Argentine scientist indicted over design of glacier inventory
Argentine scientist indicted over design of glacier inventory
By Barbara FraserDec. 5, 2017 , 5:15 PM
A prominent glaciologist, Ricardo Villalba, has been indicted on criminal charges for allegedly favoring a mining company as a consequence of how his former institute designed Argentina’s national glacier inventory.
The 27 November federal criminal court indictment also includes three former environment ministers. All four have been charged with “abuse of authority” for failing to protect water sources under a 2010 law aimed at preserving glaciated areas. The law prohibits mining in those areas.
The lawsuit was filed by a grassroots group after the Veladero mine in northwestern Argentina spilled cyanide into the Jáchal watershed in September 2015. Another spill in the same area occurred this past September.
Villalba, who led the National Institute of Snow, Ice and Environmental Research (IANIGLA) in Mendoza from 2005 to 2015, launched Argentina’s first comprehensive glacier inventory in 2012. Based on satellite images, the inventory set a minimum glacier size of 1 hectare. “The process of making that inventory wasn’t unusual. That size cutoff is standard practice,” says Bruce Raup of the University of Colorado in Boulder, who is also director of the Global Land Ice Measurements from Space project, an international glacier monitoring project. Argentina’s inventory includes 30 ice masses covering about 400 hectares in the Veladero area, Villalba says.
More:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/argentine-scientist-indicted-over-design-glacier-inventory
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141931448