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