Losing Patagonia?

With its coastal rainforests and deep inland fjords, its snowcapped mountains and craggy fields of ice, Patagonia has remained a world beautiful and wild-so far. Last fall, OnEarth' s George Black reported on the threat of hydropower development in Chile in our cover story, "Patagonia Under Siege." In December NRDC named the region a Biogem and launched a new campaign to stop de-structive development. So far, NRDC e-activists have sent more than 45,000 messages to Chilean president Michele Bachelet to protest plans by the Spanish-owned utility Endesa, the largest electricity supplier in Chile, to build hydroelectric dams on a half dozen rivers. The project would flood fertile ranching land and cut a 1,200-mile-long swath through five national parks and two wilderness reserves in order to erect the world's longest electrical transmission line. Preliminary studies indicate that the demand for electricity has been overestimated and that the cost of the project has been underestimated. NRDC is working with several Chilean groups to draft an alternative proposal and to pressure the Chilean government to explore cheaper, cleaner forms of energy that would spare Patagonia. For more information visit NRDC's Biogems Web site at www.savebiogems.org/patagonia.