Dams and Hydroelectricity:

Purcell, Fernando

doi:10.2307/j.ctvz939bd.14

Cited by 1 publication

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“…At the time, the local press highlighted that "the project was gradually created in his mind when, faced with the drought phenomenon annihilating the inner regions of Arica, the Department Governor started to put pressure on agricultural engineers to prepare the evacuation of livestock and even people toward more favored sectors." 44 The Tripartite Agreement signed in Arica was based on a series of previous assumptions and scopes. It was published in its entirety during its formalization in June 1967, but there were significant institutional precedents in 1966.…”

Section: The Generation Of Artificial Rainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…60 President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who inaugurated the works in June 1968 in the middle of the drought, did not spare praise either, highlighting Rapel's great importance to the progress and productivity of a country anxiously seeking modernity. 61 Beyond the joy of the inauguration, the initial months of operation were a headache for the engineers and managers of endesa, the state company that had built the power plant and supervised electricity generation and the interconnected system that allowed the flow of electricity throughout the country. Even though the Rapel parish priest "implored the heavens' protection for the work" at the inauguration, the heavens did not drop any water during that winter.…”

Section: Melting Glaciersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thirsty Country: State, Water, and the “War on Drought” in Chile in the 1960s

Purcell

2022

Hist. Crit.

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Objective/Context: This paper studies the role of the Chilean state during the great drought of 1967-1969 as a mediator between human beings and nature. Institutional adaptations and the effort to improve the infrastructure were elements of continuity with respect to previous droughts, but there were novelties as well, such as attempts to pursue weather modification and the artificial melting of glaciers. The support of technologies and scientists operating from peripheral state institutions was essential for these purposes. All the above took place in the context of the Cold War when the predominant environmental imaginaries made human intervention look favorable and necessary for the modernization of countries. Methodology: Diverse primary sources were used, such as ministerial documents, decrees, bulletins, and reports of different state institutions that allowed understanding the logic of state management during the water crisis. Similarly, research in national and international press helped identify how imaginaries about the environment were expressed and disseminated publicly, which tended to validate novel efforts to control nature. Originality: This is an original study for Latin America, which addresses the early appearance of science and technology in the efforts of what today would be known as geoengineering: mainly through the observation of new actors, which expanded the traditional forms of mediation between humans and nature, led by the state, concerning climate crises. Conclusions: In the 1960s, optimism grew for the human capacity to control and manipulate water resources by appealing to ways other than those previously known, associated with infrastructure development. Expert knowledge was placed at the service of peripheral institutions of the state to promote these changes with lasting consequences. The human desire to control nature at all costs was validated, which helps explain the temporal projection of experiments with artificial rain and glacier control to the present day in Chile.

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Section: The Generation Of Artificial Rainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Melting Glaciersmentioning

confidence: 99%