Rejection Politics 2008

Electoral politics are no medium through which one should aspire to live out their ideals. It is only about making as practical a decision as possible in a civic duty that is but a small slice of each citizens political responsibility pie.

I have followed the primaries and the campaigns since they began, and a big chunk of that was during my trip to South America over the winter--back where this blog began. I have to say that I have been impressed with this country as far as what the movement to elect Barack Obama has succeeded in doing thus far. It was fantastic to see him out maneuver the Clintonistas. Nevertheless, I continue to be skeptical of the entire electoral process, and the duoploy of the major parties.

Some of my best sources for information about current events have empirical evidence that demonstrates that there are many instances in which the differences between the candidates are more stylistic than substantial. I find the webpage of Foreign Policy in Focus to be an excellent source of information on current events. There are many issues discussed by their writers in which the major party candidates are shown to have few differences.

On the other hand, one of the better informed and grassroots oriented voices of internet journalism is the publisher of Narco News, Al Giordano, who has maintained an independent blog covering the election that he calls The Field. He has continued to cover the campaign from an on-the-ground angle, looking at the work of the Obama campaign all over the country. Even though he weathered a falling out with more mainstream elements of the Democratic Machine he has continued to demonstrate support for Obama's candidacy. Considering his experience through out América, I take his position seriously.

The options are otherwise limited. I could not vote. But that is only one of the many things that I do for political expression. Hence my view that voting is a very small part of my civic duty. For being such a small part of my political expression, it is less important than others. I therefore do not worry about whether or not I can express my ideals in voting. Of the potential alternative candidates I believe I prefer Cynthia McKinney. Ralph Nader is an Has Been, and an egomaniac as well. If he truly believed in building an alternative to the duopoly he would continue to support the Green Party. Perhaps it is a misread of history to blame Florida 2000 on him, but his strategy of focusing on battleground states in the last week of his 2008 campaign is a nasty attempt to consciously play the spoiler in an election that is even more critical than the one 8 long years ago.

And what a spoiler he would be. A McCain-Palin administration would be a very rough and ugly victory, especially considering how hateful their campaign has become. One can only hope that the numbers continue to be in Obama's favor.

When it comes to survival there is nothing wrong with voting for the more palatable of some not-so-palatable choices. It is, after all, just election politics, and in this case again, just Rejection Politics 2008. I would be willing to grant Obama a landslide victory, if to do nothing more than send the Republicans home packing. The last eight years have been a torturous tragedy. I have few delusions about the Democrats, but my practical goal here is to see the USA reject the Republican platform and the McCain-Palin ticket, sending a clear message to the world, and the country, that the error is over.

In closing, I provide this video--a hilarious narrative that captures the superficiality of the electoral process, and the clear vision for what is an appropriate behaviour of the USA in the world that we must continue nurturing.

So You Think You Can Be President

Latino América Sonando

Thanks to KMUD stalwart and jazz and salsa horn player Jimmy Durshlag, I am starting to do a monthly set of the weekly KMUD show of Latino América Sonando. Yesterday I did the show and also got in a quick and informative interview with colleague Aaron Sanger of International Rivers.

It was fun to share with the KMUD listeners a bit more information about our work to protect rivers in Patagonia!

As an aside, a month ago I did an interview with my friend Burke Stansbury, who is the Executive Director of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador-CISPES. I aspire to bring a mix of news and good music to the two hour set when I get a chance to get behind the board en la radio comunitaria de los redwoods.

Though the show is only archived for about 15 days, you can go here and listen to the Latino América Sonando show I did yesterday. With a touch of patience and a few minutes wait for the finish of the previous program and the start of the show you will get a two hour south of the border music and news extravaganza--or something like that...Que lo disfruten!

Poder Floreciente Californiano

California Flower Power

The summer in Alta California is moving right along, and before we know it we will be in full autumn mode. Work continues unabated, including an interesting restoration job I did in helping clean up loads of scrap metal off a parcel that will become part of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I have been making my living again as a garbage man for the earth.

In this day and age it is an extreme challenge to maintain the quiet rural rhythms that are so grounding for those of us living on the Lost Coast. Chop wood, carry water, these are the breathing tasks of living in the woods.

The drive for culture is incessant in this internet age. Keeping up on music for the occasional radio show becomes more than a hobby, it becomes a monumental production project. But who cares? Music is freedom. I have been to a few fantastic shows lately, seeing Radiohead play in Golden Gate Park down in The City, and recently catching Ozomatli again. Looking ahead I will catch Fishbone at the Mateel Community Center's Pipejam next weekend. Then there will of course be Earthdance, which will be the perfect party to bring the summer to a complete close.

Oh, and don't forget that I will be seeing Willie Nelson tomorrow!

Those are the spikes in social activity and artistic stimulation. The majority of my time is definitely dedicated to those down to earth chores that make country living so transcendental. Perhaps the big city is in my future again, but for now I relish the tranquility of the hills, and the power of the flowers.




Patagonia Rivers Update

The companies have turned in the Environmental Impact Study for the construction of the 5 dams on the Pascua and Baker Rivers. A friend from Puerto Montt wrote an email about the two shipping containers worth of material that made up the copies of the EIS that were turned in officially. It is a bulky and unyeildy document, the kind designed to obfuscate and distract.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the 2000+ kilometers of transmissions lines are not included in the study, revealing the entire environmental review process in Chile (free trade partner with the USA!) to be asburd and scientifically untenable. Any ecologist knows that it is all about cumulative impacts, but once you consider those issues the proposal loses all charateristics of environmental responsibility. So such an analysis is avoided. Such is the nature of the politics of natural resource conservation--keep the legitimate science to a minimum, and the greed for profits at a maximum.

Nonetheless, even poor hidroAysén has conceded that getting approval for the project could take more than a year, and in the meantime the pressure heats up to get Home Depot to stop providing commercial cover in the USA for the dinosaurs in the Matte and Angelini groups that keep stumbling forward drunkenly with this irresponsible project. There is still quite a bit of work ahead of us, but protecting the wild rivers of Patagonia from massive hydro development is still an attainable vision.

Black Dahlia

Summer is here, in all it's over heated intensity. Not much has been happening on the Patagonia River Campaign front, and here at home I am holding down the rural living front, appreciating the living things all around me, such as the early blooming black dahlia in my yard.

I continue to volunteer at KMUD radio, and will do my Black Dahlia Manyhues Radio special tonight at midnight. Either listen live or check out the KMUD archives.

Material for tonights show includes pieces from the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival which, despite some rare and weird moments, was quite a cool weekend gig. Regardless, the best music of that weekend was the Seun Kuti gig I saw at the Mateel Community Center. A great show by a very interesting and articulate artist.

More than two months have passed since I posted anything at this blog. Just goes to show how exciting travel down to South America can be. Here at home I just try to work hard, be smart about water, and make sure everything is fire safe.

The occasional radio shift is a cool outlet. Otherwise, I am keeping a keen eye on the craziness of a world long off it's rocker.

In the meantime, Patagonia's rivers still run free. That is certainly a relief!

Redwood Community Radio--KMUD Spring FunDrive

It has been a year since I started doing volunteer shifts at KMUD as an engineer and programmer, amongst other chores. I enjoy being involved with this grassroots media effort. You can listen to KMUD (Redwood Community Radio) on the internet at www.kmud.org or if you are local you can tune in on your very own radio!

Radio is a special medium that continues to be effective and relevant even as technology for global communications advances rapidly. We are working at KMUD to raise money for the next half year of operating. Please consider joining the 'mud as a member! Go to the KMUD website and give a listen and make a secure donation.

Hopefully, as well, as the broadcasting season goes on I will have some new and unique radio to be posting here on the vozsilvestre blog. Stay tuned!

Ríos Patagónicos In the Stateside News

I am barely a week back into the stateside scene and the results of our global community labor to protect wild rivers in Patagonia are being published in major daily newspapers in the United States, this just one week after the New York Times published their opinion piece against the possibility of damming the Baker and Pascua Rivers. This is what I like to see!! Some real momentum to protect Patagonia from needless industrialization.

On Sunday, Lonely Planet writer Carolyn McCarthy was published in the Boston Globe with her article Little Seen and Untamed River Stirs Patagonia. This is a very readable travel section article with an excellent and breathtaking finish. Carolyn does a great job of capturing the International Rivers campaign and the local perceptions of the dam proposals. She accompanied us on the International Rivers sponsored delegation--and we really wanted Carolyn to come on the hike but schedules did not permit it.

With all this great press and momentum for our campaign one might wonder how many more tricks we have up our sleeves--but we have only but started the campaign. This past Monday, to add punch to the campaign media strategy, our colleague Colin Barraclough had his article published in the San Francisco Chronicle. Chile Plans to Dam Patagonia Wilderness is the title, and the read is equally impactful. Of course, as the author of this blog and one of the organizers of the Pascua Expedition Project, I am not able to hide that Colin came with us on the hike. He was a key and important element to the good style, fun, and great safety that we maintained on our expedition. I am picturing Colin now, suffering in Buenos Aires (sufrimiento!!) and poetically reliving the journey as he word smithed his story together.

Ahhhh! Patagonia!

Tomanse un buen mate mis amigos!

By the way, the photos are by Colin, from our trip to explore the wild Pascua!!

New York Times Says NO to HidroAysén!

There are a few factual errors in the piece, but the New York Times has published an op-ed piece that says NO to the construction of mega-dams on the Pascua and Baker Rivers in the Chilean Patagonia.

Take a look at their opinion page to read their Patagonia Without Dams piece. This is worth a read, and worth distributing.

This is certainly quite an exciting development! My guess is that it is the movers and shakers at NRDC who were able to get the Times editorial board on to this issue. Great work!

Hopefully ENDESA and the Matte family can get the message now, before this campaign has to heat up much more! It is also time for Michelle Bachelet to show the world who is the president in Chile, and put an end to this monumental waste of time and energy that is the HidroAysén proposal to dam the Baker and Pascua rivers.

Patagonia-Wild Refuge Under Attack

The International Rivers Patagonia Campaign has launched a new internet action to protest the HidroAysén proposal to dam the Baker and Pascua Rivers in the Aisén Region of the Chilean Patagonia. Go to this 3 minute slide show to get a glimpse into the campaign (and to see a few of my photos from the Pascua Expedition Project!). From the slide show you can link easily to the internet action. This is meant to be spread far and wide, so please do distribute.

For more information browse past vozsilvestre blogs just below, or follow the International Rivers link to the right.

As a sidenote, our famously small and well connected organization Ancient Forest International has recently joined the Consejo de Defensa de la Patagonia. It is an honor to be among dozens of other international and Chilean organizations working to protect the wild rivers of Patagonia.

Defendamos La Patagonia Carajo!

¡Viva Los Cedros!

El futuro de Los Cedros no está seguro!



Pero Los Cedros sigue siendo precioso!






¡Viva Los Cedros!

The rain was coming down hard, and it was one of those bus rides where the windows were so fogged up on the inside that it was impossible to see what was happening on the outside. Nonetheless, with the rain and the darkness of the fast approaching night, it may have been difficult to see anyhow. What is more, no hubo luz, there was no electricity in the small and desperate looking buildings. Perhaps than it is understandable that I missed the stop in Chontal and ended up traveling to the next stop on the new road along the Guayabamba River.

Ay, la gran p**a, me equivoqué! I should have gotten off in El Chontal, but the immense friendliness of the people in the northwest corner of Ecuador became immediately obvious. Getting off in Magdalena Baja (which twelve years ago was not even an actual town!) was made easy by a young local who showed me how to get to the Hormiga Verde and arrange lodging for the night. As well, I was actually better positioned to make the hike up to Los Cedros the following morning, using the well established mule trail that I had hiked so many times before. The road and electricity and phone were all new since my last visit twelve years ago, but some things had not changed that much just yet.

Twelve years! Twelve years come and gone. For all the traveling that I have done, and the many trips I have made back to places that I have worked and adventured, it is still remarkable when I return to a place that I have known intimately before. The Bosque Protector Los Cedros (previously the Reserva Biológica Los Cedros) is easily one of the most beautiful and inspiring forest landscapes that I have ever known. Twelve years ago, following the guidance and motivation of friends and colleagues, I ended up in Los Cedros working as an all-purpose volunteer. On that first trip to South America I spent the better part of 6 months up in Los Cedros, a protected forest area that borders the famous Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve. Los Cedros is a classic private conservation initiative (that now enjoys a unique public-private partnership due to ongoing difficulties in securing land title) in the buffer zone of a globally important protected area. Birdlife International rates Los Cedros as one of the most important private conservation efforts in Ecuador. And finally, twelve years after my volunteer stint, I was returning to visit, pay tribute, and measure the changes to the reserve and the area.

If there is one thing that is certain, regardless of the slow pace at which change in the area around Los Cedros is occurring, it is that change is happening. The pressure is on all around Los Cedros, the pressure of illegal logging, the pressure of forest clearing for grazing and agricultural activity, and the looming pressure of large scale copper mining (see some of the coverage in Upside Down World for detailed accounts of the Ascendent Copper mine issue). Yet Los Cedros retains its wild essence, and continues to be a remote and spectacular ecotourism and rainforest conservation science destination.

Los Cedros will not always be as remote as it has been. The hike up to the reserve is famously grueling, with about a thousand meters of elevation to be gained on an often times extremely muddy and hammered livestock trail. Yet the road is being punched in to Magdalena Alta (the miracle in my mind is that twelve years later the road has not yet actually arrived to Magdalena Alta!) and there are more and more people living in the area, including potential squatters up some of the more difficult to reach drainages that pour out of the western extremes of the 6000 plus hectare protected forest. What is more, the threat of large-scale copper mining in the region is real, with untold potential negative impacts on forest and wildlife conservation in the area (without exploring potential social impacts).

I am fortunate to have had experience in Los Cedros. My time there previously was special, before the age of widespread Internet and cellular phones, and allowed me to develop an intimate relationship with the cloud forest and the submontane tropical rainforest that cloaks the steep and mountainous terrain of the Chocó region, the wettest and most diverse rainforest region in the Americas. I was once two months up in Los Cedros without coming down, one of my more extended periods in wild country, period. Such experiences are unique, and unrepeatable. Perhaps my brief visit now is tame in comparison, but I am thankful for having motivated to get back up to Los Cedros and reigniting my passion to support this project.

Speaking of supporting this project, there are three people that I want to thank here, for their dedication to Los Cedros and for their wonderful ability to instill in me a commitment to working for the long term care of this place and important conservation effort.

I want to thank Tim Metz for his long-term willingness to literally put his money where his mouth is. Tim is perhaps the single most important benefactor to the Los Cedros project, and I admire and appreciate his willingness to make Los Cedros a success.

Murray Cooper deserves appreciation for giving such an aesthetic touch in the development of the facilities at Los Cedros. Murray is probably the one person who put Los Cedros on the global tropical rainforest conservation map, and is the person who showed me the way to get there.

And last, but certainly not least, I want to give props to José DeCoux, the live-in guardian of Los Cedros, the man who got the whole project up and going. José is a madman, an expatriate rainforest dweller who has committed himself in profound terms to Los Cedros. His staying power and presence is what most has kept Los Cedros in the largely pristine state that the reserve still celebrates. It was great to make contact with José again during my visit, and I truly do aspire to contribute positively to the ongoing stewardship of this tremendous forest protection project.

¡Viva Los Cedros! It is our favorite forest protection project in the world! No one with an eye for wild country who makes the trip to Los Cedros can avoid falling in love with the place. My love for Los Cedros has been rekindled, and my amateur photos will only shine a weak light on why it is that we love Los Cedros so much. The birds, the flowers, the grandeur of the forest, the ability to drink of the freshest water in the Andes directly from the river, these are the qualities that we celebrate and that we continue to strive to preserve.

Feel free to join us in our efforts to make Los Cedros a continued success, contact me through this blog to support the legal defense fund and the infrastructure work that will allow Los Cedros is to achieve its goals in the next twelve years, just as the project has had so much success in the last twelve years. At the very least, if you are going to Ecuador make Los Cedros an essential stop on your visit. You will be glad you did.

Todos Van al Oriente Para Trabajar

The infrastructure in Ecuador is chaotic. The roads, the water systems, the electrical systems, even phones and the internet, they all seem to be in terrible disrepair. Thus far I have not really had the time I would like to have to be online putting together full posts about my latest research and travel experiences. Soon I will present some thoughts on comparing Patagonia with Amazonía. The development issues are distinct, yet the similarities and the lessons abound. The Amazon is under serious stress, and it only demonstrates that Patagonia is still a remarkably intact region.

What might happen in Patagonia with hidroAysén is hinted at by oil development and unregulated colonization in the Amazon.

Though I have many ideas to share, for now I can only post some photos from my recent trip to the Shiripuno region of the Gran Yasuni, specifically the Territorio Étnico Huaorani.

Suffice it to say that if pictures are worth a thousand words, these current images of the Amazon should speak a great deal of how yes, human kind is wrecking havok on wild South America, even as the beauty still expresses itself wonderfully day after day.

More soon, after I return from our favorite project, la Reserva Biológica Los Cedros. First though some last images from the wild Amazon!

HidroAysén—Un Tema de Dinosaurios y Dinamita

The following is a short piece that I composed upon leaving Chile after nearly two months of traveling and working in that country on efforts to protect wild rivers in Patagonia from massive hydroelectric development. In my compositions I seem to always run the risk of serious hyperbole, a tendency that my colleagues thankfully point out to me right when I need to hear it most. Nevertheless, I share this piece here as another short item that attempts to paint a picture of the old-school ignorance that drives the push to destroy the largest rivers in Patagonia for short term profit and monopoly dominance of a society and its landscape. Chile is at risk of committing an irreversible error that will benefit only a very select sector of society, an error built upon dinosaurs and dynamite. It does however seem that our efforts to celebrate free flowing wild rivers, as hyperbolic as they might be, are having a positive impact. Regardless of the lawless and brute force with which the proponents of hydroAysén push forward with the project, the reality is that the company is already postponing the submission of their project to Chile’s system of evaluation of environmental impact and that Chilean society is steadily awakening to the audacity and barbarity of the proposal. In that light I have to say that my visit to Patagonia was effective and that our campaign is bearing fruit—stay tuned here for more updates as the issue evolves over the next months. In the meantime, enjoy the hyperbole and wordplay that I have published below.

Existen lugares que nos hacen pensar en el largo del tiempo. No es el largo del tiempo de nuestras vidas, ni de nuestras sociedades, pero el largo del tiempo de los milenios, de las geologías, de los movimientos de las tierras, y de las adaptaciones de las evoluciones. De vez en cuando nos encontramos en lugares del largo del tiempo en los cuales podemos hasta imaginar que pasarán dinosaurios frente de nuestros ojos. Otras veces son lugares donde no nos perdimos en juegos o fantasías de las maquinas de tiempo, pero sí donde nos distraemos del presente en sentir la fuerza del pasado y hasta revivir las épocas de los dinosaurios. Son lugares que nos regalan una sensación de un pasado lejano, de un antecedente que tiene que ver con nuestra realidad pero que ahora no es nuestra realidad presente mucho menos de nuestro futuro. Sin embargo, sabemos que la trayectoria del tiempo que sentimos en éstos lugares tiene importancia, es relevante y nos ofrece perspectiva sobre nuestras vidas y la expresión de nuestra humanidad dentro del contexto de los cambios elementales y el tiempo.

Por mí, llegar al Río Pascua fue llegar a un lugar que me hacía sentir el correr de los tiempos, desde un pasado casi imposible imaginar, hasta un pasado tan reciente que ni importó cuanto intentaba olvidármelo, siempre me estaba presente. Metafóricamente, el corriente en común fueron los dinosaurios, los dinosaurios reales de los comienzos del tiempo y de los dinosaurios fantásticos perdido en el pasado. En el Río Pascua pensé en los dinosaurios en términos de los continentes originales, en términos de seres que ya no pertenecen a nuestra realidad, y en ciertos individuos cuyos formar de pensar es de antigüedades y encuadradas maneras de contemplar el presente. Pensé en los dinosaurios que existieron como parte de la evolución, que aunque se extinguieron también fueron parte del milagro de la creación. Y pensé en los dinosaurios de hoy en día, que son seres perdidos en un pasado y que por algo inflexible en su composición se nos llevan rápidamente hasta una nueva época de extinción.

La cuenca del Río Pascua es una de las cuencas hídricas menos conocida en todo las Américas, y es probablemente el río menos conocido y más silvestre de Chile. Nacido del gran Lago O’Higgins (conocido como San Martín en Argentina), el Río Pascua es de relevancia continental y global, y es esencialmente el gran corriente de agua que baja desde el borde norteño del Campo de Hielo Patagónico Sur hasta el Canal Baker y luego al mar abierto. Véalo en su escala física real y lo verás en su escala de tiempo también. Es majestuosa, es expansiva, es poderosa, el Río Pascua es uno de los pocos ejemplos que nos quedan intactos en Chile y en el planeta para completamente entender la escala de vida en nuestro planeta y del milagro que es la creación y el correr de los tiempos.

El Río Pascua es nuevo y antiguo, todo a la misma vez. La cordillera va creciendo del mar y ha cambiado mucho en los últimos milenios, pero también el antiguo continente del Gondwana está presente. Quizá hace poco que el hielo dejó de cubrir esta roca dura que es el fundamento de la topografía difícil de la cuenca, pero hace mucho que la evolución ha tenido su dominio sobre esta tierra. La cuenca del Río Pascua es prístina, tiene intacta las relaciones ecológicas del ecosistema prehistórico y mantiene un alto valor biológico por la presencia del complejo de las especies nativas y la ausencia de impactos de las actividades humanas. No existe una manera de intervenir en el paisaje de la cuenca del Río Pascua en una manera industrial sin acabar con su característica silvestre y auténtica. Se habla de una utilidad de unos 50 años cuando se habla de las represas de hidroAysén, pero la cuenca del Río Pascua es una cuenca en la cual 50 años es una gotita de tiempo que casi no se medir por ser tan pequeño frente de su grandeza y trayectoria elemental. Que son 50 años frente del milenio que lleva el agua de correr desde el campo de hielo hasta el mar? La posibilidad de realizar una serie de mega proyectos hidroeléctricos en la cuenca del Río Pascua sin destruir su valor ambiental es un mito fantástico nacido en los escritorios de los profesionistas de las empresas de relaciones públicas, gente que tiene ningún vocabulario ecológico, dando luz a una fantasía igual a las películas de dinosaurios como el Jurassic Park. Hablar de mitigar impactos al represar el Río Pascua es confundir la explosión de dinamita con el trueno del ventisquero—y viene de una mente que sufre de un analfabetismo ambiental.

La realidad de la propuesta de hidroAysén es una realidad explosiva. Si hay una cosa que se tendría que utilizar para represar el Río Pascua es la dinamita. Mucha dinamita. Toneladas y toneladas de dinamita. No es posible mitigar la destrucción necesaria para construir caminos, túneles, y represas en una cuenca prístina. La dinamita no es un proceso natural como el ir y venir de un glaciar. Es una destrucción total, la conversión de un lugar que trasciende el correr del tiempo hasta ser una zona de sacrificio industrial. En términos ambientales no hay como mitigar los impactos de la propuesta. El concepto de mitigar los impactos ambientales de intervenir en el Río Pascua es una mentira y una propaganda de pura fantasía.

Son dinosaurios fantásticos ellos que proponen la destrucción del Río Pascua. Son dinosaurios los Mateo, los Perez Yoma, los Pizarro (que increíble pensar que los criollos Chilenos ya quieren regalar su independencia a los españoles conquistadores, no?), los Angelini, y los Matte que proponen a Chile y al mundo que la solución a los desafíos energéticos y económicos de Chile queda en la intervención masiva en los Ríos Baker y Pascua. Son mentes fundamentalistas que solo piensan en sus cuentas bancarias del corto plazo, y que necesitan de las grandes firmas de relaciones públicas para disfrazar su propuesta destructiva y analfabeta ecológica de utilidad pública y factibilidad ambiental, por que sin inversiones gigantescas en publicidad sus ideas no podrían ni ser considerados razonables debido a la ausencia completa de justificación social y ambiental.

El tema de la propuesta de hidroAysén es un tema de dinosaurios y dinamita. Los dinosaurios pueden ser reales y pueden ser fantásticos, pero la dinamita que quieren usar para destruir los ríos patagónicos es de verdad, y es muy explosiva. Solo los que tienen una mente vacía y obsesionada por su poder y su dinero pueden seguir ciegos a la destrucción y irresponsabilidad que sería intervenir en los paisajes únicos de la Patagonia y meter un cuchillo en la cultura libre de la región de Aisén. Chile queda al borde de cometer un error que es irreversible y que va a revelar al mundo la poca sofisticación que tiene la alta sociedad chilena en permitir esto tipo de barbaridad en el siglo 21. Dinosaurios y dinamita son los dos ingredientes primarias de la propuesta de hidroAysén—nos queda ver si Chile los traga entera o si se despierta en buena hora para defenderse de una propuesta explosiva y destructiva.

Río Pascua: El Secreto Ya No Es Un Secreto

For more of my photos try this slide show at Picasa.

El Secreto Ya No Es Un Secreto.

The Secret Is Out.

The company was betting that the world would not discover what they were up to in the hidden recesses of Patagonia. Yet we beat the odds and pulled off a great adventure, with plenty of adversity and uncertainty included. We made the Río Pascua trip in good style, though it turned out to be a bigger landscape than even I had thought it would be. We pushed hard to get our people into this area of conservation concern. I was thorough in the preparations and intentional in the leadership, everyone came together as a great team, and we had a safe and successful wilderness journey. And now we know what the company did not want us to know. We now know intimately a landscape that is a marvelous ejemplo del alma de la Patagonia Rebelde, y ahora vamos a gritar al mundo la noticia!

The Río Pascua is a jewel! The entire upper stretch of the watershed that we explored is pristine, wild, and incredibly intact—a rare example of native Patagonian mountain and river ecosystem that has not been subject to heavy grazing pressure or other extensive human activity. The landscape and the elements have conspired to protect and to isolate this watershed from cattle and human settlement, even on the basis of seasonal use. The ecological value of this watershed is high, due to what is present, and due to what is not present. There are very few, if any, invasive species throughout the stretch of the watershed that we explored. This roadless and wild watershed is a seed for restoring life—es una semilla en forma de ecosistema, necesario para restaurar la vida; to industrialize it is to further sentence Patagonia, and perhaps all of the Andes, to a future of steady degradation.

I speak of a river, but I also speak of a mountain river. I speak of an Andes mountain river that is born of a mammoth lake and that pours rapidly, steeply, and strongly to the ocean. Las aguas del Río Pascua llevan con su fuerza el nacimiento de la tierra y el alimento del cielo, y hasta el cielo fuimos. We were forced high. The topography is rough and steep. The vegetation near the water level was always thick and thorny, with sudden cliffs and overhung forest of mosses and groundcover. Crossing the Río Quiróz was the most athletic step of the trip, sin René Millacura quizá no lo hubieramos cruzado. Yet we crossed, we worked hard and we continued traveling and marveling at this wild jewel of a river pouring from the glaciers of the Patagonia Continental Ice Field.

The weather was with us, though the sun burned and was unforgiving. We were fortunate in some ways, the dryness of the conditions being one of them. The marshy soils, and especially the one extensive mallín that we were forced to cross, were easily managed and hardly as challenging as they might be to a group of our mixed strength and experience. Certainly a real Patagonia rain may have stopped our group in its tracks, especially above the tree line—but we were not destined to experience such misery. Instead we stepped high in stable conditions and skirted the depths of the tight canyon through which this voluminous and majestic Río Pascua roars.

The high country treated us well, it was physical but we had a stellar night of alpine camping and finished the next morning with a panoramic summit with stunning close up views of the Southern Patagonia Ice Cap. We could sense the Pascua pulsing below us, we could literally feel the power of the ages that had passed in the carving of that deep valley, carved drop by icy drop of glacier fed water. To attempt to dam such a river would be to knife the heart of the extensive wildland that stretched out around us in a 360-degree view.

Proposing the construction of three big dams on the Pascua was not supposed to draw the attention of anyone, but it certainly caught the attention of our diverse crew of wilderness loving souls. Were we just supposed to stand by with our eyes squeezed shut, pretending this was not happening? La cuenca del Pascua aún tiene la essencia de lo que es la Patagonia Silvestre. Es un refugio nativo y antiguo, de los huemules, de la vegetación, de los agues dulces de los hielos sureños. To destroy this remaining jewel of Patagonia is to reduce the human endeavor to one of brute ignorance. Only one who is completely unable to sense the strain that our native ecosystems are experiencing would be barbaric enough to consider destroying this watershed.

Quiere usted que yo lo diga en el castellano? Entiende usted que es una estupidez anti-intelectual pensar que ustedes van a resolver la crisis ambiental-energético con una intervención grave en el corazón de la tierra que nos sostiene?

A sincere mountain traveler has ecological literacy and environmental sensibility in their bag of tricks. Anyone who calls him or herself a montañista will be able to recognize special qualities in a place, and will be able to tune into to the state of conservation of the flora and the fauna. The Río Pascua flows out of a giant ice field and a very important national park, and borders a new Biosphere Reserve area. Without even questioning why this jewel has been left out of previous protected areas strategies, on the pure basis of essential biological connectivity and native habitat quality it violates all sense of conservation science (and corporate responsibility) to propose violating this nucleus of untrammeled nature with a massive industrial hydroelectric project. A hippy, a montañista, a responsible business man knows full well that they have no environmental justification for dynamiting canyon walls and pouring concrete into this free flowing river in order to continue wasting energy more than 2000 kilometers away. It boggles the imagination that a man who claims to be close to nature would propose such sacrilege.

No Matte a La Patagonia! Absurd, yet the slogan is quite hilarious, and very much to the point. Esta es una oportunidad única en la historia, usted puede mostrar un liderázgo que es maduro como el instinto de un montañista verdadero. Stand down old man, your plan to represar los ríos libres de la Patagonia es mal pensado, ya es hora que admita usted su error y cambie de trayectoria!

Sincere Thanks for a Patagonian Welcome

I have been so busy since I arrived to Coyhaique that I have not even had a moment to play with words and reflect on the project that I am working on. I do recognize, however, that I have lots of history in Coyhaique. I first arrived here back in late 2001, when I was a graduate student on the advocacy road, sending my first dispatches from the Carreterra Austral.

One difference between then and and now is that I have a better eye now, I am even more acutely aware as to the changes that are happening to Patagonia. I can sense the changes and for this reason I treasure the efforts of artists to document the authentic roots of the region. My friends and colleagues Milenka and Corey worked on a project that resulted in Milenkas must see online photo exhibit: pobladoresaustrales.com

These images capture the soul of what is Patagonia, the patience and weathering of the roots in the earth of the region. My dearest friends, I say please take a moment to go there and marvel at these fotos.

I have no photos to publish tonight, I have been running constantly to pull this trip together. It still remains to be seen how it will all play out. I wonder sometimes what logistical foul up I have put into place, or if somehow the tents won't actually work etc etc. But then I wake up and get back to work.

Here I am in Coyhaique, and here come the people tomorrow! Everyone eager to save the day! I love the great energy, we will be a ball of love and adventure in the face of HydroAysén and their disinformation campaign.

Save the day or not, I would not be able to be where I am in this project if it were not for the help of all of my friends at NOLS Patagonia. The community is great and the willingness to support positive efforts to celebrate free flowing and wild rivers here in Patagonia is inspiring. Thanks so much!!

I also have to thank all the people at the Coalición Ciudadana Aisén Reserva de Vida because it is their excitement about the trip that make all of this really worthwhile.

I also want to thank Hans Silva (carreterraaustralkm1240) for all his help getting things ready for us down in Villa O'Higgins. We are going to the very wild end of the road, and we want to let folks know why it is worth keeping it wild!

The hard work blurs my vision. I mix my personal preferences with the need for professional tolerances. Now however I am finally getting close to my purpose for being involved with this project. Wilderness provides such immediate feedback on leadership, of self and others. This is an incredible project because it is a campaign element that will contain many new revelations for those of us who think we know la Patagonia, that we know South America, that we know Chile. I am looking forward to some new lessons.

I am also looking forward to making a connection with a particularly wild stretch of burly andean river that is threatened by small minds pushing for damming and hydroelectric conversion. My mind is open to the possibilities that this trip provides for me, professionally and also personally. I believe I am about to deepen my personal relationship with the landscape of Patagonia, and I welcome that. Hopefully I can assist in an opening of doors for some of the others on our journey as well. Time for a chance to touch the earth.

Thanks and praises, wish us safe travels!!

Desde Oaxaca Hasta Aisén--Con Las Pilas Recargadas

It is highly likely that I would have spent time in México this winter, most likely working for the National Outdoor Leadership School in Baja California Sur as I did last winter. Nevertheless, there is very little possibility that I would have found myself working in Patagonia again this winter (even though colleagues at NOLS had inquired as to my availability) if it had not been for International Rivers approaching me about working as a consultant on their new campaign to protect rivers in the Chilean Patagonia.

Fortunate as I am, I find myself living the best of many worlds in Latin America. The work for International Rivers has enabled me to travel more extensively and incorporate a number of my personal interests into a winters travel that I was slowly motivating myself to organize.

Truly, I am seeing the best of many worlds. I just spent several weeks in México, mostly in Oaxaca and Guerrero, as well as México DF, working from a distance on the preparations for the Pascua Expedition Project for International Rivers through the miracle of the internet, and taking as well a needed break from all work, I repeat, ALL work.

There is nothing quite like time on the beach to get personal batteries fully recharged. It is humorous to contemplate how I have developed some fine beach skills over the last years. After all the time I invested in becoming a competent climber and skier, as far as outdoor activities go I now thrive on sleeping long hours and enjoying a good cold beer with my huevos rancheros and chilaquiles in the late morning hours before whiling away the day reading and swimming in the glorious waves and waters of the Pacific Ocean.

It was a well-needed break, and now I have a full battery charge for the next month of intensive work in Chile’s Aisén Region. I really do feel as well rested as I have in a good long time as I prepare to carry out the expedition that we are attempting. I am quite fired up for taking a good look at the remote and wild Río Pascua, one of the two major waterways threatened by ENDESA and Colbun’s proposal to build giant dams and destroy these free flowing rivers.

Yet before I immerse myself in Patagonia again, I want to share here a couple of highlights that stick out from my memories of the last couple of weeks. My time in Ciudad de Oaxaca was particularly powerful, considering the turmoil that has wracked that city and state in the last years. The repression and violation of human rights that occurred last November especially is very well documented in a publication that I read from extensively during my break from work—La Quinta Visita de la Comisión Civil International de Observación de los Derechos Humanos. A relevant piece of analysis concludes that Brad Will was purposely targeted by state government paramilitaries to force the United States government to come down on the Fox government to send in the Mexican federal police and break the social movement.

Oaxaca is to México a little like Guantánamo is to the United States—that dark side of a conservative power elite that many normal people are afraid to contemplate seriously due to the implications that the violence that has happened in those places means for our societies. How long do we look away?

I had one particularly intense moment in observing a white female tourist, obviously not Mexican, take photos of an old indigenous couple that implored to not have their photo taken. This woman encapsulated to me all the snotty and racist energy that has emanated from gringo tourists bemoaning the conflict in Oaxaca that caused tourism to be placed on a total backburner. While the older indigenous woman grabbed her husband by the arm, slowing his attempt to rise and confront the white woman that ignored their requests to not have their photograph taken, the white lady went ahead and snapped photos, oblivious to their pleas and the brutal rudeness of her own behavior.

It was all I could do to avoid confronting that white woman and tell her that her classist attitude and cultural ignorance encapsulated everything that people might hate about “Americans” from the United States. In that moment I understood why, perhaps in the heat of a mad demonstration that marginalized Oaxaqueños might find themselves unleashing in frustration at the impunity that the power elite enjoy, why there might be an urge to burn to the ground famous tourist icons. In that moment I hated the stupid white people of my country, as well as ignorant rich tourists from all over the world, in a way that I had not felt ever before, more profoundly than I could remember even in my most adolescent punk-rock anti-capitalist tirades.

I managed to walk away from that moment and catch my breath, just in time to let the overwhelming sadness kick in. A sadness knowing that underneath the aesthetic beauty of historical Oaxaca there still exists a sharp tension, a dream deferred, and the scars of political manipulation of a community’s psyche. Death squads and media broadcast death threats are not injuries that heal rapidly.

México is a place of contrasts. The other highlight that I want to mention was being spontaneously invited to participate in a Huichol ceremony a couple of nights before the new year. Estoy muy agradecido a nuestras colegas por habernos invitado estar con ustedes por esta noche tan especial. Estar presentado a las enseñanzas del Maracame de la sierra madre occidental fue un honor. Nunca me olvidaré de la música, el fuego, la ceremonia, y la luz del día que nos llegó después de tanto trabajo en una playa quieta de Guerrero.

Yes, my batteries are recharged, and with clarity I can see the whole of the next steps of work that lie ahead of me. Gracias maestro Maracame! Desde México voy hácia la Patagonia para celebrar sus ríos lindos y vivos!

PS. Tengo fotos de mi llegada a Chile en mi manyhues,gnn.tv blog, veanlas!