Keeping up the fight

Now home from Chile, it’s hard to believe that in two weeks there I met one of the heads of Greenpeace Chile and a prominent senator, and marched with over 1,500 Chileans across the Rio Itata Bridge.

Sadly, I also saw some of the worst environmental woes of my life.

The polluted estuary we nicknamed St. Patrick’s because of its putrid green color. The small beach town of Constitucion had its own pulp mill on the edge of the sand that was so blackened, with two smoke stacks spewing toxins, it looked as though it was smack dab in the middle of a nuclear-explosion epicenter.

It was as if the people of these towns had no say, no rights and no power to stand up and say “no.”

Luckily here in Laguna Beach we do have the ability to say no.

However, things are changing in the small towns of Chile. The people are uniting and forming their own environmental groups such as “Salve mos cobquecura” ? translation, “We will save Coba Quecura,” another small town threatened by yet another pulp mill, this time along the Rio Itata.

Environmentalism is new to Chile ? brand new, in fact. There is no fish and game department, no marine protection officer. Every morning outside my window, the big fishing trawlers would come within feet of the shore with enormous nets catching anything nearby ? whether seals or the endangered Chilean sea bass.

These nets stole everything the ocean had to offer. Worse, now these same fishermen are stealing from the local fishermen who used to go out every morning on little pongas and fish. They are now just paid off by the bigger and larger fishing boats, and a local fishing culture is gone.

Here in Laguna, we have seen big businesses come in and try to take over, but here we have a voice.

Whether it be “no” to the toll road or “yes” to cleaning up Aliso Creek, we have environmental groups such as the Clean Water Now! Coalition and Surfrider. We have a new marine protection officer and we even have a Laguna Beach Environmental Committee.

I appreciate these groups who fight every day to keep our environment sustainable for the next generations.