Fridays for Future in Valparaíso

I arrived at Carolina's place in Pio Pio on Thursday evening, and the next day we went together to Valparaiso, one-hour bus ride away, to walk around the city and also to see the Friday's for Future march for Climate action. Here in Chile, climate change is really affecting the country, along with several other deeper issues of access to water and agriculture being reserved for export, mainly avocados here in the area. In many places, the ground water level has gone down so much due to the cultivation of immense spaces for avocados that water for the local inhabitants needs to be supplied by truck. in many places, the rivers are privately owned so the local population also does not have access to sufficient water.

I loved seeing the creative signs and smart slogans in the march. It was also really emotional for me to see so much drive and passion to protect the environment by so many people, especially groups of teenagers and families with children. One of the groups were a native Mapuche tribe, also greatly affected by climate change and political decisions.

'The worst threat is to think that others will act'

'We don't want monoculture, let's be native forest'