Aysen Rising, Your Problem is My problem Social Movement

February 28th, 2012
Melbourne, Australia

Dear Friends:

Some days ago we received several messages from our friends telling us about the Aysen (up) Rising. It was not rare nor unpredictable. Certainly for several years they have been in constant battle for many causes, most of them social with a deep environmental component also.

Aysen is the most isolated region in Chile, part of the wonderful Patagonia this region proudly has one of the most bounded social-people structures in the country. The populations is small, winter is hard, the tele-communication companies have a limited coverage in the zone, the people communicate via radio UHF and via small messages sent by the local radio Santa Maria where is possible.

Some nights ago (for them) We were listening to Radio Santa Maria, ‘Claudita’, the local presenter, was receiving calls not only from journalist but also from local people telling what is happening, their thoughts and expectations about the movement they call: “Tu problema es mi problema” (Your problem is my problem). I remember one of the locals telling Claudita:
“No se trata de ser antisistema, este es un sistema que es antinosotros”.
“This is not about being anti-systemic, this is a system that is anti-ourselves”

The people from Aysen are just asking to have the right to live in good conditions, without the current limitations that money and influences put in their lands by foreign hands.

Patagonia without Dams march, Temuco, Chile

voyagers:

During our last week before leaving for Patagonia, we took part on the Patagonia Without Dams march that took place in Temuco

Todays demonstration was at a national level, all of Chile’s biggest cities are participating in a national movement to protect one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth

Here are some pictures, you can see more in our Flickr

A video about a neighbor building between 8:20 and 9:40 (with some pictures at 6:30 and 7:50 pm =) I blurred the video on purpose, because I wanted to avoid misunderstanding :P by green.lemonpie.cl

Codelco and Solarpack will build the first industrial solar plant in South America

Solarpack, the Spanish multi-national company specializing in solar photovoltaic power plant development, investment, consulting, and services, and Codelco, the largest copper producer in the world, will construct the first industrial solar electric power plant in South America.

The Calama Solar 3 project agreement specifies construction and operation of 1MW of installed power in a new solar photovoltaic power plant (equivalent to the consumption of 1,500 households). It will provide electric power to the mining company facilities in Chuquicamata, located in the north of Chile.

Chilean opinion leaders recorded a video about the consequences of building the thermoelectric projects in Punta de Choros, Chile

Audio in spanish with english subtitles

Endangered natural reserves in Chile: Damas y Choros, Chanaral

Chile is a coastal country, with more than 4,000 km of coastline there is no doubt about that. But it only has 5 marine reserves, which represent around 0.03%, much less than the 10% the country is supposed to preserve according to the summit at Johannesburg in 2002.

Today the marine reserve Isla Chanaral (Chanaral Island) and Isla Damas y Choros (Damas y Choros Island) and also the natural reserve Pinguino de Humboldt are endangered

About Barrick, Pascua Lama-Veladero Project

Pascua Lama-Veladero is a mine project operated by the subsidiaries of the Canadian transnational company Barrick Gold, the Compañía Minera Nevada Ltda. (Chile) and Barrick Exploraciones Argentina S.A. They plan to set up a gold, silver and copper mine in a semi-desert region of the Andean Cordillera, on the Chilean-Argentinean border. This project is located on the source of the Huasco river system on the Chilean side, and of the Cura Valley, on the Argentinean side. In Argentina, the mine lies within the San Guillermo Biosphere Reserve territories in the province of San Juan. In Chile, Pascua Lama is on the southern border of the Atacama Desert, one of driest in the world, and intrudes into ancestral Diaguita indigenous territory.

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

Lauca Biosphere Reserve Endangered

In one hand the government has just expanded the Araucarias Biosphere Reserve (situated in south-central Chile in the southern part of the volcanic Andean chain) from 93,833 hectares to 140,000 hectares. This is good news, right?

But in the other hand the same government wants to take 15% off of the 358,312 hectares that conforms the Lauca Biosphere Reserve (situated in the Puna biogeographic region, in the northern part of Chile in the Andean Chain) so they can extract copper, gold and silver. Without even minding international treaties and the original aymara people, who have been inhabiting those lands for centuries

Is it just me, or this doesn’t make any sense?

Chile, transgenic shame!!!

After the earthquake, in the middle of the worldcup, behind everybody’s back, the chilean parliament is trying to approve a law that would allow companies like Monsanto and Syngenta to freely sell their transgenic seeds, moreover giving them the power to ‘call the cops’ if someone is growing ‘natural’ seeds. Thus virtually transforming permaculture and organic farmers in outlaws.