Conclusion: What We Talk About When We Talk About Erosion

“What We Talk about When We Talk about Erosion” considers the global scale of erosion. Framing the discussion with a meditation on the concept of eros, the conclusion draws from the methodology of the “pluriverse” as articulated by Mario Blaser and Marisol de la Cadena via the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation). The conclusion focuses on erosion debates, including apartheid South Africa’s manipulation of erosion narratives; the rising tides of Venice, as represented by Lewis Baltz’s work Venezia MargheraEdward Said’s gestures to erosive deforestation in occupied Palestine in After the Last Sky (1999); and pre-colonial-invasion erosion control in Peru. These international examples demonstrate how anxieties of erosion engage narratives of the Global North and the Global South in locally specific ways. This closing international scope reframes the relevance of literary regionalism when facing planetary problems and illustrates how visual and literary narratives can both limit and enliven possibilities for the future.