Dear Friends, a call for help to preserve the way of life and precious environment in Valle de San Felix, Chile. Many thanks!
In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chile runs from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers.
Water is a most precious resource, and wars will be fought for it.
Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they provide the second largest source of income for the area.
Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit of gold, silver and other minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as a whole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip.
The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold.
(Barrick Gold is mining at Lake Cowal-NSW Australia at the moment!) The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior.
The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006.
The only reason it hasn't started yet is because the farmers have got a temporary stay of execution.
If they destroy the glaciers, they will not just destroy the source of especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process.
Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is.
They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses.
The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior.
Their only hope now of putting brakes on this project is to get help from international justice.
The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here.
We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends in the following way.
Please copy this text, paste it into a new email adding your signature and send it to everyone in your address book. Please, will the 100th person to receive and sign the petition, send it to _noapascualama@yahoo.ca_ () to be forwarded to the Chilean Government.
No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the Andean Cordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier.
We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize the Pascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of the whole population of the region.
Signature, City, Country
1) Katharine Proudfoot, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
2) Laura Cole, London, UK
3) David Platt, London, UK
4) Diane Platt, Manchester, UK
5) Tanya Corker, Manchester, UK
6) Nicola Hargreaves, UK
7) Nicholas Jones, UK
8) Johann Don-Daniel, Germany
9) Ashley Berger, Germany
10) Sarah Downie, Leeds, UK
11) Paula Delahunty, Bingley, UK
12) John O'Driscoll, Bingley, Uk
13) Jordan-Lee Delahunty, Bingley, UK
14) Claire Mulvey, Bradford, UK
15) Marie Malcolm Bradford, UK
16) Ann Clowes, Halifax UK
17) Jayne McGee, Brighouse UK
18) Jason Barratt Oldham UK
19) Lindsay Torrance, Rochdale UK
20) Maggie Ford, Rochdale, U.K.
21) Barry Cook, Todmorden, U.K.
22) Shelley Burgoyne, Todmorden, U.K.
23) Lisa Stuart, Potes, Spain.
24) Michael Stuart, Potes, Spain.
25) Renee Engl, Byron Bay, Australia
26) Adrian Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
27) Riana Begg, Brunswick Heads, Australia
28) Oriel Paterson, Brunswick Heads, Australia 29) Alicia Paterson, Brisbane, Australia
30) Lyneve Robinson, Sydney, Australia
31) Jennifer Moalem, Sydney, Australia
32) Alexandra Pope, Sydney Australia
33) Shushann Movsessian, Sydney Australia
34) Amanda Frost
35) Tarshito , Montecollum,NSW Australia
36) Eltara
37) Michael Webb, The Channon,NSW Australia
38) Sarah LaRock, New Orleans, USA
39) Annie LaRock, New Orleans, USA
40) David Zurak , New York, USA
41) Sapidah Kian, Melbourne, Australia
42) Blake Osborn , Byron Bay, Australia
43) Pip Theobald, South Golden Beach, NSW, Australia
44) Michael Colenso, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
45) Natalie Tindale, Brisbane, Australia
46) Scott Tindale, Brisbane, Australia
47) Dee Burke, Melbourne, Australia
48) Marion Robinson, Melbourne, Australia
49) Bernadette Young , Melbourne, Australia
50) Bill Nicholson, Geelong, Australia
51) Noreen Nicholson, Geelong, Australia
52) Kylie Kuppe, Melbourne, Australia
53) Jim Donovan, Dublin, Ireland 54) Joy Peterson, USA 55) Marie Lucey, Maryland, USA
56) Nora Nash, Aston, PA USA 57) David M. Schilling, New York, NY USA 58) Irene Senn, Milwaukee, WI USA 59) Margaret Kruse, OSF - Iowa USA 60) Ladonna Woerdeman,OSF -Iowa USA 61) Jeanie Hagedorn, CHM - Iowa, USA 62) Mary Rehmann, CHM - West Virginia, USA 63) Duane Nichols, CLEAR - West Virginia, USA