Latest news with #Conicet
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘I don't want my training to go to waste': the Argentinian scientists working side jobs amid Milei's sweeping cuts
Leonardo Amarilla is desperate. The geneticist and PhD in biological sciences holds a coveted position as a full-time researcher at Argentina's prestigious national science council, Conicet, studying how to improve yields of crops such as peanuts, soya beans and sunflowers. But after President Javier Milei imposed sweeping austerity measures, known locally as his 'chainsaw' plan, Amarilla's salary plummeted and he found he could no longer afford basic groceries or support his ageing parents. In an effort to make ends meet, he signed up to drive for Uber, working four hours a day during the week and six on weekends. 'I'm working between 12 and 13 hours a day [overall],' he says. 'I'm exhausted. It affects the quality of my research, and my teaching. I used to get home and read scientific papers – now I go home and immediately head back out to drive passengers around.' Amarilla is far from alone. Faced with quickly falling salaries, many of Argentina's top scientists are abandoning research or taking on extra work – as ride-share drivers, food vendors, tutors or artisans. Since Milei took office in December 2023, Conicet salaries have lost nearly 35% of their purchasing power, according to a report by the Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI). Meanwhile, the government froze the hiring of 850 researchers who had already been approved under the previous administration. Other state scientific institutions, like the atomic commission or the agricultural institute, have also been targeted by the president's chainsaw measures. Milei, a self-styled 'anarcho-capitalist' and climate change denier, has targeted Argentina's public science institutions, viewing them as bloated and unnecessary. 'If you think your research is so useful,' he said in a 2024 speech, 'go to the market like any other citizen – publish a book and see if people are interested.' His administration's budget slashing has extended well beyond salaries. According to the UK's Inter-University Council, Milei's government has suspended contracts with academic publishing houses, in effect cutting off access to scientific journals; defunded all international cooperation programmes; and dismantled procurement systems for lab equipment and supplies. In Buenos Aires, cancer researcher Valeria – who asked that her surname not be published out of concern for colleagues – recently abandoned her research entirely. She had been studying a protein expressed in several cancers, hoping to inhibit it as a treatment. But her monthly salary of 950,000 pesos (US$787) no longer covered basic living costs. She now teaches high school biology, where she is paid more. 'I plan to resume my research in another country,' she says. 'I don't want my training to go to waste.' Last month, thousands of scientists dressed as the protagonist of Netflix's Argentinian hit series The Eternaut protested in front of the science ministry. The researchers, with their faces covered by the hero's signature gas mask, denounced a 'scienticide'. But not everybody could attend. In February, a Conicet and Buenos Aires University economic geographer, Jerónimo Montero, started a side job as an electrician to provide for his three kids, in what he calls 'a radical shift' in his life. 'I took the strike day to do an electricity job,' Montero says. 'It was really hard for me to know that my mates were struggling for better working conditions for everyone, including me, while I was passing cables through pipes.' Montero, who studied under the British Marxist geographer David Harvey and researched labour conditions in the garment sector, is paid about 1.5m pesos (US$1,243) a month. But the government's currency strategy, propping up the peso to slow inflation, has made Argentina the most expensive country in Latin America, according to a report by El País. For the public sector workers, real wages have sharply declined against inflation. According to CIICTI, more than 4,000 jobs have been lost across the national science sector since Milei took office. 'In 2024, resignations rose 33% compared to the previous year,' says Gonzalo Sanz Cerbino, a Conicet union representative. 'We're facing a brain drain. Those who don't move to the private sector are going to scientific institutions abroad – places that still value knowledge.' Last month, Córdoba University's bioinformatician and chemist Rodrigo Quiroga reluctantly began to consider leaving Argentina. At the Spanish consulate, where he applied for citizenship, he ran into two other researchers from his university, also preparing their exit. 'Highly trained and educated human resources with multiple postgraduate degrees that we are going to lose … and will probably not return,' says Qurioga. The ideological campaign against science appears to be intensifying. Last week, an executive order curtailed the autonomy of the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, a key source of public funding, replacing its board with people designated by the administration. A similar decree is reportedly in the works for CONICET. Social sciences are in the firing line – Milei has dismissed them as 'political propaganda' with no real-world researchers across disciplines see things differently. 'Our work is transdisciplinary - it depends on dialogue with economists, linguists, and social scientists,' says Matías Blaustein, a biologist who has worked at CONICET for over two decades. He leads a team studying cancer's biological, environmental, and social dimensions at the Buenos Aires University. Publicly funded science, he says, plays a fundamental role because it is not commercially biased like the private their research, like Amarilla's, is threatened by a lack of basic lab supplies. 'Our cells need to be kept in liquid nitrogen, and we need carbon dioxide. If those aren't delivered, 20 years' worth of cell lines will die,' he says, adding that researchers are forced to use money from their own pockets or ask for donations from individuals, companies or non-profits to keep it going. 'That would be a tragedy.' Still, many scientists continue working out of sheer passion. 'We feign insanity,' Blaustein says wryly, quoting a popular Argentinian tongue-in-cheek phrase. 'Like the orchestra on the Titanic, we keep playing. We go to protests, we keep researching, because we love our work and believe it helps people. But we don't have enough budget to afford even the basics.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘I don't want my training to go to waste': the Argentinian scientists working side jobs amid Milei's sweeping cuts
Leonardo Amarilla is desperate. The geneticist and PhD in biological sciences holds a coveted position as a full-time researcher at Argentina's prestigious national science council, Conicet, studying how to improve yields of crops such as peanuts, soya beans and sunflowers. But after President Javier Milei imposed sweeping austerity measures, known locally as his 'chainsaw' plan, Amarilla's salary plummeted and he found he could no longer afford basic groceries or support his ageing parents. In an effort to make ends meet, he signed up to drive for Uber, working four hours a day during the week and six on weekends. 'I'm working between 12 and 13 hours a day [overall],' he says. 'I'm exhausted. It affects the quality of my research, and my teaching. I used to get home and read scientific papers – now I go home and immediately head back out to drive passengers around.' Amarilla is far from alone. Faced with quickly falling salaries, many of Argentina's top scientists are abandoning research or taking on extra work – as ride-share drivers, food vendors, tutors or artisans. Since Milei took office in December 2023, Conicet salaries have lost nearly 35% of their purchasing power, according to a report by the Ibero-American Center for Research in Science, Technology and Innovation (CIICTI). Meanwhile, the government froze the hiring of 850 researchers who had already been approved under the previous administration. Other state scientific institutions, like the atomic commission or the agricultural institute, have also been targeted by the president's chainsaw measures. Milei, a self-styled 'anarcho-capitalist' and climate change denier, has targeted Argentina's public science institutions, viewing them as bloated and unnecessary. 'If you think your research is so useful,' he said in a 2024 speech, 'go to the market like any other citizen – publish a book and see if people are interested.' His administration's budget slashing has extended well beyond salaries. According to the UK's Inter-University Council, Milei's government has suspended contracts with academic publishing houses, in effect cutting off access to scientific journals; defunded all international cooperation programmes; and dismantled procurement systems for lab equipment and supplies. In Buenos Aires, cancer researcher Valeria – who asked that her surname not be published out of concern for colleagues – recently abandoned her research entirely. She had been studying a protein expressed in several cancers, hoping to inhibit it as a treatment. But her monthly salary of 950,000 pesos (US$787) no longer covered basic living costs. She now teaches high school biology, where she is paid more. 'I plan to resume my research in another country,' she says. 'I don't want my training to go to waste.' Last month, thousands of scientists dressed as the protagonist of Netflix's Argentinian hit series The Eternaut protested in front of the science ministry. The researchers, with their faces covered by the hero's signature gas mask, denounced a 'scienticide'. But not everybody could attend. In February, a Conicet and Buenos Aires University economic geographer, Jerónimo Montero, started a side job as an electrician to provide for his three kids, in what he calls 'a radical shift' in his life. 'I took the strike day to do an electricity job,' Montero says. 'It was really hard for me to know that my mates were struggling for better working conditions for everyone, including me, while I was passing cables through pipes.' Montero, who studied under the British Marxist geographer David Harvey and researched labour conditions in the garment sector, is paid about 1.5m pesos (US$1,243) a month. But the government's currency strategy, propping up the peso to slow inflation, has made Argentina the most expensive country in Latin America, according to a report by El País. For the public sector workers, real wages have sharply declined against inflation. According to CIICTI, more than 4,000 jobs have been lost across the national science sector since Milei took office. 'In 2024, resignations rose 33% compared to the previous year,' says Gonzalo Sanz Cerbino, a Conicet union representative. 'We're facing a brain drain. Those who don't move to the private sector are going to scientific institutions abroad – places that still value knowledge.' Last month, Córdoba University's bioinformatician and chemist Rodrigo Quiroga reluctantly began to consider leaving Argentina. At the Spanish consulate, where he applied for citizenship, he ran into two other researchers from his university, also preparing their exit. 'Highly trained and educated human resources with multiple postgraduate degrees that we are going to lose … and will probably not return,' says Qurioga. The ideological campaign against science appears to be intensifying. Last week, an executive order curtailed the autonomy of the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, a key source of public funding, replacing its board with people designated by the administration. A similar decree is reportedly in the works for CONICET. Social sciences are in the firing line – Milei has dismissed them as 'political propaganda' with no real-world researchers across disciplines see things differently. 'Our work is transdisciplinary - it depends on dialogue with economists, linguists, and social scientists,' says Matías Blaustein, a biologist who has worked at CONICET for over two decades. He leads a team studying cancer's biological, environmental, and social dimensions at the Buenos Aires University. Publicly funded science, he says, plays a fundamental role because it is not commercially biased like the private their research, like Amarilla's, is threatened by a lack of basic lab supplies. 'Our cells need to be kept in liquid nitrogen, and we need carbon dioxide. If those aren't delivered, 20 years' worth of cell lines will die,' he says, adding that researchers are forced to use money from their own pockets or ask for donations from individuals, companies or non-profits to keep it going. 'That would be a tragedy.' Still, many scientists continue working out of sheer passion. 'We feign insanity,' Blaustein says wryly, quoting a popular Argentinian tongue-in-cheek phrase. 'Like the orchestra on the Titanic, we keep playing. We go to protests, we keep researching, because we love our work and believe it helps people. But we don't have enough budget to afford even the basics.'
Malay Mail
7 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Fate of major EU trade deal hangs over Mercosur summit amid French resistance
BUENOS AIRES, July 3 — The fate of a landmark trade deal with the European Union, which France is trying to block, looms large over a summit this week of South America's Mercosur bloc. Brussels in December struck a deal with Mercosur's founding members — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — which would allow the EU to sell more vehicles, machines and pharmaceuticals to South America in return for allowing in more meat, sugar, rice and soybeans from the region. The agreement has been 25 years in the making, but still needs to be ratified by EU member states and the EU parliament. It has faced stiff opposition from France, where farmers worry about being undercut by less-regulated Latin American peers, while enjoying backing from Germany, Spain and Portugal, among others. 'Today, the ball is in Europe's court,' Ariel Gonzalez Levaggi, director of the Center for International Studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, told AFP. But 'there isn't much willingness on the part of Brussels to move forward, mainly because of the French resistance,' he added. EU and South American backers of the deal had hoped Trump's tariffs blitz could breathe new life into a deal that would give exporters on either side of the Atlantic new outlets for their products in the event of punishing US duties. For Florencia Rubiolo, a researcher at Conicet, Argentina's scientific and technical research council, it's 'of strategic interest for all Mercosur members, both individually, and as a bloc, to see this deal be ratified.' Among other things, she argued, it would show Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei that there is value in being part of the group, after his government has railed against Mercosur's constraints on members striking solo trade deals. Milei is gunning for a free trade deal with the United States, and he has suggested he could walk away from Mercosur if necessary to clinch an agreement with Washington. 'Lowest ebb' The biannual Mercosur summit comes at a low point in relations between Brazil and Argentina, South America's biggest and second-biggest economies respectively. Milei, a huge fan of US President Donald Trump, has made no secret of his disdain for veteran leftist Lula, referring to him in the past as 'corrupt' and a 'Communist.' Lula has accused the Argentine of talking 'nonsense.' The contempt between the two was plain to see when Lula hosted Milei at a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro last November. The tensions could be exacerbated if Lula uses his trip to Buenos Aires to visit left-wing ex-president Cristina Kirchner, who is serving a six-year sentence for fraud under house arrest. Kirchner yesterday requested permission for Lula to pay her a solidarity visit, in a move likely to anger her arch-nemesis Milei. It was not clear, however, whether Lula would risk upsetting his Argentine counterpart at home. 'We may be experiencing the worst period in relations between Brazil and Argentina, in terms of political convergence,' Juliana Peixoto, an expert in international relations at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, told AFP. She said she nonetheless expected Mercosur, which also includes Bolivia, to endure the tensions. 'It has a small but stable core of trade and has other related agendas that allow it to survive,' she said. — AFP
TimesLIVE
16-05-2025
- Climate
- TimesLIVE
Huge ice falls at Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier stir awe and concern
The deep cracking sound bursting from within the ice signals the dramatic fall about to happen. Seconds later, a block of ice 70m tall — the size of a 20-storey building — collapses from the face of the Perito Moreno glacier into the aquamarine water below. The sight has attracted visitors to Argentina's most famous glacier for years. Standing on platforms facing the ice, they wait for the next crack to split the cool Patagonian air. However, recently the size of the ice chunks breaking off, a process called 'calving', has been starting to alarm local guides and glaciologists, anxious about a prolonged retreat by Perito Moreno, which had bucked the trend in recent decades by maintaining its mass even as warmer climates spurred faster glacial melting worldwide. 'Ice calving events of this size haven't been very common at the Perito Moreno glacier over the past 20 years,' said Pablo Quinteros, an official tourist guide at Los Glaciares National Park in the southern province of Santa Cruz. 'It's only in the past four to six years that we've started to see icebergs this big,' he told Reuters during a visit in April. The face of the glacier, which flows down from Andean peaks to end in the waters of Lake Argentina, had for decades held more or less steady, some years advancing and others retreating. But in the past five years, there's been a firmer retreat. 'It had been in more or less the same position for the past 80 years. And that's unusual,' said Argentine glaciologist Lucas Ruiz with state science body Conicet, whose research focus is the future of Patagonian glaciers in the face of climate change. 'However, since 2020 signs of retreat have begun to be seen in some parts of the Perito Moreno glacier's face.' He said the glacier could rebound as it has done before, but for the moment it was losing between one and two metres of water equivalent per year, which if not reversed could lead to a situation where the loss accelerates. A state-backed 2024 report, co-authored by Ruiz and presented to Argentina's Congress, showed while Perito Moreno's mass has been overall stable for half a century, the period since 2015 has seen the fastest and most prolonged loss of mass in 47 years, on average losing 0.85m per year. Glaciers about the globe are disappearing faster than ever, with the last three-year period seeing the largest glacial mass loss on record, according to a Unesco report in March. Ruiz said instruments his research team used to monitor the glacier had shown an increase in air temperature in the area of about 0.06°C per decade and precipitation decreasing, meaning less accumulation of snow and ice. 'The thing with Perito Moreno is that it took a while to feel the effects of climate change,' Ruiz said. However, the accumulation of ice at the top of the glacier was being outpaced by melting and calving at the bottom. 'The changes we are seeing today clearly show this balance of forces has been disrupted, and today the glacier is losing in thickness and area.' The glacier remains an awe-inspiring attraction for travellers, who board boats to see the calving and the huge icebergs floating about the lake up close. 'It's insane. The most incredible thing I've ever seen,' said Brazilian tourist Giovanna Machado on the deck of one of the boats, which have to be careful of sudden ice falls. 'Even in photos, you can't grasp the immensity of it, and it's perfect. It's amazing. I think everyone should come here at least once in their lifetime.'
AsiaOne
16-05-2025
- Science
- AsiaOne
Huge ice falls at Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier stir awe and concern, World News
PERITO MORENO GLACIER, Argentina — The deep cracking sound bursting from within the ice signals the dramatic fall about to happen. Seconds later, a block of ice some 70 metres tall — the size of a 20-story building — collapses from the face of the Perito Moreno glacier into the aquamarine water below. The sight has attracted visitors to Argentina's most famous glacier for years. Standing on platforms facing the ice, they wait for the next crack to split the cool Patagonian air. But recently the size of the ice chunks breaking off — a process called "calving" — has been starting to alarm local guides and glaciologists, already anxious at a prolonged retreat by Perito Moreno, which had bucked the trend in recent decades by maintaining its mass even as warmer climates spurred faster glacial melting worldwide. "Ice calving events of this size haven't been very common at the Perito Moreno glacier over the past 20 years," said Pablo Quinteros, an official tourist guide at Los Glaciares National Park in the southern province of Santa Cruz. "It's only in the last four to six years that we've started to see icebergs this big," he told Reuters during a visit in April. The face of the glacier, which flows down from Andean peaks to end in the waters of Lake Argentina, had for decades held more or less steady, some years advancing and others retreating. But in the last five years, there's been a firmer retreat. "It had been in more or less the same position for the past 80 years. And that's unusual," said Argentine glaciologist Lucas Ruiz with state science body Conicet, whose research focus is the future of Patagonian glaciers in the face of climate change. "However, since 2020, signs of retreat have begun to be seen in some parts of the Perito Moreno glacier's face." He said that the glacier could rebound as it has done before, but that for the moment it was losing between one and two metres of water equivalent per year, which if not reversed could lead to a situation where the loss accelerates. A state-backed 2024 report, co-authored by Ruiz and presented to Argentina's Congress, showed that while Perito Moreno's mass has been overall stable for half a century, the period since 2015 has seen the fastest and most prolonged loss of mass in 47 years, on average losing 0.85 metres per year. Glaciers around the globe are disappearing faster than ever, with the last three-year period seeing the largest glacial mass loss on record, according to a Unesco report in March. 'You can't grasp the immensity of it' Ruiz said instruments his research team used to monitor the glacier had shown an increase in air temperature in the area of around 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade and precipitation decreasing, meaning less accumulation of snow and ice. "The thing with Perito Moreno is that it took a while, so to speak, to feel the effects of climate change," Ruiz said. Now, however, the accumulation of ice at the top of the glacier was being outpaced by melting and calving at the bottom. "The changes we are seeing today clearly show that this balance of forces... has been disrupted, and today the glacier is losing both in thickness and area." For now, the glacier remains an awe-inspiring attraction for travellers, who board boats to see the calving and the huge icebergs floating around the lake up close. "It's insane. The most incredible thing I've ever seen," said Brazilian tourist Giovanna Machado on the deck of one of the boats, which have to be careful of sudden ice falls. "Even in photos, you just can't grasp the immensity of it, and it's perfect. It's amazing. I think everyone should come here at least once in their lifetime." [[nid:715842]]
