Ebook Global Changes and Economic Globalization in the Andes. Challenges for Developing Nations
Global changes are a very relevant issue for the whole world, but especially for developing countries that depend mainly on their natural resources to sustain their economic and social development. In the case of the Andes, most of the Latin-American countries source their raw materials, biological goods and environmental services from this mountain chain (IGM, 1983). Before the Spanish colonization that started in XV century, natural resources were used for the development of local territories, but with the establishment of colonial centres they were sent to the metropolis, thus forming the first economic and cultural globalization process.
Today for the first time global changes, such as climate change and economic globalization, challenge simultaneously the subsistence of many ecosystems, regions and places in Latin America. The Andes is a very diverse, complex and fluid environment. In this essay we deal with the Chilean part of this mountain chain, i.e. a section of the Central Andes (Northern Chile) and Southern Andes (Chilean Patagonia). These regions could be understood as a good representation of the present interaction between global changes and global economy that is taking place.
Chile is one of the longest countries in the world, extending for more than 4.500 km, from subtropical (18 ºS) to temperate and sub-Antarctic latitudes (56 ºS). The northern section of Chile contains the Atacama desert, one of the driest ecosystems and regions in the world (Romero, 1983). The availability of water is the most critical natural resource for the development of this part of the country. Paradoxically, however, the Atacama desert is, at the same time, the most important reserve, on a global scale, of highly sought minerals for industrial development, like copper and molybdenum. Chile supplies almost 40 % of the global demand for copper, and in order to produce this amount of ore and to satisfy the increasing international market, enormous amounts of water quantities are required. Providing them is almost impossible in this very arid environment (Ibañez & Pizarro, 2003).
Difficulties for development that affect Northern Chile are typical for the environmental constraints that sustainable development is confronted with in many developing countries. Chilean society is expecting the international scientific community to contribute to finding a solution to these challenges.
Patagonia in Southern Chile represents different environmental conditions from those in the Atacama Desert. There the Andes reach the Pacific Ocean at latitudes where westerly winds predominate throughout the year. High rates of annual rainfall are responsible for the extraordinary quantity and quality of water which is stored in many glaciers and in two immense glacier fields or deposited along thousand of rivers, streams and lakes. Temperate rainforests, clean air, soils and waters, and a highbiodiversity, located in orographically complex landscapes have been maintained up to now far away from human influence. Pristine ecosystems abound, especially in remote areas that were declared nature conservation areas many decades ago.
Clean water in Chilean Patagonia becomes a critical resource for future sustainable development, taking into consideration the generalized scarcity of resources in the country. Climate change is already reducing the annual mean rainfall by 50% in the southernmost section of Chilean Patagonia, mean and minimum temperatures are increasing, snowlines are rising and glaciers are retreating. These days economic activities, such as aquaculture and salmon farming, tourism and hydropower generation are competing for the control and appropriation of the most productive regional watersheds.
In both cases, mining installations and operations in Northern Chile and the competition for water from several economic sectors in Southern Chile, scientific knowledge is required to support the decision-making process. Unfortunately, scientific knowledge is a social resource that is currently not available, at least as a public good that could be accessed by the general people and the local communities.
An erroneous decision strongly supported by economic drivers could result in severe damages and devastation of natural and cultural landscapes. Probably, when Chile will suffer the most relevant effects of climate change in the future, its environmental landscapes will have already become completely devastated.
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