Environmentalists and glacier activists prepare to rewrite Chilean Constitution
Protests against inequality and high cost of living in Santiago, Chile in 2019. source: Hugo Morales
From May 15th to 16th, millions of Chileans flocked to the polls, which will be a historic referendum: they are electing members of the National Assembly, which will be responsible for rewriting Chile’s constitution as The culmination of the country’s long-term liquidation process. Hard past.This is not the first high-profile vote in recent memory-in 2020, a shocking vote 78% of Chileans vote Start this rewriting process. The election results in May showed that a large portion of voters turned from right-wing or left-wing backgrounds to support independent parties and coalitions in the parliament, depriving the current Conservative Party of the veto power, and speaking out for environmentalists including Glacier. activist.
This kind of national unity on the issue of survival has been brewing for decades. In 1973, the democratic socialist government led by Salvador Allende was violently overthrown. U.S.-backed coup, Ended decades of political stability and democracy. This led to a repressive regime led by Augusto Pinochet, whose government enacted the current constitution and remained in power until 1989. Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship claimed the lives of thousands of Chilean citizens in the first few years, and his neoliberal economic model exacerbated the gap within the class. These events and economic trends have inspired the Chilean people and created broad support for a comprehensive democracy and fair economy. In 2019, There have been widespread protests against inequality and the high cost of living. Bring greater international recognition to this popular movement, and promote the 2020 constitutional referendum and the 2021 parliament.
Most of the mobilization since 2019 has been driven by economic and environmental injustices caused by intensive resource extraction, sometimes even in high-altitude glacial habitats.Many Chilean glaciers are covered with large copper deposits, and Chile is the world’s largest copper producer (this industry accounts for 10% of GDP). The company mines that worked with the Pinochet regime were allowed to enter and exploit fragile mountain ecosystems, destroy or pollute the life-giving glacial meltwater, and irreversibly change the landscape and ecosystem.
División Andina is a copper mine operated by Codelco at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters in the Valparaíso region. source: Javier Rubilal
Many members of the new council are environmental activists, and some even focus exclusively on glaciers. Constanza San Juan Standen (Constanza San Juan Standen) is one of such figures elected to represent Atacama, located in the arid and water-conscious north of the country. In addition to her social and environmental activities, she is also the spokesperson of the organization. Guasco Alto Water Components with Territorial coordination to protect glaciers (Coordination to protect the territory of the glacier).In an interview with GlacierHub, San Juan told her story, describing how her community united to fight large-scale Pascua Lama mining project In the early 2000s, a highly controversial proposed open-pit mine is still on hold today, thanks in part to their efforts. They sought to pass a glacier protection law in 2005, recruiting many communities and eventually forming a coordination committee. Despite their best efforts, strong pressure from the mining industry has so far prevented the passage of any such legislation. San Juan is now ready to help rewrite the country’s constitution.
Glaciers in Chile One of the largest freshwater reserves in the world Outside the North and South Pole. Now, with a progressive majority composed of many such independent parties, the Parliament is ready to reform the basis of Chile’s approach to climate change and melting glaciers.
“As a territorial coordination agency for the protection of glaciers, after years of learning from experts, we now understand that not only protecting the glacier ice visible to the naked eye is important, but also protecting the surrounding environment,” San Juan told GlacierHub. She listed the periglacial environment, permafrost environment, and biogeographic support elements, such as Andean highland lakes, which need to be protected immediately with glaciers. She pointed out that the first step can be taken by law, but they are working hard to incorporate these considerations of glacier protection into the new constitution itself. “This will ultimately enable us to end the sacrifice and abuse of vital life-sustaining elements in a concrete way.”
José Pinedo Ried, Chilean mountaineer and editorial coordinator for non-profit organizations Chilean Glacier In an interview with GlacierHub, he pointed out that Chile has a large number of unique climates at different latitudes. For all this climatic diversity, Reid described that no area is immune to the cruel effects of climate change, noting that “there is less rainfall now than 10 to 20 years ago—we have experienced large-scale droughts in the past 15 years. . Climate change is affecting the entire country.” He emphasized the need for a mechanism to protect Chile’s various environments, including preventing mining companies from operating near its glaciers and water sources. “It’s not just about glaciers,” he emphasized. “This is also related to the biosphere around them.”
The opportunity for a scientifically conscious declaration of rights is not the only factor that makes the 2021 elections compelling. For the first time in the history of the world, this type of constitutional convention was authorized to be characterized by equal representation of men and women.In addition, in the progressive majority, 17 of the 155 seats are reserved for Nine Aboriginal groups officially recognized in ChileThe indigenous voices included in the conference mark another important and long-neglected addition to Chile’s electoral politics, an unresolved problem in most democracies in the world. Roxana Borquez is a PhD student in geography at King’s College London and graduated from the University of Chile. In an interview with GlacierHub, she explained: “When you add traditional knowledge, what you see is not just the water provided by a glacier to a place, but the symbolic value it has, how it gives life to the ecosystem, How does it create a cycle.” She emphasized that the indigenous people can bring a new knowledge system to the constitution that goes beyond scientific evidence. “They brought us other aspects that we would not normally use to make laws in Chile.”
The parliament met for the first time on July 4. When asked what she would include in the constitution, Constanta San Juan stated that she would give priority to “centering on life” and “protecting public resources” from private ambitions. She intends to require the declaration of water and other resources as inviolable public goods, which is a legal change to protect humans and ecosystems from resource extraction and habitat destruction. San Juan recognizes the potential of changing the constitution to protect the threatened biosphere. At the end of her conversation with GlacierHub, she called for action: to lead Chile’s transition to an “anti-neoliberal and anti-extractor economic model, an economic model that serves the community, promotes a local and sustainable economy, is responsible for ecological crises and climate emergencies, and Nature lives in harmony.”
