logical: the great global reconfiguration increasingly resembles a vast bypassing of the West, of Europe, and therefore of the Mediterranean.

Of course, we hope that this bitterly lucid article will contribute to a wake-up call that could change the trajectory we have glimpsed. Otherwise, what would be the point of writing it?