EL CALAFATE, Argentina—Deep in Southern Patagonia, Mariana Martinez wades barefoot into the turquoise waters of a glacial lake. In the rugged mountains surrounding her, the sun streams into forest-draped valleys and intense Patagonian winds spray water into the air. This is a landscape of extremes, a region at the southern tip of South America where nature, in its rawest form, still reigns supreme. To Martinez, the idea of bending the terrain to humans’ will seems a folly. Yet for more than a decade, Argentine and Chinese leaders have been attempting just that. Martinez is part of a coalition of environmentalists, Indigenous communities and scientists fighting the construction of two hydroelectric dams on the Santa Cruz River, which flows from the lake where she stands. Among their fears is the possibility that the dams’ reservoirs will flood cultural heritage sites and impact the world’s largest continental glacial icefield after Antarctica. Mariana Martinez stands in a glacial lake in Southern Patagonia. Martinez, a former park ranger, has fought the construction of dams on the Santa Cruz River for more than a decade. Credit: Katie Surma/Inside Climate News Experts—including geologists, glaciologists, Indigenous leaders and biologists—warned of the project’s risks. Others question the logic of damming one of Argentina’s last free-flowing rivers, which originates in a United Nations World Heritage site, when alternative energy solutions exist. A multi-billion dollar deal between China and Argentina to build the dams was inked in 2014 anyway, with construction beginning the following year without adequate studies or community consultations, according to Argentine court rulings. As a result, construction keeps stalling. The dams, meant to be operational years ago, are largely unfinished and local residents have called them an environmental and human rights catastrophe. The Santa Cruz dams are part of China’s massive $1.3 trillion overseas investment initiative, […]
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