Six months ago, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner signed a landmark glacier-protection law hailed by green advocates as a means of ensuring the country’s fast-expanding mining industry doesn’t destroy water-rich, high-Andean ecosystems. Today, backers of the law, which requires protection of glaciers and adjacent periglacial areas, feel betrayed. Safeguards ordered in the legislation have yet to be applied to any of the country’s Andean mining projects, they complain, and appear likely to languish for years. The law was first approved by the Argentine Congress in 2008, but it drew a veto from President Cristina Kirchner. After Congress passed the legislation last Sept. 30 on a second attempt, Kirchner, still smarting from criticism of her earlier veto, signed the bill. Enforcement of the... [Log in to read more]