Steingraber Reflection: Water is Life-Fracking of Mapuche Land - Añelo, Neuquén, Argentina 10.30.16

Dr. Sandra Steingraber reflects on the importance of water on the ecology of indigenous Mapuche land and the interconnections of life in Añelo, Neuquén Province, Argentina. 600 cubic meters of poisoned fracked water is injected into the earth every day on the nearby steppe which threatens the water table of the Mapuche and thus, threatens their land and their health. Sandra concludes that on this land, fracking is the invasive species.

UPDATE - 10.30.17: Conflict continues between the indigenous Mapuche community in Añelo and the Neuquén provincial government over legal rights to the territory where fracking operations are underway. The government has taken legal action against the Mapuche, charging them with the crime of usurpation of the disputed land. The Mapuche maintain that they are being denied their rights to their ancestral lands. Although these rights are explicitly enshrined in the Argentine constitution and international law, they are, in practice, rarely respected.

U.S. opponents of fracking, biologist Dr. Sandra Steingraber, PhD, pediatrician and medical ethicist, Kathleen Nolan, MD, (both Co-Founders of Concerned Health Professionals of New York,) and climate activist and videographer, Colleen Boland, visited Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Argentina October 25-30, 2016 at the invitation of Observatorio Petrolero Sur and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. While there, they toured communities impacted by fracking and met with frontline activists, medical professionals, and elected officials, delivering to them the Spanish version of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (Unconventional Gas and Oil Extraction) which was co-authored by Drs. Steingraber and Nolan.

Video by: Colleen Boland