Chile: taking care of the environment and our heritage to our children?

According to the Chilean President, and using his own words, “taking care of nature and the environment are priority and ethical matter” and “air, oceans, rivers, lakes, forests and mountains are not an heritage from our ancestors but a loan from our children and the children of our children”.

So what do you make of recent news?

To name 3 in example:

• Tatio geysers, located in the north part of the Chilean territory in the high valleys on the Andes, are the largest geyser field in the Southern Hemisphere (after the destruction of many of the New Zealand geysers) and the third largest geyser field in the world; are now to be compromised again by the exploratory drilling taking place there looking for a new way to feed the energy needs of the big mining companies situated near it. In September last year one of the wells leaked creating a 60 meter plume of boiling water, steam and gases, GDN the company in charge of the test took nearly a month to cap it. After this accident the prospections where stopped, until now…

• In the central-south part of the country, in the lakes area, two river basins the Petrohue and Cochamo, that were protected before, are now to be used for the construction of a series of hydroelectric plants

• The goverment is planing to move the salmon industry to the southern part of the country to the Magallanes Region, after the ecological disaster caused in Puerto Montt, where this industry was located until the virus ISA affected the majority of this intensive farms. One of the biggest problems associated with salmon farming is that the waste is discharge into the sea, spreading diseases and parasites that impact on local fish. The salmons can also escape, causing huge imbalances with local fish. Imagine now thousands of salmon farms contaminating this pristine untouched fjords. 

This projects are today still waiting to be approved, but where are we heading with this brilliant government proposals to take care of the environment and our heritage to our children?