Chile community action

News and comment

2011

Campaigns: Isla Riesco Chile (es), save Riesco Island from destruction, ^[1], Written by Paulina Aguilera Muñoz, Translated by Negarra Akili Kudumu, February 21

2009

Desertification

In Chile, where 62% of the national territory is already affected by desertification, blogger Alfredo Erlwein expressed concern on the blog El Ciudadano (The Citizen) on how little knowledge citizens have about desertification.

Efectivamente la desertificación es el problema ambiental más grave de Chile y muy poco conocido. Existen grandes zonas, como en la costa de la octava región, donde la erosión severa supera el 50% de la superficie: esto es que literalmente más de la mitad de los suelos se ha perdido por completo. En esas zonas se encuentran cárcavas de más de 50 metros de profundidad. Una tasa normal de formación de suelo puede ser de 0.2 cm por año, lo que evidencia la gravedad del asunto.

Desertification is indeed the biggest but least known environmental problem in Chile. There are vast areas, such as the Eight Region’s coast, where the severe erosion exceeds 50 percent of the surface: this means that more than half of the land has been lost, literally. In those areas there are grooves of over 50 meters of depth. A normal range of land formation is of about 0.2. centimetres per year, which proves the severity of the matter. ^[2], November 4

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