My son, Jack (and U2’s Bono) send this along

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.

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
[email protected] 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.

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascua_Lama

   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) Chris Liddell, AUS
   36) Jade Deegan, AUS
   37) Donna Duggan, Sydney, AUS
   37) Jo Satori, AUS
   38) Katinka Lytton-Hitchins, AUS
   39 Anthony Ashworth NSW, AUS
   40)ShamanaTara, NSW Australia
   41) Lorene Barin, NSW, Australia
   42) Dimahi Dettra Farrell, NSW Australia
   43) Julie Pirotta, WA, Australia
   44) Ginny Webb, Perth, Australia
   45) Elspeth Taimre WA Australia
   46) chris murray WA Australia
   47] Annie Parkhouse, Carlisle, UK
   48) Norah McWilliam, Bradford, Yorks. UK
   49) Simon Dunn, Manchester, UK
   50) Kate Dunn, Manchester, UK
   51) Jeremy Haughty, Exeter UK
   52) Julie Verre, Exeter, UK
   53)Tricia Cassel-Gerard, Exeter, Uk
   54) Simon Evans, Wembury,UK
   56) Neil Cooper, Modbury, UK
   57) John Nightingale, Capton, UK
   58) Tim Malyon, Uplowman, UK
   59) Tony Bennett, London, UK
   60) Lora Fountain, Paris, France
   61) David Koblick, Steyr, Austria
   62) Sylviane Bellamy, USA
   63)  Virginia MacArthur, VA,USA
   64) Maribel Moheno, Richmond, VA, USA
   65)  Nora Finton, NYC
  66) Dorian Rush, LA, USA
  67) Jack Long, LA, USA
http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/getinvolved