Climate Weekly - When Chile forgot it had poor peopleWhen Chile forgot it had poor people
Hi again,
Welcome to Climate Weekly!
Each week we’ll ask one guest writer from our network to give you a short selection of some of the best climate news from their region, giving you a little window into some climate stories you probably didn’t see in your News Feed.
This week, we’re focussed on Chile, where Francisco Parra is in lockdown in Santiago
¡Hola a tod@s!
I’m Francisco and I am writing from the locked-down city of Santiago, Chile. We’ve been more than a month like this and with more than 250,000 cases and 7,000 deaths, we might be locked in for months.
Just before Covid hit, we were amidst an intense social uprising aiming to overturn the embedded inequality in our country. As you might imagine, that same approach to governance has continued throughout this epidemic. Just this week, the Washington Post and Bloomberg both ran a story highlighting how the Government “hadn’t appreciated the extent of poverty and overcrowding in parts of Santiago”.
A tragic example of that: On May 18, hundreds of people protested against Sebastián
Piñera’s government for the lack of food because of the pandemic. That same day, the government ordered the purchase of salmon caviar, duck mousse and wild boar pate, among others gourmet meals.
But let me tell you about our climate commitments. In March, Chile presented its updated national climate plan or NDC, being the first Latin country to do so ahead of what was meant to be a 2020 deadline. It has some good things and some less so, you can read what I wrote in Climate Tracker about that here.
A couple of weeks later, the italian company Enel decided to close one of its coal power plants (initially set for decommissioning in 2040). It was certainly good news, but I had mixed feelings while many congratulated the coal conglomerate. In contrast, Alex Muñoz argued that “abusers do not deserve applause or congratulations when they stop abusing.”
Since then, the government has proposed anEconomic Emergency Plan, promising to ease environmental regulations. We don’t have the details yet, but environmental movements and civil society are feeling nervous. While authorities continue to discuss Chile’s “green revival” a recent study found 283 environmental and resource conflicts across the country, involving mining, coal plants and water conflicts.
On a happier note, the southern half of Latin America is this week marking the winter solstice with a series of unique celebrations to mark the New Year. This includes the Aymaran “Inti Raymi” (Festival of the Sun) and the Mapuche festival of “We Tripantu”, as they believe this is the moment when the sun regains its strength and rises again.
We hold on to that in times like these.
From Climate Tracker
This week we made a Hurricanes Reporting Handbook, and hosted a Webinar with Kristine Sabillo (the Philippines) and Julio Batista (Cuba) sharing their experiences ahead of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.
Yemen has been caught in a horrible conflict, and is still getting hit by Climate impacts. This exclusive by Yemeni reporter Sahar Mohammed tells that story.
What else we’re reading
This epic BBC piece is a week old, but we’re still enjoying the Who’s to blame for Climate Change piece
For a bit of a longform essay weekend, why not try this Viewpoint essay on why this is a Crisis of a New Type
With news of even more Amazon $$ going into aforestation, this study on what happens when you try to subsidise tree planting might be useful. It looked at a 40 year old policy from Chile that increased tree cover, but undermined native forests :(
And for anyone protesting this weekend, this piece by The Intercept on setting up a Burner phone is an awesome “how to” for anyone protecting their privacy.
Photo of the Week
This image from Scott Duncan of the shocking Siberian heatwave. It's’ currently 30 degrees higher than average, as all time temperatures have been smashed this week.
I’m Ignacio and I’m writing to you from Lisbon, Portugal. I recently moved back to Europe after seven wonderful years in Brazil and I’m enjoying some quality time with my family in one of the few countries that has been able to keep the coronavirus in check.
This is a Weekly newsletter created by Climate Tracker. If you have any questions, comments or want to get involved, email Chris at chris@climatetracker.org - that’s me. I’d love to hear from you...and don’t worry, I’m locked inside too.
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