I now know that if I hadn’t traveled to Chile, my thesis would have been some sort of farce. The information I was able to gather uncovered intricacies and unfortunate truths that would have been impossible for me to grasp without having experienced their realities. That being said, I could have used six more months of research there.
While the dated and purposefully lax environmental policies in Chile manage to avoid any real impact, the most powerful families and industries run the country’s natural resource management from Santiago. Hydropower has placed itself in a seemingly untouchable position of authority in Chile, while remaining a private and foreign entity. The same goes for mining operations, the two being closely tied.
As larger hydro projects have been fought valiantly in the far south, and their victories celebrated around the globe, projects further north and hundreds of smaller developments in-between continue unnoticed by the majority, despite local efforts. Although many projects fly under the radar, perhaps with the help of a regulated and centralized media force, the passivity that is felt throughout the country regarding river conservation is notable.
The corruption within Chile’s government is a widely acknowledged fact, even by local governmental authorities. And while this knowledge exists, many Chileans have seemingly reached a level of acceptance, which on occasion is broken when issues, such as invasive hydro developments, alter physical space. Furthermore, an animosity often felt between the rest of Chile and Santiago, only further moves to abandon the remaining free flowing rivers to foreign interests.
Layers upon layers of different protections and resistances are needed to guarantee any river’s safety, and luckily there are people who are working on creating them. However, these movements are largely isolated from each other, and lack of funding to help connect similarly minded movements is an issue.
While these are only ramblings and incomplete initial reactions from my hours upon hours of interviews and observations, I am so excited to develop them further and write my thesis.