Aremote Patagonian town that’s just beginning to prosper by guiding tourists through the virgin forests nearby is being shaken by the realization that it’s sitting on a gold mine. Literally. 41)___________________________________________________________________
Esquel’s plight is winning attention from international conservation and environmental groups such as Greenpeace. 42)__________________________
About 3.2 million acres already are under contract for mineral exploration in poor and sparsely settledChubut Province, whereEsquel is, near the southern tip of SouthAmeric
A、43)______________________________________
Meridian’s project, about 5 miles outsideEsquel at a higher elevation, is about 20 miles from a national park that preserves rate trees known as alerces, a southern relative ofCalifornia’s giant sequoi
A、Some of them have been growing serenely in the temperate rain forest for more than 3,000 years.
The greatest fear is that cyanide, which is used to leach gold from ore, will drain downhill and poisonEsquel’s and possibly the park’s water supplies. The mine will use 180 tons of the deadly chemical each month.Although many townspeople and some geologists disagree, the company says any excess cyanide would drain away fromEsquel.
“We won’t allow them to tear things up and leave us with the toxic aftermath,” said FelixAguilar, 28, as he piloted a boatload of tourists through a lake in theAlerces National Park.“We take care of things here, so that the entire world can hear and see nature in its pure state. The world must help us prevent this.”
44)__________________________________________________________________________
A、youngEnglish botanist namedCharlesDarwin, the author of the theory of evolution, was the firstEuropean to see alerces, with trunks that had a circumference of 130 feet. He gave the tree its generic name, Fitzroya cupressoides, for the captain of his ship, Robert Fitzroy.
Argentina, pressed by the United States,Canada, the WorldBank and other global lenders, rewrote its mining laws in the 1990s to encourage foreign investment.45)________________________________________
Argentina took in more than＄1 billion over the past decade by granting exploration contracts for precious metals to more than 70 foreign and domestic companies. If the country were to turn away a major investor, the message to its mining sector would be chilling.
［A］Whether Meridian GoldCorp. gets its openpit gold mine outsideEsquel could determine the fate of mining in Patagonia, a pristine region spanning southernArgentina andChile.
［B］Forest ecologist PaulAlaback, a University of Montana professor who studies the alerces, saidArgentine authorities could gain fromAlaska’s successful naturebased tourism.
［C］More than 3,000 worriedEsquel residents recently took to the streets in protests aimed at assuring that their neat community of 28,000 becomes a ecotourism center, not a goldrush town.
［D］AmericanDouglas Tomkins, the founder of theEsprit clothing line and a prominent global conservationist, has bought more than 800,000 wilderness acres inChile to preserve alerces and protect what’s left of the temperate rain forest. Ted Turner, the communications magnate, also has bought land inArgentine Patagonia with an eye to conservation.
［E］Residents also complain thatArgentina hasn’t given naturebased tourism a chance.
［F］Mining companies received incentives such as 30 years without new taxes and dutyfree imports of earthmoving equipment.
［G］InArgentina, the town has become a national symbol in the debate over exploitation vs. preservation of the country’s vast natural resources.