Beautiful Horizons

Where the Sun Never Shines

Christmas 1997 we spent the holiday at my father-in-law's farm in Araçuaí, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The day after Christmas, my brother-in-law invited several of us to visit a friend of his who managed a lithium mine. We took a a tour of the mine, descending to a little more than 200 meters.

The mine had three shifts a day and the woro only stopped on Christmas and New Years Day. It was hot, humid to the point of being difficult to breath (I grew up in Miami, FL without airconditioning and this was much worse), had an unpleasant small and was filled with dust. We wore goggles, earplugs, earmuffs, boots, etc, but it was still deafening. It was steady work in a poor part of one of the richer states in Brazil; a state whose name means General Mines.

I left the mine with the following conclusion: given the risks and the conditions in which they work, you cannot pay miners enough and I don't ever want to enter a mine again.

That makes me all the more happy about this. I also agree with Marc here. I long for the day that as much attention is given by the MSM to Chile's election this year as was given to this story and the earthquake in Chile. The same goes for Haiti, also facing an election shortly. The only time it seems to have come up recently was when Wyclef Jean announced his candidacy.

We all deserve better.

Electrical Power Issues in Chile

Larry Rohter has an article worth reading about a proposed hydroelectric dam project in Patagonia and the local opposition it is facing:

With Chile trying to manage both Latin America’s most dynamic economy and a looming energy squeeze, the government has embraced a plan to build a series of dams here in the rugged, pristine heart of Patagonia that would flood thousands of acres.

The plan, proposed by a Spanish-owned electricity company, would harness the rushing rivers of the sparsely populated region known as Aisén, which is dotted with national parks and nature reserves. But environmental groups have condemned the proposal, which they say will damage ranching and tourism. They have mounted an international campaign to block construction.

“There are so few places on earth with the qualities of the Patagonia region of Chile that it’s really criminal to try to foist this kind of project on the Chilean people in the name of avoiding impending blackouts and all that sort of thing,” said Glenn Switkes, Latin American coordinator for the International Rivers Network. “This is going to be a long battle, in the trenches, using every legal and political tactic possible.”

Here is the one of the key arguments against the proposal, in addition to the environmental concerns:

Project opponents agree that Chile needs a reliable supply of energy. But they argue that other renewable sources are available that are cheaper, less intrusive, more efficient and not subject to foreign control, in forms as diverse as geothermal energy and ethanol made from wood chips generated by tree plantations.

Chile has a vast desert called the Atacama that may be one of the driest places on Earth, but it also has a great deal of geothermal activity going on. It is sparsely populated, largely devoid of vegetation and because of its remoteness, was used extensively as a dumping ground for the victims of Pinochet's terrorism. It is so dry that most of the remains were found to be mummified, rather than decomposed. It has also been mined extensively for copper and other minerals for many years.

I certainly don't claim to be an expert, but the ecosystem in Patagonia certainly seems to be more fragile than  in the Atacama. I hope that the opponents win this battle.