Environmental Dispatches from Patagonia – Episode Two

By: 
Craig Childs

The following is a guest blog by author and adventurer Craig Childs, which accompanies part two of Rios Libres' short film "Dispatches from Patagonia" also featured on Patagonia's "The Cleanest Line" blog and National Geographic. The second installment examines the lasting legacy of large dams through the lens of the United States' own history of dam building.

Environmental Dispatches from Patagonia Episode 2 – The History

It was a good rain that morning in Aysén up a glacial tributary of the Río Baker. Drips came down through the roof of a one-room house where a young man named Filipe Henriquez stood next to the crackling cocina telling me about how the privatization of water in Chile, the selling of rivers, has interrupted the flow of life. Henriquez said, “My father can’t take water out of the Baker for his livestock. It was sold to HidroAysén. It belongs to Endesa and Colbún. Sure, you can irrigate with it, but it is illegal.”

Endesa – a multi-national power company owned by the Italian energy giant Enel – joined the Chilean energy company Colbún in planning to dam the Baker and other rivers in this un-dammed region.

The table in the house was made with a chainsaw, and on it stood a half-melted candle and an empty wine bottle from the night before. We had just finished breakfast.

Henriquez said, “This is unstable land. This year, earthquakes. Last year, the Chaiten volcano. Centralizing power in this environment is a mistake.”

He was trying to find reasons for dams and power infrastructure not to be built in this isolated and pristine region. Aysén is geologically unstable. It is one of the more active places on the planet, where tectonic plates are ramming into each other, throwing up the Andes in a fanfare of quakes and volcanoes. Meanwhile, accelerated melting of glaciers in Aysén has resulted in catastrophic outburst floods, debris-laden torrents carrying away entire forests. At times, these glacial floods have caused the Río Baker – the most voluminous river in Chile – to rise by 12 feet and even turn around and run upstream for days at a time. This is a dynamic place, one of the fastest-melting glacial regions in the world, not the best choice for new dams.

But Henriquez is not so much concerned with the physical safety of these proposed dams. He resists them because this is the land he belongs to, and dams would forever change it. Born and raised in Aysén, he explained that Patagonia’s biggest resource is its purity, not its power. “It’s the change from peaceful life to industrial life,” he said. “Dams will be the key to industry in Patagonia. First the dams, then…I don’t know.”

Living in wild, mountainous country like this with big glaciers pouring down the valleys changes the way you see time and place. Henriquez said, “To think for 500 years, not for 50 years, that is what I believe. I like to preserve my region for myself, my sons, the world, for you.”

When I asked if he is an activist, he answered no, he is an habitante. When I asked him what that meant, he translated it to English inhabitant. He lives here. He belongs here. Here: a place without dams.

Episode 2- The History from Rios Libres on Vimeo.

How you can get involved

  • Take Action: The wild and unique wilderness of Patagonia remains under threat until Colbún and Enel – the companies behind HidroAysén – abandon the destructive mega-dam scheme. Chile is blessed with some of the world’s best renewable resources and has far better options than HidroAysén for a truly sustainable energy future.

Please take action by sending a letter to the heads of Colbún and Enel urging them to call off the HidroAysén project once and for all!

More information: 
  • More about the author: Craig Childs is an Arizona native, and he grew up back and forth between there and Colorado, son of a mother hooked on outdoor adventure and a dad who liked whiskey, guns and Thoreau. He has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books, and is a commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition. At High Country News, he's a contributing editor, and he teaches writing for both University of Alaska in Anchorage and Southern New Hampshire University. He lives off the grid with his wife and two young sons at the foot of the West Elk Mountains in Colorado.
Date: 
Monday, June 10, 2013